Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 22:42:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White <dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu> To: Sam Carter <petrov@owlnet.rice.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.970714215753.796A-100000@localhost> In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.91.970714232901.25940D-100000@long-eared.owlnet.rice.edu>
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On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Sam Carter wrote: > You are not answering my question. What about a comparison between the > two? What are differences? Advantages and disadvantages of each? This tends to be a religious question, thus my deft sidestep. > I may not like Win95 but I see the advantage to some (simplistic > interface, broad application base). I realize that y'all may be FreeBSD > fans but I can't imagine that all the Linux users are mentally impaired. > There must be some advantages to each. As I mentioned earlier, I believe the following are advantages to FreeBSD. Of course this is skewed, what do I gain advocating Linux when I love FreeBSD so much? :-) Any case, here's my short list: 1. One tightly integrated distribution. Linux has >10, with their own tool and library sets. It's a support headache! You say "I'm running FreeBSD 2.2.2" and I know exactly what you're talking about since I can walk over to my source tree and checkout the code compiled for 2.2.2 and see what you're seeing. 2. Excellent TCP/IP Networking. BSD is the reference implementation for TCP/IP networking. It works and works *well*, reference ftp.cdrom.com. I tried to configure a Linux RedHat box for networking and it was a pain; it didn't bother to add a net route to facilitate any future routes. Yuck! 3. One-stop program shopping. The ports and packages trees put over 1,000 programs one command away. They've already been ported and wired for FreeBSD, all I have to do is download the port and build them. 4. Multicast IP. I can watch NASA programming, international technology and science conferences, and chat with others with audio _and_ video, transmit _and_ receive. I don't think any implementation of Linux supports multicast, in a stable, modern form. 5. High performance virtual memory system. The VM system in BSD is the result of years of research and developent. It is implemented in an intelligent fashion with usability in mind -- the computer can be working hard on jobs while still retaining interactive response. The system is equipped to handle the large load of today's large file and network servers with ease. I'll give Linux the programmer following, which ends up with better support in terms in drivers for all sorts of kooky devices. Of couse, which kernel version do I need to get such-and-such driver working? :-) FreeBSDers call it the 'kernel-of-the-week club.' Luckily, FreeBSD doesn't change that fast. That's my take. I suggest searching the mail archives of the questions list at http://www.freebsd.org under Search for other people's past responses. I have some good ones archived up if you want to see them. Hope this helps. Doug White | University of Oregon Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major Spam routed to /dev/null by Procmail | Death to Cyberpromo
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