# Debian pushes development of kFreeBSD port



## vivek (Oct 7, 2009)

Quoting from the Debian GNU/Linux page:


> The Debian Release Team is pleased to announce that it sees the port of the Debian system to the FreeBSD kernel fit to be handeld equal with the other release ports. The upcoming release codenamed 'Squeeze' is planned to be the first Debian distribution to be released with Linux and FreeBSD kernels.


http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20091007 

Wow so Linux user will get Jails and other cool FreeBSD features. What do you think?


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## DutchDaemon (Oct 7, 2009)

I think that the BSD license is better for GNU/Linux than the GPL license is for BSD


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## fonz (Oct 7, 2009)

vivek said:
			
		

> Quoting from the Debian GNU/Linux page:
> 
> 
> > The Debian Release Team is pleased to announce that it sees the port of the Debian system to the FreeBSD kernel fit to be handeld equal with the other release ports.


Not that I'm a big fan of Debian, but I do think it'll be interesting to see how this works out.

Alphons


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## vivek (Oct 7, 2009)

I forgot about ZFS :e You can now have it on Linux without using 3rd party stuff.


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## Antti (Oct 7, 2009)

That would not be a Linux, it's GNU/kFreeBSD.


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## SirDice (Oct 7, 2009)

vivek said:
			
		

> Wow so Linux user will get Jails and other cool FreeBSD features.


I'm not so sure about that. As far as I've been able to tell it's only the kernel. The rest of the system (userland binaries) is GNU.

http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/


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## aragon (Oct 7, 2009)

I wonder about libc?

And I wonder if it runs linux binaries, or FreeBSD binaries...


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## SirDice (Oct 7, 2009)

aragon said:
			
		

> I wonder about libc?
> 
> And I wonder if it runs linux binaries, or FreeBSD binaries...



They're probably the same source but compiled for the FreeBSD kernel. The page I referred to talks about glibc which is basically the GNU version of our libc.

As I understood it the way an API is called is slightly different between linux and freebsd. So code has to be specifically compiled for a certain kernel.


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## Eponasoft (Oct 7, 2009)

Antti said:
			
		

> That would not be a Linux, it's GNU/kFreeBSD.


Now that just sounds perverse.:x


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## CodeBlock (Oct 8, 2009)

Eponasoft said:
			
		

> Now that just sounds perverse.:x



Agreed... These types of projects I find a waste.. If you like BSD use BSD.. If you don't then stick with what you like. I see no point in trying to port BSD's goodies over to Linux. If you like, for example, ports,  then use BSD.

Same things with Gentoo/FreeBSD... just stupid, in my opinion.


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## phoenix (Oct 8, 2009)

Eponasoft said:
			
		

> Now that just sounds perverse.:x



Heh, if you mis-pronounce it, it comes out "nuke freebsd".


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## rghq (Oct 8, 2009)

It's just a FreeBSD Kernel with a GNU userland around and all it's disadvantages.
Dunno but one of the advantages of BSD is things come from one source + the ports as 3rd party applications.

Already tried it in a VM still I prefer FreeBSD


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## dennylin93 (Oct 8, 2009)

This looks interesting, although I think I'll still stick to FreeBSD.


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## hansivers (Aug 20, 2010)

UPDATE
======

ZFS is now available in Debian/kFreeBSD, Sid (unstable) :



> Thanks to Tuco Xyz, Petr Salinger and Aurelien Jarno, zfsutils are now packaged for Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and available in "Sid", including the relevant libraries and a udeb package for the Debian Installer. Its availability also brought some kernel ZFS issues to light which have been fixed in the meantime. Now Debian GNU/kFreeBSD can fully support ZFS.



http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2010/09/#7


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## UNIXgod (Aug 20, 2010)

I realize the k if for kernel or kde. But every time I see that I think _kthxbye!_


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## Anonymous (Aug 20, 2010)

Short how-to for qemu
http://www.hermann-uwe.de/blog/testing-stuff-with-qemu-part-3-debian-gnu-kfreebsd
I tried it in qemu and VBox. Both worked very well ( and way better than Debian/Gnu/Hurd).
Its a while ago, after that i started to learn about FreeBSD.


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## d_mon (Aug 21, 2010)

dennylin93 said:
			
		

> This looks interesting, although I think I'll still stick to FreeBSD



me 2!


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## vertexSymphony (Aug 21, 2010)

It's not Linux (that's only the kernel), but that's just GNU userland + FreeBSD Kernel ...
this is interesting, it remembers me to nexenta ... comparing it to FreeBSD is dummy, because there you have some GNU/Debian goodies that simplifies management (like apt), sounds interesting ... (It may be a good thing for people more used to Debian style, that wants to have cool stuff from FreeBSD like ZFS and Jails "for free")

But, as a user already said : I personally prefer FreeBSD anyways


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## tty3 (Sep 21, 2010)

About this fm kFreeBSD, is a stupid
Be a simply, use freebsd


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## DutchDaemon (Sep 21, 2010)

tty3, can you look into different translation software / websites? Your posts are sometimes quite hard to understand (and I'm being friendly).


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## tty3 (Sep 21, 2010)

DutchDaemon said:
			
		

> tty3, can you look into different translation software / websites? Your posts are sometimes quite hard to understand (and I'm being friendly).



Exist private messages...


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## Dereckson (Sep 21, 2010)

According the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD why, there is a jails and (as hansivers have stated) ZFS support.

So the advantages for Debian people could be to have the system they want (ie their GNU userland) with a centralized /dev, ZFS and pf support.

UNIXgod, according this FAQ, k is for kernel.


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## saxon3049 (Sep 25, 2010)

Do you think this could be a way for the serious debian people to move away from what debain has kinda become i.e. ubuntu? I only ask this as when I talk to a serious debian user they always have this pained look on there face when ever you mention ubuntu if not followed immediately with the words " _is a dog's dinner_".


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## ChalkBored (Sep 26, 2010)

saxon3049 said:
			
		

> Do you think this could be a way for the serious debian people to move away from what debain has kinda become i.e. ubuntu? I only ask this as when I talk to a serious debian user they always have this pained look on there face when every you mention ubuntu if not followed immediately with the words " _is a dog's dinner_".



Not really, as soon as the bugs are worked out of the process, someone will inevitably make an Ubuntu version.


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## PetrusValidus (Oct 9, 2010)

saxon3049 said:
			
		

> Do you think this could be a way for the serious debian people to move away from what debain has kinda become i.e. ubuntu? I only ask this as when I talk to a serious debian user they always have this pained look on there face when ever you mention ubuntu if not followed immediately with the words " _is a dog's dinner_".



Interesting question.  I use Debian primarily, coming from Ubuntu and Mandriva.  While the latter is built from Debian Unstable it lacks the quality that _Debian Proper_ is known for.  For some reason or another some Debian users dislike (or even hate) Ubuntu.  I don't get that mindset.  Ubuntu is for people new to Linux, most likely coming from Windows.  One may be based on the other but they have completely different missions and reasons for existence.

I like FreeBSD and I think it's a great OS but I don't have a pressing need for it right now.  Would I be interested in trying kFreeBSD?  Sure.  I'd have a familiar user environment but with the features, stability, and quality of the FreeBSD kernel.


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## sossego (Oct 9, 2010)

I asked  if it was an emulation layer.

http://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bsd@lists.debian.org/msg06392.html


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## Dereckson (Oct 18, 2010)

Axel Becket has been interviewed about kFreeBSD in _This Week In Debian_ (TWID), a podcast about Debian.

Listen to the podcast: http://traffic.libsyn.com/frostbitemedia/TWID_005.ogg
More information about the podcast: http://wiki.debian.org/ThisWeekInDebian


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## asifnaz (Dec 17, 2010)

*How do you see Debian using BSD kernel*

I am really excited about Debian squeeze which is going to use BSD kernel .

I want to see how gnu/kbsd looks like .

your thoughts..???

[ Merged with existing topic - Mod. ]


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## mk (Dec 17, 2010)

Search this forum to find out?


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## roddierod (Dec 17, 2010)

If someone tries hard enough they could put a Porsche engine into a Chevy.


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## ckester (Dec 18, 2010)

CodeBlock said:
			
		

> Agreed... These types of projects I find a waste.. If you like BSD use BSD.. If you don't then stick with what you like. I see no point in trying to port BSD's goodies over to Linux. If you like, for example, ports,  then use BSD.
> 
> Same things with Gentoo/FreeBSD... just stupid, in my opinion.



Another one is Glendix, which if I understand correctly, aims to put the Plan 9 userland on top of the Linux kernel.

I don't see the point of these projects either.  It seems to me that if you want the benefits of Plan 9 or BSD, you should use them as is.   

If something you want is missing there,  you'd probably be better off spending your time figuring out how to add it, instead of embarking on one of these projects.  It probably won't take that much more effort and the results will probably be a lot more satisfying.

It's not like the Linux kernel is the greatest piece of software ever written.


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## piggy (Jan 13, 2011)

asifnaz said:
			
		

> I am really excited about Debian squeeze which is going to use BSD kernel .
> 
> I want to see how gnu/kbsd looks like .
> 
> your thoughts..???


I run it with deep satisfaction from beta 2 on a AMD 64 bit machine (64 bit version). It is definitely stable and u can get both FreeBSD and Linux userland in the same machine. And considering it is long time I do enjoy both the worlds (in same situations Linux is better, in others BSD have no equals), this Squeeze project really exites me. I pretty much tested a lot of stuff (both Gnome, KDE, Lxde, both the userland interfaces, actually I do run them together) and I'm definitely happy with this project growing really really fast.

It is also definitely stable (I run the 8.1 version of the FreeBSD kernel), I like the attitude to install all the up to date software (like GDM 3 as display manager) and considering I'm confortable with both the words I would consider it, in the future, also for more important machines in my environment, for now it is just some satisfied testing


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## olav (Jan 15, 2011)

The only advantage I can see is that Java is no longer a pain in the *** to install.
I still prefer FreeBSD for everything else at the moment.


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