Date: Fri, 17 Jul 1998 03:16:17 -0700 (PDT) From: Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com> To: David Knapp <dknapp@slonet.org> Cc: newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Difference between Linux and FreeBSD Message-ID: <XFMail.980717031617.dburr@POBoxes.com> In-Reply-To: <01bdb150$0f2317a0$76d972cf@thor>
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My secret spy satellite informs me that on 17-Jul-98, David Knapp wrote: > I would like to thank everyone for their responses, and pose the > following > question - one response I received stated that freeBSD was more secure > than > Linux, but that Linux had more hardware drivers available for it. To > me, > that sounds likely, but I would like to hear what others think... This is IMHO true. Please allow me to explain my reasoning. FreeBSD is basically a direct descendant of the "original" UNIX. When AT&T licensed UNIX to the UC Berkeley campus during the 70s, UCB used it as a base, and added a lot of their own features. Including networking, for example. This became known as the "BSD" release. So, the networking code in FreeBSD (and networking is where the *real* security concerns lie) has been in there since Day 1, basically. The FreeBSD CD you are holding in your hot little hands Linux, on the other hand, uses no (or almost no) original BSD-derived code. They completely "reinvented the wheel" by writring their own TCP/IP stack. (You can tell because you will see "Swensea University Computer Society TCP/IP version blahblahblah" on the bootup messages.) This code is simply "too new", compared to the "age" of the BSD code, and still has quite a bit to work on, insofar as functionality and, especially, security go. HOwever, Linux *does* have more drivers. This is because Linux has a more open development model than FreeBSD. People can basically write drivers and stuff for Linux, and get them put into the system with little or no fuss. In FreeBSD, this is somewhat more difficult. If you want your work put into it, you either have to become a "committer" (someone with read/write access to the master copy of FreeBSD source code) or you have to find one that i willing to look at your code, test it, and commit it (add it to the FreeBSD sources) if it's worthy. Even so, it is highly unlikely that you will get your code put into STABLE (the "release" branch of FreeBSD); your stuff will, if it is even added, most likely be put into the "CURRENT" (active development, but often buggy) branch of code. Different people prefer different methods. I, for one, prefer the FreeBSD method -- I wouldn't want anyone mucking about in my code, and I'd want something to be at least glanced at before getting stuck in there, and I wouldn't want *ANYONE* mucking around with the supposedly "stable" brancyh of code unless it's pretty damn well tested. IMHO This is why a lot of the Linux "development" kernels (version numbers like x.1.y, x.3.y, etc.) are buggy as hell, and even quite a few "non-development" (x.0.y, x.2.y, etc.) kernels are buggy as well. Whereas, even FreeBSD-CURRENT is (for the most part) "surprisingly stable" , and of course, FreeBSD RELEASE's are rock solid. --- Donald Burr <dburr@POBoxes.com> - Ask me for my PGP key | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ #1347455 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FreeBSD - Turning PCs into Workstations - http://www.freebsd.org/ (NOTE: POBoxes.com appears to be working again -- fire away!) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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