Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 09:48:14 -0600 From: Christopher Farley <chris@northernbrewer.com> To: Ben <ben@cahostnet.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Linux (More Questions!) Message-ID: <20010312094812.F78116@northernbrewer.com> In-Reply-To: <02c401c0ab03$fd58ca00$6102a00a@nhqadmin17>; from ben@cahostnet.com on Mon, Mar 12, 2001 at 09:51:57AM -0500 References: <02c401c0ab03$fd58ca00$6102a00a@nhqadmin17>
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Ben (ben@cahostnet.com) wrote: > These are my requirements for my desktop. First of all let me say > that this will be used for desktop purposes so It's important the > operating system of choice is user friendly and supports the desktop > hardware well, such as cd burners, sound cards and others. Here they > are: > > Large hardware support Because of its larger user base, Linux has better hardware support, however FreeBSD's hardware support may be sufficient for your needs. You specifically mentioned cd burners and sound cards. My experience is this: on FreeBSD you will be better off with SCSI cd drives, particularly if you want to do disk-at-once copying. Most sound cards are supported, however there has been occasional griping about FreeBSD's sound card support, particularly regarding recording audio. > Large application support Everything I have ever desired or needed has been available in the ports collection. FreeBSD's linux binary compatibility is excellent. > Easy configuration and installation of OS and apps I think there is a big difference here. When I've talked to Linux users, sometimes it seems like they are not even using a Unix-like operating system. I believe this is because Linux's 'user friendly' configuration utilities obscure them from the realities of managing their system. I think you can configure some Linux-distros without ever using a text-editor, for example. Linux may be more 'user friendly' in this regard, however you will probably find vast differences depending on the particular distro. The FreeBSD learning curve is probably higher, but the effort you spend learning will be applicable universally. > FTP installs if possible FreeBSD does this better than any OS I have installed. If your idea of an FTP install is getting the ISO CD image, then Linux has this capability, as well. Debian has a true FTP install, but Debian's installation program is notoriously unfriendly. > Ports collections for easy upgrades and installations The FreeBSD ports collection doesn't manage upgrades very well, compared to Debian's apt-get mechanism. However, Linux's lack of a 'make world'-type mechanism to upgrade the operating system has always troubled me. I really like the idea that on FreeBSD, you can sync your source tree and bring your OS up-to date, even between major releases. Linux upgrades usually require waiting for the latest release. Between releases, you may need to upgrade specific binary files if there is a security problem. -- Christopher Farley www.northernbrewer.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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