According to an email sent to the Debian debian-devel-announce mailing list by Adam D. Barratt, the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD port is in grave danger of being dropped from the upcoming Debian 8 "Jessie" release. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD runs the GNU userland tools, the GNU C library and the Debian package set on top of the FreeBSD kernel.
Barratt states:
We remain gravely concerned about the viability of this port. Despite the reduced scope, we feel that the port is not currently of sufficient quality to feature as a fully supported release architecture in Jessie.
We therefore advise the kFreeBSD porters that the port is in danger of being dropped from Jessie, and invite any porters who are able to commit to working on the port in the long term to make themselves known *now*.
We will assess the viability of kFreeBSD in Jessie on or after 1st November, and a yes/no decision will be taken at that time.
(Score: 2) by cockroach on Wednesday October 08 2014, @01:55AM
I've been using Debian GNU/kFreeBSD on one of my servers as a guest system in FreeBSD jails. I really liked having Debian's package and security update mechanisms combined with FreeBSD's jails. Sure, some things were a bit quirky (eg. I just couldn't get Postgres to run in that setup) but I was hoping that the situation would improve.
On the positive side I really like FreeBSD's new package system (it's quite similar to apt) and may just switch over for good, now that the whole systemd thing is coming...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 08 2014, @02:51AM
FreeBSD just keeps on impressing, while Debian keeps on failing.
2015 will be an interesting year. By the end of it, Debian will be suffering. FreeBSD will be thriving. Gentoo and Slackware will be much better off than they were just a year earlier.
Systemd will kill Debian.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Wednesday October 08 2014, @08:54AM
2015 Year of BSDesktop?
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 08 2014, @10:42AM
Well, when I get my flashy new desktop I'll be putting PCBSD on it. Or just vanilla FreeBSD - I've not decided that one yet.
(Score: 2) by danomac on Wednesday October 08 2014, @04:50PM
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday October 08 2014, @05:50PM
You mean they'll integrate X11 into systemD?
No wait .. they'll integrate Wayland. And then make X11 dependent on Wayland.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by zeigerpuppy on Wednesday October 08 2014, @10:22AM
I think there'll be enough unhappiness with systemd that Debian may fork,
FreeBSD is still missing one thing I need, Xen Dom0 support....
(Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday October 08 2014, @01:42PM
Slackware has it though: http://slackbuilds.org/repository/13.1/system/xen/
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Geotti on Wednesday October 08 2014, @04:03PM
Systemd will kill Debian.
And if you listen carefully, you will hear redhat having a party.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Wednesday October 08 2014, @08:28PM
While there's no direct monetary reason for them to be too happy, indirectly, it'd seem you're onto something. If the hobby crowd uses Fedora more, not only does Redhat get more testing, but they also look more attractive to employers who are less likely to get the "Yes I use Linux" from an employee only to be followed up by "Why isn't apt-get working on your systems?"
"Learn Redhat, Know Redhat" is just as true today as it ever was. As far as I'm concerned, they're the Android of the desktop/server/workstation Linux world...and seriously have problems playing well with others. Methinks that hat is red because it's been soaked in the blood of software they've walked over. Not that I'd necessarily say they don't have a right to most anything they're doing, but why anyone puts up with it is beyond me. It'll definitely do its share to keep Unix-like Linux usage right where it was in 2000, as people leave Windows not to it, but to systemd and its dark path.
I have to wonder if they're being a bit foolish, however. You'd think that overhauling the system that the userbase already knows how to use would work against their ability to gather more customers in the form of businesses, who absolutely need people trained to use the system in order to justify switching to it. More complexity and constant reinvention of the wheel simply can't be good business on their end.