Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 09:21:11 -0500 (CDT) From: john goerzen <jgoerzen@cs.twsu.edu> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Ideas on FreeBSD Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.960716090854.10703A-100000@emcity>
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NOTE: please CC a copy of replie to me via e-mail (jgoerzen@cs.twsu.edu or jgoerzen@complete.org) as I am no longer subscribed to this list. Let me give a bit of background info first. I have been using FreeBSD on my computer since last November, when I switched to it from OS/2. I had really enjoyed the OS, but there was one problem, and it seemed to get bigger as I went along: there was no good way to run DOS programs except by actually booting DOS. Put another way, there was no decent DOS emulation in FreeBSD. I am the first to agree that there is a lot of quality Unix software out there. But the fact is that there are some DOS programs that just don't have Unix equivolents, and this is what has caused me to turn to Linux. A few weeks ago, I put Debian 1.1 (Linux kernel 2.0.0) on my system. The thing I miss most about FreeBSD is that it has very few bugs, when compared to Linux. (Except in the PPP area, esp. demand dialing) Linux has some bugs esp. with the display system. But looking at Debian, I see a much better package system that FreeBSD has. It is easier to use, and has more power. The kernel compilation was particularly nice. (It has a nice "dialog" type of configuration, with online help, rather than making you generate your config file by hand like in FreeBSD). Also, the Debian system allows PPP install, which FreeBSD does too. But Debian is much more resistant to problems (I unfortunately use an ISP that is not exactly reliable) Debian's install program is very nice. It will automatically configure a lot of stuff for you, and some packages even come with a nice script to prompt you for the info it needs to configure it. I have been using FreeBSD and waiting for DOS emulation to come out. I remember the excitement when FreeBSD was supposed to get BSDI's DOS emulator. And FreeBSD got it. But what happened? Nobody actually ported it to FreeBSD! It's just sitting there. (Before somebody tells me to "port it yourself", I have neither the expertise nor the computer to do that) So why am I writing this? I am trying to provide some constructive criticism concerning FreeBSD. I hope that by pointing out some flaws in FreeBSD, they can be fixed, and will benefit everyone. I also wanted to let people know why I left the FreeBSD camp, so that perhaps those specific problems can be fixed so others don't leave as well. I believe that FreeBSD is a very nice operating system, probably the most stable OS I've ever used, but, IMHO, it sacrifices too much to attain that level. For instance, it would seem to me that it wouldn't be too hard to make certain things be optional in the kernel config. If somebody wants the most stable FreeBSD they can get, they leave some things out. Otherwise, they can get some other features like DOS emulation, etc. Best regards, John Goerzen
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