Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 13:27:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Jim Dennis <jimd@mistery.mcafee.com> To: filip@sprakrad.no (Filip Stokkeland) Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux Message-ID: <199604192027.NAA24247@mistery.mcafee.com> In-Reply-To: <286E679429A@sprakrad.no> from "Filip Stokkeland" at Apr 19, 96 10:50:46 am
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> > Hi! > I'm an old DOS-user who has started to look at Unix. I've tried a > couple of Linux distributins the last weeks. Then I found this > FreeBSD stuff. What's the difference between Linux and FreeBSD? > And what's this NetBSD-thing? Filip, FreeBSD and NetBSD grew out of schisms during the developement of 386BSD (Mr. & Mrs. Jolitz). Linux was independently written by Linux Torvalds (and many others on the net). This distinction applies to the history and authorship of the kernel and most/some of the device drivers. The bulk of the applications and utilities for all three OS' is ported from FSF (GNU) and other publicly available sources. All three use ports of the same X Windows implementation (XFree86). In terms of differences that a (new to Unix) DOS convert would see: they aren't consequential. Here's my opinions: FreeBSD is better for PC servers. Linux seems to be better for personal workstations. NetBSD is available for Mac, Amiga, and SPARC platforms. FreeBSD is more stable. Linux has a "cooler" name, gets more media attention, has a wider variety of hardware drivers and has "cooler" new stuff written for it. FreeBSD conforms much more closely the the standards and conventions of BSD unix (with approx. 25 years of tradition and history). There are no books on FreeBSD -- mostly there don't have to be as the normal books on BSD should suffice. There are lots of books on Linux -- there have to be since there are lots of things that are "new and improved" about Linux and because Linux attracts more people who are totally new to Unix-like OS'. That's it in a nutshell (ooops -- now I'll have O'Reilly chasing after me <g>). For more info I'd suggest getting FAQ's from: rtfm.mit.edu specifically from these directories: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/unix/bsd ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/comp/os Also you can check out the home sites for each of these web sites: http://www.linux.org http://www.freebsd.org http://www.netbsd.org > > Do you know where to get FreeBSD on CDROM? Walnut Creek (http://www.cdrom.com) Oddly enough I don't know where to get NetBSD on CD. Obviously there are over a dozen different Linux CD distributions. 386BSD is available (the ads are always run in Dr. Dobbs Journal). Jim Dennis, System Administrator, McAfee Associates
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