From owner-freebsd-doc Fri May 17 18:00:54 1996 Return-Path: owner-doc Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id SAA07043 for doc-outgoing; Fri, 17 May 1996 18:00:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from palmer.demon.co.uk (palmer.demon.co.uk [158.152.50.150]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id SAA07032; Fri, 17 May 1996 18:00:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: from palmer.demon.co.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by palmer.demon.co.uk (sendmail/PALMER-1) with ESMTP id XAA12408; Fri, 17 May 1996 23:00:02 +0100 (BST) To: Francisco Reyes cc: FreeBSD doc Mailing list , FreeBSD FAQ Team From: "Gary Palmer" Subject: Re: Suggestion: Mention difference to Linux and Netbsd In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 17 May 1996 01:08:56 EDT." <199605170510.FAA246757@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net> Date: Fri, 17 May 1996 23:00:01 +0100 Message-ID: <12405.832370401@palmer.demon.co.uk> Sender: owner-doc@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Francisco Reyes wrote in message ID <199605170510.FAA246757@pop01.ny.us.ibm.net>: > I could not find neither in the FAQ or the handbook a basic > comparison of FreeBSD with Linux or Netbsd. (This is MY opinion on the subject. I am on the core team, but not necessarily expressing core opinions in this matter) This is something that I would prefer to keep OUT of official documentation from the project. I do NOT mind sticking in a reference saying ``If you want a comparison of the 3 OS's, look at this persons WWW pages (or these peoples pages). Note that these are not the opinions of the FreeBSD Project''. Doing anything (even ``objective'' comparisons) like this in documentation from the Project will lead to bad feelings between us and the other 2 ``camps'', as what we see as ``objective'', they could VERY easily take as an insult. The fact that in your example you had 12 lines ``pushing'' FreeBSD, 3 lines for Linux and 2 for NetBSD could VERY easily be taken for being a biased view. Even if we give them equal coverage, people will still take slight from the fact that we are even MAKING such comparisons, whether they be an FAQ or not. The down side is, of course, that we keep getting these questions, and that maybe some of the other ``camps'' aren't quite as, err, umm, ``respectful'' of the rest as they could be and do just that ... publish comparisons. I would prefer not seeing something ``published'' which could be taken as ``officially sanctioned'' by the FreeBSD Project, as there is MORE THAN enough tension between the camps as it is (even if it doesn't always show on the surface). Speaking as someone who has seen enough e-mail on this subject to last him the rest of his life (i.e. comparing the free OS's), (and also some behind-the-scenes stuff,) I don't want to add another reason to start a religious war in a mail list or newsgroup, or another obstacle to any future co-operation between our respective groups. Yours Gary -- Gary Palmer FreeBSD Core Team Member FreeBSD: Turning PC's into workstations. See http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/ for info