Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 10:38:13 +1100 From: Harry Woodward-Clarke <Harry.Woodward-Clarke@S1.com> To: Harry Newton <harry_newton@telinco.co.uk> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Relative Merits of FreeBSD Message-ID: <3890D6E5.5222F3CA@S1.com> References: <200001272314.XAA03196@chimaera.locus>
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From one Harry to another... ;') > > I come from a Solaris/Digital UNIX background, and I guess am really > interested in any differences I would notice as a user of the Ok - Both Solaris and DUX/TrUX are more SystemV-ish than BSD-ish. Ultrix was more BSD-ish than SystemV-ish. So, if you went through any 'pain' moving from Ultrix to DUX, you may have an idea of what you are looking at. A few years ago, a friend of mine in the Unix Group at DEC's Sydney CSC said, upon loading Linux on his PC "This is just like home - it's _so_ much like Digital Unix!". So, with that, you may think some more about the way you wish to move. > machine. I don't do anything too fancy with the machine, mainly > coding > (C, Java) and TeXing and web browsing/mail reading. I am aware that > FreeBSD, out of the box, is less set-up than Linux ( in terms of > applications ). Well... yes and no. All that stuff, and more, you can do on both Linux and FreeBSD. Sure, the 'default' installation of FreeBSD doesn't have quite as many applications automagically installed as some Linux distro's - but the stuff is all there, and firing up "/stand/sysinstall" will step you nicely through all the ports and distributions to your heart's desire. > > I guess I am really after folks thoughts about using the two systems, > but a few specifics occured to me: > > o Is there anything I can do in Linux that I can't do in BSD ( & > vice-versa ) ? There are probably "bleeding edge" type things you can do on Linux systems that you can't do yet on FreeBSD - but give it 6 to 12 months to settle down, and you'll have it. Although, with the vast improvements in the Linux Emulation, often you can have it now. E.g. I've just set up a fBSD3.3 system at home (dual boot with w98 - my wife's machine), I unpacked Corel WordPerfect8 for Linux - and it just works. No tweaking, no patches, no nothing - it just works. fBSD in my experience will stay up longer than Linux. The QA on FreeBSD is just that much more "professional" than the Linux distro's that I have seen. Of course, they're still miles ahead of that other mob ;') > > o FreeBSD is often claimed to be more stable and quicker than Linux > --- how true is this is practice ? It's been (now) a year since I last used Linux, so I can't say for _now_, but for then, I think FreeBSD at least 'seemed' quicker - although with the excitement of learning a new OS, and all that, perhaps it wasn't as large an improvement... y'know? ;') (btw - my background in O/VMS with some Ultrix - on mVAX - and DUX - on Alpha - in there too) > > o Is there any advice that you give to someone who is going to make > such > a change ? suck it and see. BSD has a nicer way (to my way of thinking) of doing the configuration than SysV/Linux. But then, that's just me. From a strictly User standpoint, I'd say most things will be "the same". From a SysAdmin standpoint - for me at least - the clean manner that BSD works is just 'easier'. hth, & best regards, |-| To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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