GNOME and FreeBSD

[Wes Kurdziolek <wkurdzio cslab vt edu>]

Hi all,

	In the minutes for Feb. 12, 2001, it was mentioned that FreeBSD
(x86, latest stable release) would be a reference platform for GNOME 1.4.
I'd like to point out (if it hasn't been already; a cursory look through
the archives indicates it hasn't) that "stable" and "release" are two
different ways of classifying FreeBSD systems. FreeBSD releases are
basically snapshots of the stable distribution w/ significant improvements
over the previous release. Between releases, FreeBSD systems are kept
stable by downloading the entire source tree to the entire distribution
(including the kernel and kernel modules) and recompiling.

	Here's an example: The latest release of FreeBSD for x86 is 4.2.
So, I can go to my local mirror (ftp3.freebsd.org resides in my office and
is managed by me) and grab the ISO image for FreeBSD 4.2-RELEASE. Once I'm
done installing 4.2-RELEASE, I grab the source tree via cvsup and read the
relavent (sp?) documentation on upgrading from a 4.x release version to
the latest stable version (which is 4.3-BETA) since it's been a while
since 4.2-RELEASE hit the mirrors. After upgrading, my system is stable,
secure, and has changed significantly from 4.2-RELEASE i.e. the locations
of some header files and libraries have changed, binutils has been
upgraded, GCC has been patched and therefore changed, the location of some
binaries has moved, some syscalls have changed their interface, and more!

	So, to be clear, the latest release of FreeBSD and stable FreeBSD
can be two very different systems. I would be clear on which you are
targeting GNOME for since most FreeBSD users are aware of the differences.

	Also, FreeBSD/Alpha is very prolific nowadays since Linux/Alpha
still needs lots of work and Tru64 isn't free. I would like to volunteer
to make sure GNOME builds and runs on FreeBSD/Alpha if someone could
point me in the right direction to go about that.

-- 
Wes Kurdziolek
Virginia Tech Computer Science Lab
UNIX System Administrator
E-mail: wkurdzio cslab vt edu
Voice: +1 (540) 231-3457
Office: 116A McBryde