Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 25th Jun 2007 20:30 UTC, submitted by Nitsudima
OSNews, Generic OSes "The Free Software community is well known for its diversity. This is most obvious at the application level, but even exists in the context of operating systems. David Chisnall takes a break from UNIX-derivatives and explores some of the more esoteric options." Note: From experience, I can say that the author's claim that "Haiku is more or less ready for their 1.0 release in terms of features" is a bit overambitious.
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RE: UNIX-likes boring?
by Almafeta on Mon 25th Jun 2007 21:21 UTC in reply to "UNIX-likes boring?"
Almafeta
Member since:
2007-02-22

Just having POSIX compatibility doesn't make it a *nix... even Windows has had POSIX compatibility since Windows 2000 (I think, maybe a bit earlier).

The POSIX standard seems to unite a large number of disparate operating systems. However, just implementing a feature doesn't define an operating system.

Regarding the article itself, my only complaint is that I didn't learn about a single OS new to me. Most of these are fairly old projects.

Edited 2007-06-25 21:25

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 3

RE[2]: UNIX-likes boring?
by Morgan on Tue 26th Jun 2007 00:02 in reply to "RE: UNIX-likes boring?"
Morgan Member since:
2005-06-29

Well, there is a difference between having POSIX compatibility (Windows) and being POSIX-compliant (BeOS, QNX, most other UNIX-y OSes). I'm no programmer, but I know that most of the stuff ported to BeOS that ran fine natively would require a compatibility layer like Cygwin to work in Windows, if it would even run at all.

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RE[3]: UNIX-likes boring?
by Spellcheck on Tue 26th Jun 2007 01:10 in reply to "RE[2]: UNIX-likes boring?"
Spellcheck Member since:
2007-01-20

Third-party compatibility layers obviate the need for in-system POSIX support. When Windows did come with its own POSIX layers, it worked as in the other systems you mentioned. However, as I understand it, it was a small and ageing subset and eventually removed to prevent confusion with any usefully-broad or up-to-date implementation that MSFT didn't care to construct.

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RE[2]: UNIX-likes boring?
by John Nilsson on Tue 26th Jun 2007 02:36 in reply to "RE: UNIX-likes boring?"
John Nilsson Member since:
2005-07-06
RE[2]: UNIX-likes boring?
by jessta on Tue 26th Jun 2007 05:09 in reply to "RE: UNIX-likes boring?"
jessta Member since:
2005-08-17

Regarding the article itself, my only complaint is that I didn't learn about a single OS new to me. Most of these are fairly old projects.


That's probably because you read OSnews.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 5