From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Jun 27 5: 2: 3 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from smarthost-2.mail.telinco.net (smarthost-2.mail.telinco.net [212.1.128.91]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BA8037BFF5 for ; Tue, 27 Jun 2000 05:01:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from harry_newton@telinco.co.uk) Received: from ppp-2-9.cvx4.telinco.net ([212.1.149.9] helo=chimaera.locus) by smarthost-2.mail.telinco.net with esmtp (Exim 3.02 #4) id 136u3V-000Nwa-00; Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:01:29 +0100 Received: (from harry@localhost) by chimaera.locus (8.9.3/8.9.3) id NAA08974; Tue, 27 Jun 2000 13:01:27 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from harry@chimaera.locus) X-Authentication-Warning: chimaera.locus: harry set sender to harry@chimaera.locus using -f To: "Dion E Viglione" Subject: Re: SOLARIS VS FreeBSD References: <000801bfe004$1b936a00$55ae73d1@ppp> X-Op.135: Muss es sein ? Es muss sein Organization: Gaudeamus Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: Harry Newton Date: 27 Jun 2000 10:17:21 +0100 In-Reply-To: "Dion E Viglione"'s message of "Tue, 27 Jun 2000 00:51:21 -0600" Message-ID: <867lbbzdni.fsf@chimaera.locus> Lines: 60 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0807 (Gnus v5.8.7) Emacs/20.6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG >>>>> "Dion" == Dion E Viglione writes: Dion> Solaris 8 is now "open" and free. Sun told me that it is Dion> the superior UNIX of all UNICES--to end all UNICES! (--to Dion> that effect) And-- Solaris' kernel algorithm design is Dion> suppose to be better than BSD's. I want to learn UNIX, but Dion> computer scientists predict Linux will gradually fade away, Dion> leaving BSD; but now Solaris is free--won't that "crush" Dion> BSD? Won't everyone flock to Solaris? Should I now Dion> uninstall my OpenBSD? [...] Hi there Dion, This is one question to which you won't find an unbiased answer of course; however I will put in my twopenny-worth ! The following points occured to me: - Solaris of course is now only free because of the efforts of the Linux and *-BSD communitites. Sun are pushing it because they make it and that's the only reason. It is a good operating system and will do somethings better than other operating systems and other things worse. - It had a reputation as being more stable than Linux and running better than Linux on more hefty machines. - Solaris is System V based, the *-BSD's are of course BSD based, and Linux has BSD like internals, and a System V programming interface. Don't worry if you don't understand what this means, they all share more similarities than differences. - Sun used to have a reputation for shipping ancient software with SunOs --- the classic example was the superannuated version of sendmail. This may have now changed ( SunOs was the predecessor of Solaris ). Of course, you'll probably find it a lot more difficult to set up Solaris as the cd's don't include anywhere as much software as you'll get on a Linux or BSD disk. You can get third party disks to supplement Sun's disks, but its a lot more hassle. - Won't Linux & BSD be crushed ? No way ! It seems to me it's the other way round: Sun have released a free version of Solaris because they are finding it difficult to sell. I have the impression that the commercial Unices are standing still whilst Linux and *BSD are catching up rapidly. They are of course better in some respects, worse in others. - I use FreeBSD. I moved from Debian Linux and have not regretted the move. It's a very nice operating system. I would advise you to stick with either Linux ( a good distribution though, not Red Hat ! ) or one of BSD's. You will learn transferrable skills whatever UNIX variety you use. All the best, Harry -- Harry Newton harry_newton@telinco.co.uk To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message