FreeBSD and Linux

[Richard Coleman]

> > For this project, I think a fairly liberal license is a good idea.
> > A liberal version of the BSD license maybe....
> > 
> > So it sounds to me, that CMU-CL on top of a minimal Linux setup
> > has the most support.
> 
> Bear in mind that the Linux kernel is under the GPL.  So even if
> CMU-CL is not under the GNU Public License, any system built
> substantially upon the Linux work will necessarily inherit the
> GPL.
> 
> I have no objection to this -- I very much prefer the GPL and put
> my work under it whenever possible.  But it is important to have
> our eyes open at the beginning of such a project, and I can see
> the unfortunate practical reasons in favor of a BSD-style license.

Well, the FreeBSD kernel is also an option.  I was thinking about
the pros and cons of each OS/kernel.

1) FreeBSD has more liberal license (which I think is an advantage
   for lispOS).
2) Networking code is documented in detail in
   Richard Steven's book
3) Good book on internals from McKusick et al...
4) no kernel threading (I believe they have user level
   threading in -current)

1) Linux is GPL
2) has kernel threading (clone)
3) internals not as well documented

But I think for scalability, we definitely need the kernel
threading.

Richard Coleman
coleman@math.gatech.edu