Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 20:08:53 -0400 From: Chris Browning <brownicm@prokyon.com> To: Victoria Welch <vikki@oz.net> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Hello and FYI: Message-ID: <39934415.16DA3E28@prokyon.com> References: <39932BA6.CECA70B9@oz.net>
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Victoria Welch wrote: > > Hi, > > I've been researching going from linux to BSD. I spent the past two > days reading up on it and trying to get some information on various > distributions. Very sad to say that the IRC channels for any form of > BSD are even less useful than the linux channels (hard to imagine, I > know :). > > Some places have 10+ nicks camped out in the channel, but never > respond. Sigh. In terms of advocacy or help they are pretty > discouraging, taking them off your faq might do you more good than > listing them. I've tried every IRC network that comes with Pirch (uggy > whinedoz app for IRC) and I can only write that time off as wasted :(. > If one is going to hang out on a channel then, IMO, they should > participate to some small degree... > > Still haven't given up on BSD and the the FreeBSD is starting to look > like the best of the lot. Someone gave me an OpenBSD ROM and that > seemed pretty dark ages stuff. Good security is cool and important but > it sure seems to be limited as to what it will run. Oh well, much to > learn :-). > > Hope this helps in some way! > > Take care, Vikki. > -- > Victoria Welch, WV9K, DoD#-13, SysAdmin SeaStar.org, vikki.oz.net > "Walking on water and developing software to specification are > easy as long as both are frozen" - Edward V. Berard. > Do not unto others, that which you would not have others do unto you. > Now here's an invitation to a flamefest. The Linux crowd does some things well. Installs tend to be easier for the average user. There's been more work on the user interface. Having tried Linux a year ago after 3+ years of learning FreeBSD first, I was impressed with how easy some things were, but then I had some idea of the basics from BSD. But I still haven't found a Linux mailing list as helpful as this one. I would forget about getting help in IRC. The Linux thing seems to be spread all over the map, different distros going in different directions, etc. FreeBSD is tightly focused and the control from the top points everyone in the same general direction. If I ask a good question on a FreeBSD list, I get a good answer (or 2 or 3) from folks directly involved in developing the OS. FreeBSD will run Linux binaries with the Linux emulation software, so there shouldn't be any more limitations with FreeBSD than with Linux. Many swear that they run faster that way than on native Linux. On security, having built a FreeBSD firewall for my home LAN and DSL connection, and then seen the folks on a couple of Linux mailing lists wrestling with ipchains, I'm glad I never had to go *there*. The BSD config files are a lot less Byzantine than that SysV rc.d stuff in Linux and Solaris. As for dark ages, I don't know about OpenBSD, but if you think FreeBSD 4.0 is primitive, you shoulda seen 2.0.5. Forget IRC for support. It's a sore point on this list, too. I never go there. Get a copy of FreeBSD, get on this list and maybe the newbies list. You sound like you're perfectly capable of asking intelligent questions after doing your own research; you shouldn't have any problem getting all the support you need right here. Hope you join us. It's Berkeley code with a twenty-year pedigree and sometimes your questions get answered by the big dogs. Chris Browning brownicm@prokyon.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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