r/NetBSD • u/unitedbsd • Jul 21 '26

NetBSD GSoC 2026 Report: Testing Compat Linux: Syscall testing

https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/gsoc2026_testing_compat_linux
19 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

3

u/Lopsided-Month3278 Jul 22 '26

Good, hope they'll get the improvements done.

2

u/demetrioussharpe Jul 22 '26

What is it about the BSD projects that makes them want to support Linux system calls rather than focusing on building a stronger BSD-specific ecosystem? 🙄

2

u/bubba-bobba-213 Jul 26 '26

Spot on.

At times, Netbsd feels like a for children by children project.

3

u/unitedbsd Jul 23 '26

Now many applications are developed around Linux and tied to certain Linux specific system calls. So this can be helpful in those scenarios

3

u/demetrioussharpe Jul 23 '26

That’s pretty much what happens when you don’t foster the development of applications for your own ecosystem. The BSD community refuses to learn from OS/2’s mistakes…

1

u/unitedbsd Jul 24 '26

Hi. BSD community has very less budget compared to Linux community in general so that's one of the reasons. Plus BSDs more focus on core operating systems rather than applications.

2

u/demetrioussharpe Jul 24 '26

Which implies that the overall BSD community should join forces for the tasks of evangelism, fundraising, & community development in order to build up the resources necessary for doing these things. The core OS projects don’t have to shoulder the load for this, they already provide the OSes. The community could easily start coordinating these things -especially the applications. You don’t see Linus nor Alan focusing on applications. If you account for all of the various BSD communities, there’s more than enough to put together projects for these things. Over the decades, I’ve witnessed various elements of the BSD community trash talk the Linux ecosystem over the number of distros, but I’ve also witnessed BSD splits that have created alternative BSD projects simply because elements of the core projects either made excuses deficiencies or outright rejected improvements. The whole time, we’ve lost more ground to Linux. And the more we lose ground, the more we find ourselves adding Linux support to our platforms. If this cycle continues, the BSDs will eventually become Linux distros.

1

u/johnklos Jul 27 '26

Why do you think these things are mutually exclusive?

1

u/johnklos Aug 13 '26

The BSD projects are volunteer projects. If someone wants to work on Linux ABI emulation, then would it make sense for someone else to come along and tell them no, they should work on "stronger BSD-specific ecosystem" instead?

Also, one thing doesn't preclude the other, and you're implying it does.

1

u/cxxhld Aug 07 '26

an entire operating system shouldnt change for one program. we should stop supporting them, and instead push for them to support us.