From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 21 13:45:05 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C30081065672 for ; Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:45:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jalmberg@identry.com) Received: from mx1.identry.com (on.identry.com [66.111.0.194]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 43B328FC19 for ; Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:45:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jalmberg@identry.com) Received: (qmail 22688 invoked by uid 89); 21 Jun 2008 13:45:04 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.110?) (jalmberg@75.127.142.66) by mx1.identry.com with ESMTPA; 21 Jun 2008 13:45:04 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.3) In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <457AE580-C0BB-4AB8-856C-188AC3E40E70@identry.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: John Almberg Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:44:59 -0400 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.3) Subject: Re: New to FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:45:05 -0000 > Interested in who uses FreeBSD and in what way > FreeBSD is better than Linux for servers. > Everyone else has tackled the book part of this question. I'll answer the second... I also switched from Linux to FreeBSD (Actually, the complete path was VAX Unix -> MS-DOS -> Windows -> Linux -> FreeBSD/Mac OS X, but that's a longer story!) The main reason for me was I am really an application programmer who gradually has been forced to depend less on guys in white coats to manage the servers (oh, those were the days!) to having to do it myself (and this is progress...) Linux was vastly superior to the whole M$ approach, but I found the whole Linux thing too chaotic for my taste. Every distribution seemed to have its own way of doing things. Linux books are filled with things like "if you have Fedora, do this, if you have Debian, do that, if you have SUSE, do this other thing." What a pain. I love the fact that you can go very far with FreeBSD with an old copy of "The Complete FreeBSD". It may not cover the newer stuff, but the older stuff hasn't changed all that much. And there are no 'switch' statements embedded in the book to cover 18 different distributions. There may not be as many FreeBSD books as there are for Linux, but maybe that's because there doesn't need to be! And that's a plus in my book. In short, FreeBSD is stable, it's under control, and you always know what to expect. It seems to me, that is the minimum requirement for an operating system. FreeBSD has given me a chance to relax for the first time in years. Thank you FreeBSD team! -- John