From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Jan 28 14:57:27 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id OAA08507 for questions-outgoing; Sun, 28 Jan 1996 14:57:27 -0800 (PST) Received: from genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au [129.127.96.120]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id OAA08502 for ; Sun, 28 Jan 1996 14:57:22 -0800 (PST) Received: from msmith@localhost by genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id JAA08285; Mon, 29 Jan 1996 09:39:29 +1030 From: Michael Smith Message-Id: <199601282309.JAA08285@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> Subject: Re: Sun refugee (BSD-bigot) seeks OS for Pentium Pro system.... To: jparnas@jparnas.cybercom.net (Jacob M. Parnas) Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 09:39:29 +1030 (CST) Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org In-Reply-To: <199601281802.NAA00791@jparnas.cybercom.net> from "Jacob M. Parnas" at Jan 28, 96 01:02:43 pm MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Jacob M. Parnas stands accused of saying: > the time that the P7 switches, the P6's should be much faster. I'm planning on > getting the ASUS P/E-EP6P7D, probably from netexpress Just in case the people who have already bought these boards don't catch you in time, DO NOT BUY ONE OF THESE BOARDS. Unless I am muchly mistaken they use the Intel Orion chipset, which is badly broken (~4M bus bandwidth). Wcarchive is currently running on an unreleased Intel server board which doesn't have this problem, but I remember following their experiences with the ASUS board ending in its ultimate return. > 1. Will a MP system work with freebsd with one processor OK, and > multiprocessors? Is the MP support planned in the future (or currently > supported) and what type (spreading out the processes or, having a multi- > threading compiler and kernel) Yes, FreeBSD runs happily on one processor in an MP system. MP support exists in some shape, and its direction is largely dependant on having someone take control of the project and drive it forwards. > 3. How happy are you with your choice? What are the pros+cons both up front > (such as ports) and undeterminable such as support? Having the source and a pile of developers close to hand is invaluable. The ports collection makes setting up a new system a trivial exercise. > 4. How do you see the future? Do you think BSDI will do a lot more ports > and add new features? Ports in which sense? 3rd-party applications or platforms? I think BSDI are concentrating hard on the internet POP market, possibly to the detriment of their system asa general-purpose Unix. > 5. Am I correct that Linux is really System V and some BSD stuff is missing? No. Linux is a completely new design by Linus. Its internals owe more to pinball machine code than SysV. Much, but not all, of the BSD stuff is there. If you plan on doing any sort of development (either user-space or kernel-space) FreeBSD is my recommendation. > Thanks, Jacob -- ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] Genesis Software genesis@atrad.adelaide.edu.au [[ ]] High-speed data acquisition and (GSM mobile) 0411-222-496 [[ ]] realtime instrument control (ph/fax) +61-8-267-3039 [[ ]] "wherever you go, there you are" - Buckaroo Banzai [[