From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Nov 16 16:40:52 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E65937B401 for ; Sat, 16 Nov 2002 16:40:50 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.comcast.net (smtp.comcast.net [24.153.64.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 98EAD43E42 for ; Sat, 16 Nov 2002 16:40:49 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jld123@pobox.com) Received: from lee (pcp826719pcs.nrockv01.md.comcast.net [68.50.140.34]) by mtaout01.icomcast.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.1 HotFix 1.5 (built Sep 23 2002)) with SMTP id <0H5P00582381QQ@mtaout01.icomcast.net> for freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org; Sat, 16 Nov 2002 19:40:49 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 16 Nov 2002 19:45:21 -0500 From: Lee Nelson Subject: Re: Advantages over GNU/Linux? In-reply-to: To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org, c.hodapp@softhome.net Message-id: MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Opera 6.05 build 1140 Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I switched to FreeBSD earlier this year. Advantages that convinced me are: It comes from a single source. There are no arguments over this or that driver, kernel patch, whatnot. This means that I don't have to spend my time figuring out which patches to apply, or who's version of the kernel is best for me. Also security notifications come from a single source, making them easy to keep track of. The code base changes more slowly than Linux. I found it difficult to keep up with the "kernel of the week" with Linux. This has saved me and my clients a LOT of money. The only Linux versions that I will use are Redhat, Suse, and Debian: FreeBSD is much more up to date than Debian. Redhat make off-the-wall decisions, like building everything with a beta compiler or having every major package require PHP. Suse - well they're not so bad but Yast is a pain. FreeBSD's 'package manager' is simple and civilized. There are no excessive dependencies in the package system. The ports tree has everything you could ever want, preconfigured for installation on FreeBSD, and is dirt simple to use. Lastly, FreeBSD is very well documented, meaning that you are never left wondering, for example, how the init scripts work, or where the source is for this or that. The lack of murky psuedo-proprietary components is also nice. Disadvantages of FreeBSD include less complete support of desktop environments and a monolithic base install. Not to run down Linux - I think it's great. I run Debian on my file server, and love apt/dselect. Redhat 6.2 ran solid for a year on my web and DB servers. And the linux guys have all kinds of cool toys that we don't - cdparanoia and video support are both good examples. But for boring server stuff, I prefer FreeBSD. -Lee P.S. if you need a virus scanner on FreeBSD check out VirusScan from Network Associates. They have a command line scanner that integrates with Amavis and is very simple to install and update. Not affliated, just impressed. 11/16/02 3:20:05 PM, c.hodapp@softhome.net wrote: >Okay, propaganda time. Why should I use FreeBSD instead of GNU/Linux? What >advantages does it offer? > > -Chris Hodapp > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message