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hß · Linux & UnixCurated

New steering team for the free Unix derivative NetBSD

Summary

In 2005 the NetBSD project filled two seats on its core team, which decides on the development and goals of the free Unix. After six years, Frank van der Linden and Luke Mewburn stepped down and were succeeded by Valeriy Ushakov and Yamamoto Takashi. NetBSD is regarded as the BSD with the most ports to different hardware.

Ideas

  • A small core team steers the technical direction of the project.
  • The burden of this task leads to changes after a few years.
  • Successors came from the circle of experienced porters, for example for SPARC and Mac.

Insights

  • Planned changes of personnel in project leadership are a sign of organisational maturity.
  • With NetBSD, portability is both the guiding principle and a qualification.

Facts

  • The core team had previously worked in an unchanged line-up for two years.
  • Like FreeBSD, OpenBSD and DragonFly, NetBSD belongs to the 4.4BSD-Lite line.

References

Critique

  • The report names no substantive goals of the new team, only the personnel changes.

Recommendations

  • With open source projects, check how decision-making processes and responsibilities are documented.
  • Consider NetBSD when unusual or older hardware needs a current Unix.

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