From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Nov 28 8:55:58 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from sand3.global.net.uk (sand3.global.net.uk [195.147.246.249]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A3B7037B416 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2001 08:55:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from adamantite.global.net.uk ([194.126.80.200] helo=globalnet.co.uk) by sand3.global.net.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.22 #1) id 1697zm-00039C-00 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Wed, 28 Nov 2001 16:55:38 +0000 Message-ID: <3C05179C.97A65420@globalnet.co.uk> Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 16:58:04 +0000 From: John Ekins Reply-To: jre@globalnet.co.uk X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 4.4-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: en-GB, en MIME-Version: 1.0 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd as a desktop ? References: <006201c17815$d8960040$fd6e34c6@mlevy><86667vm1gd.fsf@pan.ehsrealtime.com><00da01c1781b$9b9f4100$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <86667vkk98.fsf@pan.ehsrealtime.com> <000401c1782a$730a29d0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Anthony Atkielski wrote: > > Your overall impressions of FreeBSD vs. Linux match mine, even though I have not > bothered with Linux. So your opinion, technical or otherwise on comparisons between FreeBSD and Linux is not worth anything. > Linux has been the target of enormous marketing and media > hype, Yes it has. > but even a casual glance at the OS from a technical standpoint Happily I don't tend to make decisions based on casual glances. > makes one > wonder why anyone would choose it over the other free versions of UNIX that are > available. > The hype is the one and only reason for the success of the OS, IMO, > and I wonder whether it will survive over the long term. We've been using it here for several years, well before it was being hyped. > > Mainly it comes down to maturity. FreeBSD works > > for me in the production world. We had _A LOT_ of > > problems with Linux systems from 2.2.15 onwards > > due to broken VM subsystems. The 2.4 kernel had > > been very problematic for us due to things like > > software raid problems in 2.4.0. This suggests sticking to reliable versions unless you need to upgrade, and if you do to test thoroughly. > This confirms my own intuition with respect to Linux. Intuition counts for nothing. > That has been exactly my impression since the beginning. Yes, lots more impression but no experience. > It's ideal for people > who like to tinker with the OS without ever doing any productive work, Hmm, we have nearly two hundred Linux machines in service. We're a commercial company so I guess they're not toy boxes. > and > certainly without ever having a need for high-uptime production use. Some of our uptimes have wrapped past 497 days... > It also > appeals to people who had never heard the word "UNIX" prior to encountering some > of the hype around Linux. Well it's a good introduction to "Unix" in general if you can't get a real "Unix". > Since I don't like to tinker with an OS (particularly just to get it to work), > and since I knew what UNIX was several decades ago, Linux seems to me like a > useless toy that appeals to the clueless. More of the words "seems"... Why don't you go and get some experience? > > Oh, and just in case anyone thinks I'm biased, > > I attained my RHCE as an exam only candidate. > > Certifications are just a gravy train for vendors, IMO and IMX. It seems > particularly odd to award certifications on an operating system that doesn't > seem to be stable for more than a few days at a time. You have no experience of this, Anthony, as you keep telling us... It just "seems" like that to you. Cheers, John. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message