From: Benny <linux@...>
Date: 2004-03-08T04:19:41+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] Rubyx OS (Ruby oriented linux distro)

Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT wrote:

>> > Could you detail what precisely makes you choose FreeBSD in favor
>> > of NetBSD and OpenBSD?
>> 1. It seems to have a larger user-base.
>> 2. I'm familiar with it
>> 3. more ports
> 
> The objective arguments for using FreeBSD you provide make it hard to
> justify why not to use Linux. It has a much larger user-base than
> FreeBSD and even more ports. 

advantages all 3 BSDs (I count Dragonfly to FreeBSD at the moment, sorry for
that) have over linux (IMHO)
- stability
- the "spirit" (centralized, well thought slowly changes, good design, less     
hyped, more matured users / programers)
- license

that a my primary arguments. the one to choose FreeBSD are of secondary
nature (you remember O. Lafontaine's "Sekund�rtugenden"?)

> What in my opinion makes the most 
> important differences is that the Linux from Scratch project already
> exists that removes quite an amout of work that has to be done to
> create a fully functional Ruby-oriented distribution. Even if such a
> text does exist for FreeBSD 

FreeBSD From Scratch:
http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200302/fbsdscratch.html

> I am pretty sure that no translations of 
> it are available. Because it is hosted at oss.erdfunkstelle.de I know
> for sure that a German translation of LFS does exist (and I would be
> surprised if that is the only one).

nobody in the world speaks german (apart from us) but so many are speaking
bad english (like me) so why not using it. in the worst case my english
would become better

> I think one should not start to write a second Ruby-based system.
that depends on what is actually meant by "ruby based". my aim would not be
to use ruby but to use ruby for doing useful things. the varity of
definition what useful things could be might surpass the amount of linux
distros. so surely the are many fashions to create a "ruby based system".

> If the Linux project should happen to fail chances are bad that a
> FreeBSD project will succeed. 
why should the project fail? there is no reason for that apart from lake of
time or programers. IMHO ruby is far more flexible as perl and there are so
many perl based linux distros (and AFAIK Perl still belongs to the
base-system in FreeBSD 4.x). it was mentioned elsewhere that nobody wants
to write a kernel in ruby. so what could mean ruby-based? nothing more than
several ruby scripts more or less bound together sitting on top of a
compiled c/c++ system. its just another layer for usability.
my idea was to first program scripts that automatically modify the standard
config files (in a more usabel manner preventing syntax errors etc). then
some pieces could be replaced one after another (if neccessary).


> And if the Linux project does succeed 
> it gathers quite an amount of experience that one can build on.
> 
> Just my 0.02 EUR
> 
Long lives the GROSCHEN :)

> Josef 'Jupp' SCHUGT

Benny