Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 23:07:14 +0200 From: "Harald Schmalzbauer" <H@Schmalzbauer.de> To: "J. Seth Henry" <jshamlet@comcast.net>, "Mohsin Sabir" <mohsinsabir@rogers.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: *nix trial Message-ID: <COEPJCIGIIIGNLPOKJMDEEMPDFAA.H@Schmalzbauer.de> In-Reply-To: <20030418162000.P25903-100000@whitetower.gambrl01.md.comcast.net>
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owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org wrote: > Subject: RE: *nix trial > > > You may want to ask yourself what you envision doing with *nix before > deciding on an operating system to learn on. If you are just trying to > "get the hang of" *nix, then almost any flavor will teach you the > basics (though clearly I prefer FreeBSD ;) > > Most jobs these days that use *nix, usually involve Solaris, AIX (or > some other Unix variant) or Linux. Sad as it may be, Linux has more > "sex appeal" than FreeBSD, despite being less mature in a lot of ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hmmm, see http://www.schmalzbauer.de/bsdversuslinux.html and confirm that;-) SCNR, -Harry > ways. As a result, it has more popular support, and gets device > drivers much sooner (and in some cases, at all) Unfortunately, Linus > only blesses a kernel, and a kernel is not the same as an operating > system. They have to be included in distributions which provide a > "world" (as FreeBSD calls it) Distros can vary from absolutely zero > production engineering to a high level of integration and high > overall quality. Both Debian and Mandrake (at least when I used them) > were very good distributions overall. If you have an eye on a job > that involves *nix, you might inquire as to what flavor, and find an > OS that has a fairly similar interface. > > I just wanted to get that out there, since I get the impression you > are trying to beef up your resume. > > That said, I believe FreeBSD to be a superior operating system to > Linux with respect to "newbies" because of its simplicity, elegance, > and intelligent port system. Library issues are rarely a problem if > you stick with the ports tree or package system, and you can easily > review what you have installed, and their dependencies. Only Debian's > apt-get is superior, IMHO - but not by much! > > The difference is that FreeBSD is an operating system, not a kernel. > There is only one "distro" per revision, and it is very well crafted > to work right. For the most part, every FreeBSD system of the same > version works like any other. With a few notable exceptions, any > FreeBSD system of the same major release works like any other as > well. I switched to FreeBSD from Linux (Mandrake linux to be exact) > after using NetBSD extensively on an old Mac (68'040 system). It was > that good :) > > As for obtaining it, I'd go with the 4CD set from the FreeBSD Mall. Go > with the 4.8-RELEASE version - it's the current "production" release. > 5.0 is actually closer to a final beta than a production OS. Running > it would be like learning to drive in an experimental car. Also, the > 4CD set includes every port available for that release. No Internet > access required at all - which can be helpful, especially if you are > having problems getting your network running in the installer. > > Good luck, > Seth Henry > > Mohsin Sabir. wrote: >> I am a Microsoft Product Administrator and been engaged with >> Microsoft Products from the last 7 years. Now, I have opted that I >> should add something more to my expertise and thought about *nix but >> have hard time to pick which Unix, as there are quite a bit of >> flavors available out there. >> >> I read about you, saw the sites hosted by you. I want to try BSD >> Unix and please advise me which version is the latest and greatest >> from where I can start. > > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
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