From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Sat May 17 10:01:54 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 985FC37B401 for ; Sat, 17 May 2003 10:01:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from web40403.mail.yahoo.com (web40403.mail.yahoo.com [66.218.78.100]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 3D60143F93 for ; Sat, 17 May 2003 10:01:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from catlord17@yahoo.com) Message-ID: <20030517170154.97917.qmail@web40403.mail.yahoo.com> Received: from [67.75.82.206] by web40403.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Sat, 17 May 2003 10:01:54 PDT Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 10:01:54 -0700 (PDT) From: RexFelis To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <10288343621.20030517072452@sentex.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: Re: To freeBSD or not freeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 17 May 2003 17:01:55 -0000 Personally, I have started using FreeBSD for more than a few reasons. 1. License. I don't have to worry about paying for it at a time in my life when money is tight; I don't have to worry about stockholders deciding how I run my computer. 2. Stability. Unbeatable. It just works, and never flinches. Check out netcraft.com's top 50 uptimes. No linux anywhere. Linux is very good at this; FreeBSD is great. I have not had much trouble with Linux, but I have had more than with FreeBSD, under the same circumstances. 3. Unity. FreeBSD is FreeBSD, no distros to worry about. No distro wars, either. 4. Community. In my experience, the FreeBSD community has been great. They're willing to encourage and assist more than any other OS community I have seen. These Mmailing lists are set up for that sort of thing. 5. The 'make world' command, et al. I can update the source code and rebuild the entire operating system from scratch, including kernel, in a few commands. Configuring and building a custom kernel is exceedingly easy too. 6. Ports. Instead of days spent looking for dependencies and resolving compatibility with installed stuff, I type cd /usr/ports/audio/audacity && make install clean Then I surf the web and chat while I wait for everything to be downloaded, verified, unpacked, patched, compiled, installed, and cleaned up after. 7. Because FreeBSD, in my experience, stands up to tinkering better than Linux. 8. Because FreeBSD is more mature code, and the goal isn't frantic bleeding edge development. At the same time, everything is actually kept up to date. You get the best of both worlds. Don't get me wrong; Linux is a great operating system. It just does not suit my needs anymore. My mother and girlfriend run Linux, and it'll be fine for them for the rest of their days. They don't want to tinker or get under the hood and build experimental kernels and such. It's just much easier for me to use FreeBSD. Hope this helps. :) RexFelis --- Trish wrote: > Hello freebsd-newbies, > > I'm wondering why you picked freeBSD over > other distros. I'm > getting ready to build my first Linux box and > I admit, I have not fully > researched all the options yet, but am > looking at freeBSD on the > recommendation of, well, my son. I take him > seriously as he is > already running linux (though not freeBSD as > yet - that's his and > my upcoming project), he and his friends are > no slouches at this stuff, typical techie > teenagers, and have the time to > do such things. I have less. However, I'm > interested in what the > actual user community has to say. > > I get the impression there is significant > support available, apps and drivers are > available and configurable > and it's not a nightmare to run. But that's > just an impression and > I haven't compared it enough with anything > else. > > So if anyone cares to venture a point of > view, I'd be interested to > hear it. Thanks! :) > > -- > Trish > mailto:failte@sentex.net > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-newbies > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-newbies-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com