From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Sep 6 16:33:22 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from scientia.demon.co.uk (scientia.demon.co.uk [212.228.14.13]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C10E714EA6 for ; Mon, 6 Sep 1999 16:33:11 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ben@scientia.demon.co.uk) Received: from lithium.scientia.demon.co.uk ([192.168.0.3] ident=exim) by scientia.demon.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.032 #1) id 11O6bH-0006Lp-00; Mon, 06 Sep 1999 22:46:55 +0100 Received: (from ben) by lithium.scientia.demon.co.uk (Exim 3.032 #1) id 11O6bG-0004m8-00; Mon, 06 Sep 1999 22:46:54 +0100 Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 22:46:53 +0100 From: Ben Smithurst To: Chuck Robey Cc: FreeBSD-chat@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Linux install Message-ID: <19990906224653.B18294@lithium.scientia.demon.co.uk> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.95.6i In-Reply-To: Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Chuck Robey wrote: > I just had to go help a friend install a Linux system. He's a true > newbie, and it doesn't look like he's headed towards programming, so > when I couldn't talk him out of leaving Windows (which he's pretty good > at), I figured Linux is probably more friendly, and shoved him towards > RedHat. I didn't want him complining that I had him on what I think of > as a programmer's system (FreeBSD, of course). > > Heck with that, it's the last time I try Linux. Their install is > nowhere near as easy as FreeBSD's, at least to him and I. From what I > can tell, they don't even have usermode ppp at all, and getting their > kernel mode ppp working hasn't been fun. No arguments about any of that from here... I recently built a new computer here, and since a friend of mine uses Linux (he's not all bad though -- I don't think he uses emacs), I figured I'd borrow his CDs and try out Linux. (SuSE, I don't know what version of SuSE or of the Linux kernel, at least with FreeBSD you know that version 3.2 is 3.2 is 3.2, and you don't have to put up with different versions for the distribution and the kernel.) Anyway, the install was terrible. Loads of stuff I had *no* interest in selected by default (like KDE and loads of other crappy window managers), which FreeBSD quite rightly puts in ports. Oh, it refused to have a swap partition bigger than 128MB as well, for some reason. Other stuff annoyed me. In FreeBSD, I normally make my root filesystem about 32MB, and give most of the rest of the disk to /usr, and then a reasonable amount of swap. It turned out 32MB wasn't enough for the root filesystem in Linux... *sigh* They probably put emacs and all their bloated crappy window manglers in /bin or something. Little niggling things as well, like needing three CDs for a "base" system, when you can get a FreeBSD base system from just CD1. Needless to say, the machine in question is happily running FreeBSD-stable now, and I hope I never have to use Linux in any shape or form again. -- Ben Smithurst | PGP: 0x99392F7D ben@scientia.demon.co.uk | key available from keyservers and | ben+pgp@scientia.demon.co.uk To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message