Date: Sun, 12 Oct 1997 21:46:57 -0400 (EDT) From: Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu> To: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> Cc: Stephen Fuqua <sfuqua@pulsar.cs.wku.edu>, chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD for Operating Systems Course Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971012212839.11671b-100000@localhost> In-Reply-To: <199710130146.TAA08173@obie.softweyr.ml.org>
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On Sun, 12 Oct 1997, Wes Peters wrote: > At first blush, your summation seems fair. Lets lay it out in table > form and see how they stack up. I'll add any I think of at the end of > the table. You can then apply weighting as you see fit; I'll suggest > some, based on various criteria. > > > Feature FreeBSD Linux Minix > > Small code size * > > Easy install * * > > Software selection * * > > Performance * * > > Textbooks *** * I think that's a little slanted. I would never, ever run Linux myself, but I try really hard not to show prejudice. First thing that has to leap out of that comparison above is that there are large amounts of very friendly Linux books out there, and not so for FreeBSD. Not knocking Greg's nice book, but as one of a genre, it's lonely for company. FreeBSD's books do tend to be more technical and academic in nature, pointed more towards someone who wants to learn and not just toy around with it, and I could easily stand by that remark, I think. There isn't any Linux book comparable to the 4.4BSD Operating System, for instance, but neither has FreeBSD got it's own friendly O'Reilly book. What does O'Reilly publich instead? The man pages (all the ref manuals and the user's guides, etc). I think it would be best to comment on the level of professional points. Linux is pointed towards hackers more, and FreeBSD more towards the folks who want to make money or have a defined goal. Linux's development is relatively splintered, which allows nearly the whole world in on it, at the loss of control or cohesiveness. It's not out of control, per se, but when you compare it to FreeBSD's far more tight control, well, yes, it is. This means that Linux is more likely to have a driver for every new device that hits the market. FreeBSD is more likely to have drivers that are high end and high capability, but less widely used. One last point that no one has raised is the attitude of compatibility. Linux has gone some ways down the road that SCO took, allowing the lure of added features to stealthily attack compatibility. It hasn't gone too terribly far (it's not out of control) but that's the way it's headed. Far more use of GNU. While that's not bad, it definitely is the direction of less compatibility. GNU, after all, is trying (with HURD) to actually make a major bend in the direction of unix OSs. Not non-unix, but distinctly different. The reasoning is that new features will make this better. Wasn't that SCO's reasoning also? Do you like info pages? Or maybe Guile? That's the direction things are going with Linux. It's after all a kernel only that Linus writes, not a whole OS. I'm afraid maybe some of my own prejudice is apparent here, but I couldn't let the stuff about docs pass uncommented. > And, for my contribution: > > Programming languages *** ** Oh, yeah. Aren't most of those languages you're talking about available on Linux? I maybe be wrong here, but most of the lanuguages I've ported have had to have modifications from previously released, author supplied ports (I often use a base of a sun port, that's usually one of the author-supplied ones) but I always notice lately that there's a Linux port from the author too. Getting to be a fair collection of there with a native FreeBSD port too (like, for instance, kaffe), but I think maybe Linux has the edge here, at least from my porting experience. > I welcome contrasting viewpoints, not that I'm likely to find any here. Huh ! > > -- > "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" > > Wes Peters Softweyr LLC > http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com > > ----------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data chuckr@eng.umd.edu | communications topic, C programming, and Unix. 213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1 | Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run Journey2 and picnic, both FreeBSD (301) 220-2114 | version 3.0 current -- and great FUN! ----------------------------+-----------------------------------------------
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