SVR4 vs BSD (was AIX (is it unix)?)

[Chris Torek]

In article <11148 at smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn at smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>[SVR4]'s memory management, like SunOS's, is entirely different.

I.e., the same as that in SunOS.

>Its character I/O system is entirely different.

I.e., the same as that in SunOS (but this time because the STREAMS code
[oh, how I hate all caps] in SunOS is adapted from SV, rather than vice
versa.)

>Its general filesystem support is entirely different

Of course, everyone will use the 4.2 file system unless unwilling to
expend the time to convert.  Although the RFS internals differ from the
vnode internals, the two are essentially the same (modulo SunOS's
ridiculous insistence that the local file system be stateless).

SunOS will no doubt support the SV file system, so when SVR4 is out and
SunOS X.Y is out (for whatever X and Y are): the same, effectively, as SunOS.

>... Its network base is entirely different, although some of the
>"r-commands" may have been adapted from BSD versions.

Well, there is no accounting for taste.

>And in general it makes the current BSD release look sick.

As I see it, the only major improvements over BSD are: the POSIX
terminal driver (already in BSD, although who knows when it will be
out); the file system switch (vnodes are also already in BSD, although
the NFS is a wee bit raw as yet, and Jacobson's TCP NFS is not in there
[TCP NFS is faster than UDP NFS, given a well-coded TCP]); and the new
VM system.  Of course, the VM system is based upon a design done at
Berkeley, and modified a bit at Sun.

At any rate, work is proceeding on POSIX- and ANSI-fication of BSD,
although some of it hinges on installing gcc everywhere (I am a bit
reluctant to make gcc our standard C compiler, myself---probably just
residual paranoia from observing early gcc releases to do very peculiar
things.)
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris at mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris