Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 14:42:31 -0800 From: Frankie Li <notme@lvdi.net> To: "Mr. K." <bsd@inbox.org> Cc: Delmir Fernandes <delmir@enteract.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Not enough information Message-ID: <3873C8D7.A9A09FF6@lvdi.net> References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.1000105165841.24564A-100000@inbox.org>
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Well, not trying to start a flame war or anything, FreeBSD's current position of not appealing to the masses, IMHO, does not hurt FreeBSD too severally. Frankly, many people (school or friends) see me as a FreeBSD advocate, perhaps not one of the best, but I am quite nuts about it. However, degrading the product (as Delmir suggested) will not do FreeBSD any good. I also disagree with Delmir's view that FreeBSD is a "professional only system." Two years ago, I was a normal Window 95 user, but with reading (online and books), I quickly learned to use FreeBSD. I am no where near an expert, for I am just a 12th grade high school student. Popularity of Linux comparing to FreeBSD can be highly attributed to the media. Continuos coverage of MicroSoft vs. Department of Justice often lead to (for some strange and odd reason, I am still trying to find the correlation...) discussion of Linux and opensource. Further- more, opensource movement around Linux also helped its success. A more subtle burden toward FreeBSD is the UNIX (oh, did I say "UNIX"... I better give it a TM...) lawsuit in the earlier time. As Mr. K suggested, FreeBSD is more of a server OS. I would have to say that desktops definitely outnumber server. (in this world anyway.) However, I believe that FreeBSD is a good workstation OS as well. It has good memory protection as well as raw power needed for a good workstation. (have you watched "The Matrix"? It is rendered with Dell PowerEdge running FreeBSD Release 3.2) Concerning information and documentation of FreeBSD, there's a very large supply of online information. I have to agree that FreeBSD books are very limited; however, there seems to be much progress in this arena in the recent year. But with the online documentation and sites such as www.freebsdrocks.com and www.freebsddiary.com, there should be enough for a newbie. (That's how I got started.) (jumping into water before I get flamed...) Frankie "Mr. K." wrote: > > > I am a new Linux user and always listen to others saying that FreeBSD > is better and faster plus many large and well-known companies use > FreeBSD. If that is so... Why is Linux so much more popular? Why does not > exist enough (if any) documentation on FreeBSD? How can FreeBSD be so > much poor? > > Personally I consider Linux better for home desktop use, and FreeBSD > better for server use. The drivers come out much faster for Linux, > with much more support. This would explain why linux is more popular > (there are more home users than server farmers). I also consider Windows > better than Linux and FreeBSD for home desktop use (donning my flame > retardant suit). When I'm at home, I like to watch DVDs. I don't > want to dual boot, and I don't want to wait around a year for someone > to reverse engineer a DVD decryptor. Driver support is better for > Windows than for FreeBSD and Linux combined. That would explain why > Windows is way more popular than both of them, and will continue to be. > > Is FreeBSD better? Yes, for some things. Is Windows? Yes, for other > things. Is Linux? Well, maybe, but not for anything I want to do :). > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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