Why there are many BSD systems but only one Linux kernel?
I wonder why BSD was forked many times, but no such thing with Linux.
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Your are comparing kernel and whole systems. Kernels are just the main central piece of a system, but not all of it. In fact there is no such thing as a Linux system per se, but there are countless "Gnu/Linux" or other Linux Kernel based systems (one being Android). Linus Torvalds choose to concentrate his work on the central piece and successfully manage to keep control of it ("Linux" has been a trademark for quite some time in fact).
About numbers, there is only a couple of BSD systems (one being Apple OS-X) and countless Linux based system (aka "Linux distributions" - see DistroWatch) |
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There are literally hundreds of different Linux-based systems, compared to a handful of BSDs (and a somewhat larger number of propietary Unix systems). Some speculate that the coherence of the Linux kernel (all Linux systems share more or less the same kernel; there are variants, like Android's, or more or less severely patched "enterprise" systems, but nothing important approaching a fork) is due to the GPL, which forces anybody who distributes it to share their modifications, so they tend to get integrated into Linus' version sooner or later if they are worthy. Probably a large part is due to Linus' ability to attract talented people to the project. Somehow the community grown around Linux hasn't splintered, and that has more to say about the personalities involved (specially at the top) than any technical or license issues. |
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