From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Aug 19 09:07:02 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id JAA01562 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 19 Aug 1996 09:07:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nemesis.ics.forth.gr (nemesis.csi.forth.gr [139.91.151.3]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA01523 for ; Mon, 19 Aug 1996 09:06:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from crete.csd.uch.gr by nemesis.ics.forth.gr (ICS mailhost); on Mon, 19 Aug 1996 19:06:14 +0300 (EET DST); with id AA16410 Received: by crete.csd.uch.gr with SMTP; Mon, 19 Aug 1996 19:06:13 +0300 (EET) From: Sfakianakis Mike Message-Id: <199608191606.AA03062@crete.csd.uch.gr> Organization: University of Crete, Dept. of Computer Science, P.O.Box 1470, Heraklio, Crete, GR-71110 GREECE tel: +30(81)210057, fax: +30(81)210012, tlx: 262389 CCI Subject: Help needed! To: questions@FreeBSD.org Date: Mon, 19 Aug 1996 19:06:15 +0300 (EET DST) Cc: sfakian@csd.uch.gr X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-7 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Dear friends, I've already decided to experiment in some new O.S. -beyond boring DOS and Windows- and play around with some of them, specially those from the big Unix family. Just because of that i am contacting you today to give me some usefull information (if possible). I am very much interested in focusing the main differences among the very well known distributions of Linux (RedHat, Slakware, etc) and your system, but mainly advantages and disadvantages comparing them. I've read a lot through the Web and various ftp sites around the world (how_to's, FAQ's, README's, installation_info's etc) about how well one system operates under certain conditions, new features and many others, but didn't manage to find such a document.Finally, what i am trying to answer with this e-mail is : "Why a user must install O.system A and not B or C .." Please consider a lot of aspects, not only stability and robustness, things that already are No 1 in my mind. :) There are also some questions i have for you, concerning mostly the latest version of your system : 1. Just read that FreeBSD supports all versions of CPU's from Pentium down-to 386SX (not recommended) P6 included? (if Y up to 200Mhz?) How about CPU's from other than Intel manufacteurs? (AMD, Cyrix, TI,..)? 2. Does your O.S. support multi/parallel processing machines. If N (till now) would you include this in next versions? 3. How often (middle case) a new version arrives? How far improved is it usually, comparing with the previous one? (i mean how much a user is 'pushed' to change and invest in the new one?) 4. How easy is it to upgrade from one version to another? (again concerning the middle case). Does it only include re-compiling of the kernel? 5. What kind of s/w written for Linux is it possible to run under FreeBSD? Does it works as an emulation or are they s/w compatible 100%? (just in case of the emulation, how fast -in really terms- this is?) 6. How about running (2) or more O.S. under the same machine? How safe can such a disk/system be? Do you provide something like LILO in the Linux case, for doing the thing during bootup? 7. I know there are a lot of organisations and individuals out there, already using your O.S. Can you provide me a list with the main - already know - sites or big organisations belonging to your 'club'? 8. How tricky can a installation through ftp be comparing this of a CD? Cd provided includes the latest version of the s/w or just the stable one? 9. Give me some good reasons for such a lot of scientific personnel to be involved in a process like this of implementing such a good O.S. with no profit at all, ro am i wrong? Can this be true in world like this? (please extend your mind beyond the obvious answer of science-funs) Forgive me about any errata in my language. Looking forward to hearing from you soon. Sfakianakis Mike, Apollonias & Dionysou 715 00 Ammoudara, Heraklion, Crete, GR (sfakian@csd.uch.gr) +30 81 255716 i