Date: 17 Feb 1999 21:14:09 +0100 From: naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD Message-ID: <7af7uh$dnb$1@mips.rhein-neckar.de> References: <4.1.19990217095946.00928d20@194.184.65.4>
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Gianmarco Giovannelli <gmarco@giovannelli.it> wrote:
> First I want to say I don't want generate "holy wars" ... these are only
> personal opinion :-)
And I don't intend to be the penguin's advocate here, although the
remainder of this article may look like it.
> I installed a Red Hat which is considered the flagship of the Linux
> distribution
Depends on whom you ask. Personally, I'd consider Debian the "flagship".
Opinions vary greatly, and as Maddog Hall (Linux advocate at
DEC^H^H^HCompaq) points out: what do three Linux users who each favor a
different distribution finally agree to install? FreeBSD. :-)
Also you should be careful to distinguish the features or shortcomings
of a particular distribution from that of Linux in general. Yes, I
realize that this is not obvious if your experience is limited to a
single distribution.
> in an empty partition (and it get two , damn it because it
> doens't know that partitions can be sub-divided in slice for swap i.e.).
Linux uses the standard PC partition model. FreeBSD treats standard
partitions as slices and creates its own partitions within. Different
approach, and the FreeBSD one is certainly harder to understand. (How do
{Net,Open}BSD/i386 handle this?)
> 1) FreeBSD is easier to install and it install in a more intuitive way.
I'd say both Red Hat and FreeBSD are equally easy/cumbersome to install.
I find the Debian installation superior, but then installation is a one-
time event, so I don't weigh it much when considering the overall
quality of a distribution/operating system.
Last time I installed FreeBSD it was *painfull*. Some ensuing flamage in
de.comp.os.unix.bsd pointed out that the way I expected a beginner
installation to be handled was actually available as "expert" or
"custom" installation, whereas the "novice" installation I had chosen
ran in a way I would only expect for people who had gone through the
process before. Different minds, I guess.
So far the easiest installations I have done/witnessed were Red Hat
Linux and OpenBSD respectively on Sparc IPCs. The PC hardware zoo,
brain-dead BIOS, and parallel installation of several operating systems
is the stuff of nightmares.
> The Linux "innovative" graphical fdisk is, in my opinion, very obscure.
The Red Hat Disk Druid?
The normal cfdisk is a twin of its FreeBSD counterpart.
> 2) The packages selection of Red Hat is a pain.
Didn't notice. I'm fairly certain you can choose a default set (or maybe
among several default sets) of packages.
> 3) The configuration of a Linux box is quite different from a FreeBSD one,
> but I think ours is far superior even if I can't judge this because I have
> the habit of configuring only FreeBSD boxes.
Important point here: If you are used to working with FreeBSD (Linux),
and then give Linux (FreeBSD) a quick try, you are not likely to compare
both operating systems fairly.
> I like very much the idea to have a single file full of "options" to
> customize the system.
I certainly don't have all the configuration of my BSD box in a single
file. Conversely, SuSE Linux has an rc.conf-style central configuration
file. Lots of differences there between the various Linux distributions.
Recently a rather vocal Linux user in our unix user group mentioned that
he now felt reasonably confident to venture beyond YaST (proprietary
setup and system administration frontend provided with SuSE Linux).
Somebody like this would be horrified if he had to deal from the start
with raw configuration files like under FreeBSD.
> 4) I love the centralized way to stay in sync with cvsup.
You can set up cvsup for Linux, too.
Are you referring to the concept of cvsuping the source and making the
world? Yes, some people like this. Others would be horrified and much
prefer to pull pre-compiled packages from the net. Different
preferences.
> If you, that don't know anything or have only vague ideas about UNIX
> world, arrive in a shop and want a UNIX like operating system you take
> what you find first.
Actually, nowadays people have only vague ideas about Linux, arrive in a
shop, and want the Linux operating system. Unix? Huh? Oh, it's Linux
compatible? Linux has a lot of press, even in the idiot PC rags, and
many users from the Wintel universe who pick up on it have no idea of
the Unix universe at all.
--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de
100+ SF Book Reviews: <URL:http://home.pages.de/~naddy/reviews/>;
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