From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 10 16:25:28 2004 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 7A0EE16A4CE for ; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:25:28 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mproxy.gmail.com (mproxy.gmail.com [216.239.56.247]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5AFA843D4C for ; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:25:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mrpuffypants@gmail.com) Received: by mproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id x43so153367cwb for ; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:25:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.11.122.72 with SMTP id u72mr136732cwc; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:25:28 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.11.122.39 with HTTP; Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:25:28 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 11:25:28 -0500 From: Tom Cook To: Philip Payne In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org cc: Johan Claesson Subject: Re: Question about FreeBSD. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Tom Cook List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2004 16:25:28 -0000 Johan, First of all, welcome! FreeBSD isn't a distribution of linux, actually. FreeBSD is a derived from an entirely different code base than Linux is. These days, though, they share many common features and also differ in many areas. To answer your questions; yes, FreeBSD does have full X windows support, and many people are using and enjoying it these days. The biggest difference between FreeBSD, slack, and Redhat are numerous: FreeBSD is based off the BSD kernel and system, while the Linux kernels are completely from the other side of the world (literally) and come directly from Linus. You can get various 'distributions' of linux, all with various userland applications and configuration methods but there is only *one* FreeBSD. When you download the 5.2.1 or 4.10 release you can be confident that you're getting FreeBSD, and that your skills in FreeBSD will directly transfer to any FreeBSD system that you use (as far as the way that things are configured, managed, and maintained) The biggest thing for me is the ports system and the ease that FreeBSD brings to installing packages. Just the other day I was using Fedora and started to install something, only to find out that it needed a dependency, which had two other dependencies that I had to go build and install. On FreeBSD, all of that is done for you: the recursive dependency installs, sanity checking, and everything. Overall, give it a shot and feel free to ask questions. It's a great OS. -tom On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 17:13:52 +0100, Philip Payne wrote: > > > > Hi, I'm quite new to the world of linux, and I are going to > > set up a linux > > server, and I'm looking aroud for a good linux system, and I > > find FreeBSD > > quite interesting. Does FreeBSD have a X-mode and is it easy > > to handle? > > Whats the difference between FreeBSD, Slackware and Redhat? > > > > Wow... what a can of worms. Most importantly FreeBSD is not Linux. Though > you'll find lots of crossover in terms of applications (e.g. XOrg, XFree86, > Gnome, KDE). > > You'll find lots of opinion on whether FreeBSD is better than Linux and vice > versa. > > My suggestion is you read up about each Linux distro & FreeBSD and decide > for you personally which is best. > > FreeBSD can run X. I use it as a desktop. The things that make me come back > to FreeBSD each time I try a different linux distro is: > 1) The make buildworld, installworld, buildkernel, installkernel > tools that make upgrading/updating your system a breeze. > 2) The ports system that makes installing applications and > dependencies a thoughtless stress-free task. > 3) The portupgrade sysutil that makes managing the upgrade of your > applications equally stress free. > > Laters, > Phil. > > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > -- ---------- Tom Cook mrpuffypants@gmail.com http://www.tomservo.net