Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 17:22:27 +0100 From: Danny Pansters <danny@ricin.com> To: "Ben" <ben@cahostnet.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Linux (More Questions!) Message-ID: <01031217222700.22799@ricin.localnet> In-Reply-To: <02c401c0ab03$fd58ca00$6102a00a@nhqadmin17> References: <02c401c0ab03$fd58ca00$6102a00a@nhqadmin17>
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Hi,=20 > These are my requirements for my desktop. First of all let me say > that this will be used for desktop purposes so It's important the > operating system of choice is user friendly and supports the desktop > hardware well, such as cd burners, sound cards and others. Here they > are: > Large hardware support > Large application support > Easy configuration and installation of OS and apps > FTP installs if possible > Ports collections for easy upgrades and installations After about two years of using Linux, I switched to freeBSD, also on my=20 desktop. Generally you can expect to be able to run the same=20 applications albeit that there are less of them. But for every purpose=20 I can think of there is at least one application in the ports that'll=20 do it. I use this box for everything.. cd burning, mp3 encoding, TV=20 viewer, graphics, webdesign, ... without many problems. I even use it=20 to upload mp3s to my Rio player.=20 The only thing I miss, but that's also the case with Linux, are good=20 applications for sound and video editing. That kind of software is just=20 too complicated to be well maintained in a small volunteer environment=20 I reckon. > I looked at slackware as suggested by someone on the list. Slackware > doesn't even have an ftp installation. Upgrades will be a bit tricky > and a hassle. The amount of support needed will not be there. I may > be wrong on this. My findings of BSD is that it's more of a server > based operating system. Is this correct? Yes and no. Much like Linux its also well suited as a desktop IMO. Opinions about this vary though. Basically, it allows me to do anything=20 I did with Windows (seems ages ago :-) and much more.=20 > > So the final question. Should I stick with Red Hat Linux, go with > slackware or go with BSD? What will you guys recommend and why. I Red Hat is really messy! Go for Debian Linux if you want easy updating=20 through ftp. Again, opinions may vary but IMO Debian is by far the=20 nicest Linux distribution. It actually resembles freeBSD a bit in the=20 way it's organized I think. Here's a tip: If you decide to try Debian=20 by the way, stay away from the dselect install program. Just use=20 apt-get for everything. I tried Slackware once but Debian's way better. Slack has more of a=20 snapshot-like release scheme I believe, so yeah, keeping it up to date=20 might be a challenge. OK, finally some advocacy: FreeBSD is easier to configure than any=20 Linux distro I've seen. It's very straightforward and tends to have=20 sensible defaults. But I must say, had I never used Linux, I'd probably=20 never have found BSD let alone understand what "UNIX" is about. If you=20 want general "UNIX" knowledge then BSD is your thing I believe. One more suggestion: for a desktop, don't be cheap when it comes to RAM. Hope this helped :) Danny Pansters http://www.ricin.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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