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Date:      Thu, 04 Mar 1999 15:28:57 +0800
From:      Jarvis Cochrane <jarvis@guru.wow.aust.com>
To:        lbruno@cmp.com
Cc:        freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Technical questions about BSD
Message-ID:  <36DE3633.566B1C58@guru.wow.aust.com>
References:  <8525672A.00205CC7.00@NotesSMTP-01.cmp.com>

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Lee,

I'm far from the being the most knowledgeable person on this list, but perhaps I
can make a start on your questions...

lbruno@cmp.com wrote:

> I'm in the process of writing a feature story about open source Linux and BSD.
> I'm doing some comparisons between them and commercial NOSes such as Netware and
> NT. However, I have a few unresolved questions I need answered.

> First, I am
> curious to know how many thousands of lines of code make up the BSD kernel?

I can't help you with this. Perhaps another 'lister' will be able to?

> Second, what hardware platforms does it run on Intel, SPARC, Amiga,
> Alpha---etc.?

FreeBSD is available for the x86 PC architecture and the Alpha architecture. Work
is proceeding on a SPARC port, but I believe it is still in pre-alpha. I believe
the SPARC port has the at least tacet support of Sun.

> What scripting languages can be used with BSD-- such as TCL, C,
> C++, PERL, Java, Bourne, Korn ...etc.?

All of theses are supported (TCL, Perl and java tools are available in the ports
collection). The standard OS installation includes a pretty complete collection of
development tools - debuggers, assemblers, make, etc.

> What is the maximum number of processors
> that FreeBSD can run on a SMP box--- 16 or 32?

I can't help you with this. Perhaps another 'lister' will be able to?

> What are some basic differences
> between BSD and Linux?

Linux is really only the kernel written by Linuws Torvalds. Each of the Linux
distributions 'wrap' their own set of utilities and applications around the kernel,
resulting in numerous slightly different environments.

FreeBSD has a single distribution for each release.

The Linux development model is very 'loose' and decentralised.

The BSD development model is more centralised and changes to the distribution are
carefully controlled.

The Linux kernel is a 'unix work-alike', (loosely) based on the 'Minix' system
written by AS Tanenbaum.

FreeBSD is a direct lineal descendent of BSD unix, with all of the AT&T code
removed.

Linux distributions tend to lean more towards the SYSV style of Unix.

FreeBSD is a BSD style unix!

Linux has a much greater slab of the 'mindshare' then FreeBSD, and hence there is
more commercial support.

FreeBSD, however, provides much better stability and performance, especially under
heavy loads. FreeBSD will run most (~99%) of Linux binaries.


> What directories does an administrator working with
> FreeBSD have an option of using--- NIS from Sun, DNS, X.500--others?

NIS and DNS are standard in the distribution. My own experience is that these
implementation work very well.

I believe there is an LDAP server available, but I don't know about X.500.

> What is
> the maximum file size that can run on a FreeBSD operating system-- 64 Mbytes?

I can't help you with this. Perhaps another 'lister' will be able to?

Um. BSD uses the Berkely FFS, so I guess the maximum file size is whatever the FFS
supports.

> Is
> clustering supported on FreeBSD?

There is a project to use FreeBSD as a platform for high performance file and
compute servers. See under 'projects' on the FreeBSD web site (www.freebsd.org).

> What is the minimum footprint of hard disk
> memory that BSD can run on?

PicoBSD will boot from a floppy disk. This distribution is sufficient to allow the
user to use PPP and telnet. PicoBSD is designed to be used as platform for
dedicated systems such as routers or firewalls.

I have run a complete and very useful FreeBSD system on a Toshiba laptop with a 200
Mbyte hard drive. Perhaps it was even smaller than that - I forget exactly!

> Can you point out any other significant differences
> between FreeBSD and other versions of BSD, such as OpenBSD and NetBSD?

NetBSD's specialty is running the same distribution on 'every machine under the
sun.'

OpenBSD is similar to NetBSD, but really, really security conscious.

FreeBSD is optimised for the x86 architecture.

> Similarly, can you point out any differences between FreeBSD and Linux---as well
> as NT and Netwre?

Try this link as a starting place.

 http://www.cdrom.com/~rab/bsd_chart.html

> Hope this isn't too much to ask...the trouble is I couldn't
> locate the info in any other place.

I hope this is at least a start for you.

Have you tried looking through the www.freebsd.org site?  I've always found this to
be a very useful source of information.

Hope this helps,

Jarvis



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