From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Oct 9 18:00:01 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id SAA11810 for questions-outgoing; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 18:00:01 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id RAA11745 for ; Thu, 9 Oct 1997 17:59:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.8.5) id KAA13313; Fri, 10 Oct 1997 10:29:24 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19971010102923.54565@lemis.com> Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 10:29:23 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Annelise Anderson Cc: Robert Rusk , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Linux vs freeBSD References: <19971009200545.24922@lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.84e In-Reply-To: ; from Annelise Anderson on Thu, Oct 09, 1997 at 09:55:00AM -0700 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8250 Fax: +61-8-8388-8250 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Fight-Spam-Now: http://www.cauce.org Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Thu, Oct 09, 1997 at 09:55:00AM -0700, Annelise Anderson wrote: > > > On Thu, 9 Oct 1997, Greg Lehey wrote: > >> On Thu, Oct 09, 1997 at 11:04:24AM -0700, Robert Rusk wrote: >>> I'm just wondering what advantages freeBSD has over Linux. >>> If you could enlighten me on this matter I would be most grateful >> >> That's a hot potato. A lot of people get fanatical about the >> question. Still, I've just had to write this up for the new edition >> of "The Complete FreeBSD", so here goes. I welcome any comments or >> corrections. >> >> Greg >> >> What about Linux? >> >> Linux is a clone of UNIX written by Linus Torvalds, a student in Helsinki, >> Finland. At the time, the BSD sources were not freely available, and so Linus >> wrote his own version of UNIX. >> >> Linux is a superb example of how a few dedicated, clever people can produce an >> operating system that is better than well-known commercial systems developed by >> a large number of trained software engineers. It is better even than a number >> of commercial UNIX systems. >> >> Obviously, I don't think Linux is as good as FreeBSD, or I wouldn't be writing >> this book, but the differences between FreeBSD and Linux are more a matter of >> philosophy rather than of concept. Here are a few contrasts: > > I think you could mention that FreeBSD is a classic (?) 4.4BSD type unix-- > thus one of the two types with which a potential sysadmin might want to be > acquainted; That's correct. I do that elsewhere. > Linux is a mix (so is most everything)-- But remember that FreeBSD has now evolved a lot from the original 4.4BSD, and has taken on some System V features (shared memory, poll() system call). I didn't think that the remainder was important enough to mention. > It sounds as if FreeBSD runs Linux programs *because* not many commercial > programs are available--but the point to make is that FreeBSD has Linux > emulation and runs most programs available for Linux, whether commercial > or not..... Yes, I've modified this. > Drivers: Drivers are available for most standard hardware, right? OK. How about: As a result of the smaller user base, FreeBSD is less likely to have drivers for brand-new boards than Linux. > Is the FreeBSD network code still better than Linux? You saw one answer. This is the kind of comparison I don't want to get involved in. Firstly, it's very difficult to quantify, secondly it tends to start flame wars, and thirdly the information would soon be out of date. > Software installation: Some people have found that installing software > on Linux is far more of a hassle than it is on FreeBSD, because of the > variety of versions of software that may be included on any particular > distribution of Linux. This may be one of FreeBSD's greatest and growing > strengths--that the version of the software on which port A is dependent > is there....basically installing software from ports or packages is > really pretty easy with FreeBSD. That's a good one. How about: As a result of the centralized develop- The ease of installation of Linux de- ment style, FreeBSD is straightforward pends on the ``distribution''. If you and easy to install. switch from one distribution of Linux to another, you'll have to learn a new set of installation tools. > "There is only one release of FreeBSD"--needs clarification. The problem > here is that the word "release" is used in different ways. There's 2.1, > there's 2.2, there's -current (3.0), there are snaps that are undistri- > buted releases.... (and some snaps are "released" for distribution by > WCcdrom--e.g., a version of -current a few months ago).... Right. I should have said "distribution". > Also the kind a variety of support--the nature of the community-- > involved in Linux vs. FreeBSD is different.... I suppose that's true, but it's difficult to quantify from my perspective. Do you have any suggestions? > FreeBSD as well as Linux is "bleeding edge" in -current....you don't > want to give the impression there's no advancement going on. But the > "current" release of FreeBSD (2.2-R and its descendants, 2.2-Stable, > right now) aim to be reliable environments for production etc.etc.etc.... > Note that Yahoo! uses FreeBSD (2.1 as of a few months ago), Yes, they're not the only ones. > but there's one big search engine (AltaVista?) that uses Linux. I thought AltaVista was DEC's showcase for Digital UNIX. Are you sure? > FreeBSD's "stable" branch at any gives time also has various changes > made to it, e.g., bug fixes, improvements etc. that keep it up to date > and reliable without introducing, necessarily, new features that might > or might not work.....while the developmental work continues on the > "current" branch.....I'm not sure if one installed, say, RedHat, that > there would be a series of improvements available..... Neither am I. But that could be as much lack of knowledge as anything. Once we get into discussing the FreeBSD flavours, a thing that still causes a lot of confusion, we need to understand the Linux scene as well in order to give a balanced viewpoint. I don't think I can do that. I *do* describe the different flavours of FreeBSD elsewhere, in the chapter on staying current. Greg