From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 18 12:47:49 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 402A216A41F for ; Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:47:49 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from carpetsmoker@gmail.com) Received: from zproxy.gmail.com (zproxy.gmail.com [64.233.162.193]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 674EE43D6D for ; Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:47:45 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from carpetsmoker@gmail.com) Received: by zproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id x7so1591893nzc for ; Wed, 18 Jan 2006 04:47:44 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=nvPe9nBOxHKg9wX1fYAYU5+xDytNNadVIaZHLFACFkyVHTO7R5KE/lU3Mp7LH66dqyGuxzk7ZYQNqlZ4JDppjtCVOpBJgoBse6VYAYuxeMBX6pHJyJ3cZD/0TnT+12v34gCp5rSmU0TWtdldbqUpOb19VWI3aZqBsB91W+NHRAg= Received: by 10.65.205.8 with SMTP id h8mr4659907qbq; Wed, 18 Jan 2006 04:47:44 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.65.72.1 with HTTP; Wed, 18 Jan 2006 04:47:44 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <4dd4cddf0601180447i25908100s@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:47:44 +0000 From: Martin Tournoy To: Graham Bentley In-Reply-To: <002401c61bfe$53864770$0807a8c0@admin> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline References: <20060118001911.0067816A436@hub.freebsd.org> <002401c61bfe$53864770$0807a8c0@admin> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:47:49 -0000 > Windows almost runs everything Quite the opposite, try running some application from a few years back on windows 200 or XP, big chance it won't work. > Unix has not matured yet to compete with Microsoft. Yeah, let's just forget that UNIX had stuff like network support before windows even existed... Windows has a few edged on Unix, DirectX for example, but on many points UNIX is really in the lead, the fact that you can't get a driver for some specific card doesn't have anything do to with maturing, but with commerce, Microsoft pays hardware manufacturers to make drivers for their OS, FreeBSD is non-profit and can't afford such things... Windows has crap driver management, where you can simply use the ICH driver for just about all Intel integrated sound chips, while you have to get(download) a different driver for all the different chips on windows... Who has matured? > Unix community simply did not get their act together and try to build an = OS > for the masses. The main argument for Unix is it is "Free", but > compatibility and upgrade paths are different issues. Upgrading is a pain on windows, upgrading from 98 to 2000 more or less needs a format and clean install, while on FreeBSD you have much more flexibility, so you can upgrade much easy er. Let's not talk about the windows update site, and 15 reboots required.. Unix is for the masses, the only problem it has is a proper user friendly G= UI. With Windows on the other hand, you *HAVE* to do things as the Microsoft programmers envisioned and liked things, and lacks a lot of flexibility that FreeBSD does have, which makes FreeBSD for the masses, it doesn't matter if your an average end-luser, or a nerd, or whatever, everyone can do what they want the way they want to do it, you really don't have that kind of flexibility with windows. Everyone should use whatever they prefer to use, but there a couple of very good arguments in favor of FreeBSD, and while there are also arguments in favor of windows they are fewer... Say whatever you want, but the Unix permission system is better than Window's, it much more simple and elegant, which means less headache's, less mistakes and more security. The same goes for window's configuration, the registry, it's not a bad idea, but horribly failed, now you have a huge file with a lot of data, half of it redundant, and the worst is that it's undocumented. FreeBSD simply has a set of configuration files, mostly in /etc and /usr/local/etc most of them have a man page, and an example file in /usr/share/examples/etc This again is simpler, which, again, means less headaches, less mistakes and better security, performance etc. There are tons of examples like this, the fact that windows XP is 1.3 GB in size (Minimal!) is enough to know that windows is loaded with complicated shit, while the much simpler and elegant approach in FreeBSD works better. It's same as physics or biology really, I came across this quote recently: If you encounter a formula more that a quarter of a page long, then forget it, nature doesn't make things that complicated. Nature has been "In development" for billions of years, and learned that simplicity is the key, why do anything different with computers? Windows does...