From owner-freebsd-questions Sat Jul 1 15: 4:25 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from earth.wnm.net (earth.wnm.net [208.246.240.243]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B20237B920 for ; Sat, 1 Jul 2000 15:04:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from alex@wnm.net) Received: from localhost (alex@localhost) by earth.wnm.net (8.11.0.Beta3/8.11.0.Beta1) with ESMTP id e61M85f15521; Sat, 1 Jul 2000 17:08:05 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sat, 1 Jul 2000 17:08:05 -0500 (CDT) From: Alex Charalabidis To: SoftGuitar@aol.com Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Why BSD for my company ? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 1 Jul 2000 SoftGuitar@aol.com wrote: > I am new to Unix but am taking training usiing a SCO system for my class. > What advantage would I have using FreeBSD over getting a SCO or Solaris > system for my little growing business. Can I network with it and does it have > any intallation restrictions like SCO does (SCO will not install properly > with a graphics accelerator or attached sound card)........ No such nonsense with FreeBSD. You actually have to compile sound support into the kernel yourself if you want to use a sound card, and it'll work perfectly, out of the box with your surplus antique VGA cards. It'll install fine on a standard hardware configuration so there's no problem unless you happen to have really oddball hardware on your machine. At any rate, the supported hardware list is in the handbook. As for networking, this is generally regarded as one of its strong points and it compares well to pretty much every O/S on the market. What's more, it's free (as in beer) if you download it, although you're encouraged to contribute by purchasing a CD. Your first advantage is low (or zero) cost of acquisition. Then there's ease of installation and, once you come to terms with Unix and FreeBSD basics, comparatively painless maintenance and a wide selection of easily installed and current software packages. All that on top of a highly reliable and stable network operating system. How can you say no? :) > Well, let me know as I am about to either purchase a new computer system > to accommodate SCO Unix or maybe use the system I have now (AMD K-6 II- 300) > and install Free BSD. > Your K6-2 will do fine. FreeBSD will make the best of it, assuming the hardware's altogether sufficient for the tasks you plan on using it for. -ac -- ============================================================== Alex Charalabidis (AC8139) 5050 Poplar Ave, Ste 170 Systems Administrator Memphis, TN 38157 WebNet Memphis (901) 432 6000 Author, The Book of IRC http://www.bookofirc.com/ ============================================================== To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message