Comparing Linux To System VR4

robyannetta writes "Paul Murphy from LinuxInsider.com asks the question What's the difference between Linux and System VR4? From the article: 'If there's a real bottom line here, the one thing I'm clear on is that I haven't found it yet, but the questions raised have been more interesting that the answers -- so more help would be welcomed.'"

Looks like a troll to me...

[jpetts]

LinuxInsider has on several occasions in the past been a troll site for the SCO/IBM Linux dispute, coming down firmly on the FUD-mongers' side. They are a platform for people like Enderle, DiDio. Ignore, is my advice...

What does this say?

[aluser]

There are several paragraphs in the article which, I think, don't actually say anything. Example:

Imagine, for example, trying to build a compiler able to produce an efficient executable in exactly one pass. Nobody does this now, for obvious design reasons consequent to an underlying sequential processing assumption, but it shouldn't be impossible. "All" it would take is a complete re-appraisal of everything we know about optimization and related issues in a truly concurrent, shared-everything, multi-threading environment with enough threads.

Am I completely out of my depth? What does threading have to do with efficient one-pass optimizing compilers? What's his issue with concurrency under linux anyway?
Or this:

On the other hand, this variation on the main question also raises new issues because many of the changes made to process and memory management between the 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernels look a bit artificial -- meaning that they don't seem to be direct continuations of code evolution up to 2.4 and thus raise the suspicion that the SCO/IBM lawsuit might be having some unexpected design consequences.

What makes a patch "artificial" ? Whatever that means, how does it imply anything about the sco/ibm lawsuit? Weren't the 2.5 development line split and the major scheduler changes introduced before the lawsuit? Even if not, what would he consider a continuation of the development up to 2.4? In short, can somebody explain to me what this guy is saying?

Re:L-A-M-E

[FyRE666]

As another comment above noted, "LinuxInsider" is not a computing news site in any real sense of the term. It is in fact little more than a FUD factory. The list of contributors reads like the who's who of Microsoft/SCO paid schills...

I'm surprised that Slashdot gave this latest garbage a front page headline. Hopefully if enough people ignore LinuxInsider it'll go away...

Re:Off the top of my head, here you go

[carcosa30]

Just so you know... best boot manager out there is called Gag. It has no problem supporting whatever operating systems it finds on your disk, and it finds new operating systems AT BOOT TIME.

Re:RTFA

[Bruce Perens]

He's not interested in data either. The article's a troll, with almost zero real technical content.

Bruce

Re:Off the top of my head, here you go

[Anonymous Coward]

You are correct on a bunch of this. Apparently, they did internal benchmarking and found that 2.6 was killing them esp. con networking.

In fact, Sun has recently had to re-write major portions of Solaris BEFORE releasing 10.0 to the public. My understanding is that the top ppl spent a lot of time looking at Linux and then "borrowed" ideas.

I find it funny, that when they take ideas, it is borrowing, but when Linux takes ideas, it is theft. Oh, well one groups terrorists is another's freedom fighter.

Linux Concurrency

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not sure what the kernel has to do with it. The point of achieving concurrency is to avoid kernel entanglement. That means lock-free programming where possible. How successful you are there depends on the hardware architecture and who's supporting lock-free programming. As someone who's doing the latter (Atomic Ptr Plus [sourceforge.net]), it's not likely I'm going to get ahold of a Niagra processor based system (and I'm going to dump my SB100) so you won't see too much there. However, I am going to get a Mac Mini, so you will see support for Darwin as well as Linux.

WARNING: BACKGROUND AHEAD

[Anonymous Coward]

The author of TFA thinks that SCO has a case. Hopefully, that should alert you all which corner this guy is in. I've tried reasoning with him over e-mail, but:

• He would not respond to my argument that there is BSD code in UNIX.
• He thinks SCO has a case, but their lawyers are doing a bad job of explaining it.
• He thinks IBM's lawyers are in cahoots with Groklaw to make SCO look bad

Just for grins, I will now debunk TFA:

• "Imagine, for example, trying to build a compiler able to produce an efficient executable in exactly one pass. Nobody does this now" - Except TCC.
• "raises new issues because many of the changes made to process and memory management between the 2.4 and 2.6 Linux kernels look a bit artificial" - Bold claims (and no reference) for someone who claims to be ignorant. But historically, a large fraction of Linux gets re-written between major versions anyway. Compare V2.0 and V2.2 or V2.2 to V2.4. I dare you!
• "which kernel would better illustrate the implementation ideas? [..] the right answer here is System VR4, mainly because it's almost equally portable but simpler and clearer." - It also performs terribly. An O(1) scheduler will look messier than an O(n) scheduler. Hmm, MINIX is even simpler and clearer still.. Hey, I see where this is going!
• "Compare Microport's AT&T Unix port [..] in 1992 to CDE running under Linux 2.4 [..] today and there are enormous practical differences, but few conceptual ones." - Maybe because they both stick to the POSIX API? Look at it the other way: Windows XP is conceptually the same as Windows 3.1. You just send messages and handle events, right?
• "they didn't come from the Minix/SysV foundation." - Aha! Here he is red-handed implying that Linux was "founded" on Minix/SysV. Go read Groklaw you SCO shill.

Re:RTFA

[Bruce Perens]

Well, I think it's a troll because he displays very little knowledge of systems programming and confuses CPU features and OS features, and yet takes every opportunity to say something snotty and disparaging.

Companies like Sun have PR firms that will synthesize buzz if they can't get any legitimate buzz. I'd suspect something like that is afoot, or it's just an ill-informed person biting off more than he can chew.

Bruce