Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 17:51:50 +0300 From: Juha-Matti Liukkonen <jml@cubical.fi> To: Graham Wright <graham.wright@raleigh.hcl.com> Cc: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Pro's and Con's of FreeBSD vs Linux for embedded systems? Message-ID: <3CF63C86.546D2FBD@cubical.fi> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020530095331.00af1c58@ralraleigh.hcl.com>
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Hi, in my experience, there are a few deciding factors involved... Any or all of these may apply in a given scenario. o if you need a small footprint GUI with little or no work, go linux. It has microwindows (which doesn't work with freebsd out-of-the-box). o if you need Java, go linux. Sun explicitly provides jdk for linux, availability for freebsd has been less stable due to various reasons. o if you need top-of-the-line PC gadget drivers, go linux. They just ain't there for freebsd (although the quality of the linux ones often tends to be a bit shaky). o if you want non-ix86 cpu support, re-enter this list comparing linux and netbsd (which is a bsd and runs on anything with silicon in it). FreeBSD is ix86 only (alpha isn't really a consideration in embedded systems, and the powerpc support isn't there yet). o if you want (or need) to modify the system sources for your application, go *bsd. It isn't GPL. o if you want (or need) your box to be a bulletproof back-end system (ie. no GUI, reliable, efficient, secure, networked), go *bsd. The code base is maintained so much better, it is more robust, updates are easy to manage and review due to their consistency and quality, (...lots of other reasons). o if you want added advertising value, go linux -- it _is_ better known, particularly to the consumer public and traditionally windows-hosted server and appliance markets. We use freebsd because we do networked back-end (ix86) boxes, but if we ever had to do consumer applications with GUIs, I wouldn't scoff on linux either. Br, Jussi PS. If anybody wants to dissuade my linux recommendations wrt GUI and Java support for small footprint systems, please do so; I see a need for those in my future and I'd rather stick with one base system for logistical reasons. Graham Wright wrote: > > Please excuse the obvious newbie question here but I'm trying to understand > what the pro's and con's are of using FreeBSD vs Linux in an embedded > appliance scenario. The marketing people seem to feel that Linux should be > the OS of choice since there is a higher level of consumer acceptance, > while the technical staff feels that FreeBSD is preferable due to it's > superior TCP/IP stack. > > Of course, I haven't been able to find any technical comparisons between > the two so I thought I'd ask the experts :-) > > Thanks, > Graham > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message -- Juha-Matti Liukkonen, Cubical Solutions Ltd Phone: +358(0)405280142 Email: jml@cubical.fi To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-small" in the body of the message
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