Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 22:49:00 -0700 From: David Greenman <dg@root.com> To: "Frank Pawlak" <fpawlak@execpc.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: BSD vs Linux Message-ID: <199805130549.WAA04218@implode.root.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 13 May 1998 00:10:24 CDT." <199805130010240788.00CCE456@mailgate.execpc.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>What was it that attracted all the attention to what was in essence a make
>over of Minux, given that BSD was already in existence? It doesn't appear
>that there were or are restrictions in BSD on kernel and subsystem
>development or were there? It appears that BSD hackers as well as users
>are for the most part an older group in contrast to the Linux community.
>What was or is it that attracted the attention of the young hackers to
>Linux and not to BSD? That fundamental something that I am seeking is the
>key to the almost fanatical growth and creation of the illusion that Linux
>is the "cream" of the "open source" operating systems. Or, is it in fact
>not an illusion at all? Why did Linux, late to the game, blow by BSD like
>shit through a tin horn, and now is everybody's darling? Why is it that
>every time the question of why one or the other is the better OS comes up,
>even on the BSD NG, no definitive answer is given? Does all of this
>condense into just a matter of hackers tearing at each other's throats?
Linux started several years before 386BSD and nearly three years before
FreeBSD. Prior to 386BSD, there wasn't a freeware version of BSD available.
You had to pay $20K to AT&T for a 32V (?) source license. Linus started
Linux because he wanted to hack on Unix and couldn't ("because I was a
poor Finish college student"). If 386BSD had been released from Berkeley
just two years earlier, Linux would never have happend (according to Linus).
The timing here is important because the year-to-year growth of both
Linux and FreeBSD are very similar; the difference is that Linux got started
building their usership years before we did.
>I have read in an article listed on BSDI's web page that they have
>something like 7,000 customers running over 75,000 servers. We must have
Current estimates for FreeBSD's installed base is more than 5 times that
and may be as high as 10 times that figure.
-DG
David Greenman
Co-founder/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199805130549.WAA04218>