[sclug] Spring cleaning

[Matt]

* David Given <dg at cowlark.com> [2004-04-16 15:34:59]:
> On Friday 16 April 2004 13:26, Matt wrote:
> [...]
> > > Actually, one thing I'd really rather like to do is the reverse: use a
> > > Linux kernel (with the large amount of supported hardware) with the BSD
> > > userland (which is small and lightweight and configurable and ideally
> > > suited for embedded systems). Doesn't seem to be possible, though...
> >
> > *BSD seems to work quite well on embedded systems, particularly the
> > infamous Soekris boards. Any specific hardware support you require?
> >
> > What other userspace tools are you after that couldn't be achieved with
> > something like for example, busybox?
> 
> This was for a media player project, based around a mini-ITX with a Hauppauge 
> DVB card. None of the BSDs seemed to have a DVB driver, so I had to use 
> Linux. Conversely, I couldn't find any configurable 
> build-everything-from-one-tree Linux userland setups. Building everything 
> manually and putting individual binaries piecemeal onto the CD is yucky.
> 
> In terms of software needed, I wanted mplayer, dvbtools, a kdrive-based X 
> server, and a bunch of small custom programs to glue it all together. With 
> BSD, building all of this would be trivial. With Linux, it's ghastly.

Right, something a bit more than a combo firewall/router/vpn box then
:-)

What you've described is pretty much why I love *BSD in particular
NetBSD, it defines a base system rather than just a kernel, the man
pages are excellent and pretty much complete AFAICT, all at the expense
perhaps of some bleeding edge hardware support.

My favourite thing is not only is it built from a single source tree as
you say, but that source tree is 99.9% of the time cross-buildable from
non-NetBSD hosts, for example, Linux athlon host building NetBSD for
Hitachi SH-4/dreamcast.

Fantastic

</enthuse>

Matt
-- 
"Never rub another man's rhubarb."
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