From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 23 16:21:13 2005 Return-Path: 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 10A3416A4CE for ; Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:21:13 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp11.wanadoo.fr (smtp11.wanadoo.fr [193.252.22.31]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B048743D45 for ; Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:21:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr) Received: from me-wanadoo.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mwinf1106.wanadoo.fr (SMTP Server) with ESMTP id DD4121C000B8 for ; Wed, 23 Feb 2005 17:21:11 +0100 (CET) Received: from pix.atkielski.com (ASt-Lambert-111-2-1-3.w81-50.abo.wanadoo.fr [81.50.80.3]) by mwinf1106.wanadoo.fr (SMTP Server) with ESMTP id BAB351C00083 for ; Wed, 23 Feb 2005 17:21:11 +0100 (CET) X-ME-UUID: 20050223162111764.BAB351C00083@mwinf1106.wanadoo.fr Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 17:21:06 +0100 From: Anthony Atkielski X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Message-ID: <1984102496.20050223172106@wanadoo.fr> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Different OS's? Marketshare X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2005 16:21:13 -0000 Ted Mittelstaedt writes: > Note that Linux is doing much better against these measuring sticks > because the Linux community, for all their loud proclamations about > being GPL, has been steadily making Linux less and less > distinguishable from the commercial OSs. When for example was the last > time you saw a Linux enthusiast with a burned CDROM of an ISO he > downloaded somewhere? The ones I see all have colorful cardboard boxes > with penguins on them that they bought at Fry's. I've been looking at Linux these past few days (trying to decide whether to install FreeBSD or Linux on the machine I just freed up), and I've noticed the same thing. "Free" appears to be a near-total illusion when it comes to Linux. And hardly any distribution seems to require less than 6 or 7 CDs. And the Web sites I visit are extremely circumspect about exactly how to download "free" versions of their distributions, when they even offer such free copies. It all looks very much (too much) like Microsoft. There have been a few exceptions. The Slackware site looked pretty spartan compared to most of the others. I still might try to get FreeBSD running on the desktop instead, since I know FreeBSD better (but then again, perhaps I should be learning more about Linux as well?). That depends on getting past the boot problem and resolving another anomaly with the SCSI disks, though. -- Anthony