Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2000 12:40:06 +0200 From: Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org> To: Alwyn Schoeman <alwyns@littlecruncher.prizm.dhs.org> Cc: Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@nojunk.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Not enough information Message-ID: <20000106124006.B68710@mithrandr.moria.org> In-Reply-To: <20000106113309.B8865@littlecruncher.prizm.dhs.org> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.1000105165841.24564A-100000@inbox.org> <20000106.1392900@bartequi.ottodomain.org> <20000106113309.B8865@littlecruncher.prizm.dhs.org>
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On Thu 2000-01-06 (11:33), Alwyn Schoeman wrote: > Personaly: > 1) Linux kernel configuration is better than freebsd, especially if you > don't come from BSD background. Why should an ethernet card have different > names? ep0, ed0??? Is it better, or simply more easy to do when you have no clue what's going on yet? I liked Linux's make menuconfig for a long time until I realized how much simpler editing the kernel config is with vi. Maybe we need a nice UI front-end for new people, I'll admit that, but there would be massive resistance to forcing people to use it. > 2) I'm impressed with the way ports work, being used to RPM's I > quickly noticed some shortcomings. If RPM is used correctly, ports are > no match. Recently FreeBSD's not so great filesystem got corrupted. > Guess what got damaged? Package information, so now I can't get any > information on installed packages.UPgrading ports, I mean installed > ports? Probably the only point its got going for it against RPM is > that its easier to stay up to date. Kernel and userland I would about > rate the same. Personally I find our binary package system a little behind-the-times, but the ports collection beats rpm's hands-down in a large number of areas. . The ports collection is easy to keep up to date. . You only download what you need. . You don't need to search for your packages at various different sites. Case in point - How many times do you have to ask someone where to find a common package because you can't remember its home page or ftp site? Nothing is easier than 'cd /usr/ports/*/name && make install' . The ports collection is easily customizable. Different default target locations, compiler directives, compiler, and much more. . The ports collection provides customizable configurations. The rest are fights I'd rather not get into, but mostly things depend on your application and experience. I think there is a lot more you are missing with regards to choosing between the Linux distributions or using just FreeBSD. FreeBSD is a full operating system. RedHat is an operating system, and so is Debian. There really is no point contrasting Linux and FreeBSD in the area of operating system. Debian documentation is as much use to you running RedHat as it is to you running FreeBSD, for the most part. FreeBSD has a large community. RedHat doesn't. Debian has a community. I've found the community to be a massive draw factor, and it's much easier to relate to a member of the community than some theoretical person manning RedHat's email. You'll easily find that there are many friendly faces for whatever problem you have, so long as you try your best to give them enough of an idea what the problem is. On the same note, the actual developers are on the centralized mailing lists, who'll give you support for your technical problems. There's just one place you need to go for any level of technical or other support. Neil -- Neil Blakey-Milner nbm@rucus.ru.ac.za To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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