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Date:      Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:42:03 -0700
From:      Garrett Cooper <yanegomi@gmail.com>
To:        Martin Sugioarto <martin@sugioarto.com>
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Chris Brennan <xaero@xaerolimit.net>
Subject:   Re: http://www.freebsd.org/marketing/os-comparison.html
Message-ID:  <CAGH67wTHv1kz5QW-%2B1H74Ewncw31QkqUsGvfOeuVXoMLkupGrQ@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20110831140729.24130ea0@zelda.sugioarto.com>
References:  <4E5941D6.9090106@zedat.fu-berlin.de> <4E5BEF65.2010502@gmail.com> <4E5CAD9E.6050903@rktmb.org> <4E5CB49F.50806@zedat.fu-berlin.de> <4E5CBC14.4080908@rktmb.org> <4E5CF1ED.2030504@zedat.fu-berlin.de> <4E5CF417.5080503@rktmb.org> <4E5D031E.2000602@xaerolimit.net> <20110831140729.24130ea0@zelda.sugioarto.com>

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On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:07 AM, Martin Sugioarto <martin@sugioarto.com> wrote:
> Am Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:34:54 -0400
> schrieb Chris Brennan <xaero@xaerolimit.net>:

...

> You should compare what you can *DO* better with FreeBSD. And one thing
> that comes instantly into my mind is the FreeBSD port collection (for
> my part). I've tried various Linux distributions for years and there is
> no such thing as FreeBSD ports in Linux world (portage comes close, but
> it lacks integrity sometimes).

Sadly, recent versions of portage actually have exceeded ports in
terms of ease of use and non-breakage. I would have agreed with you
3-4 years ago, but the status quo has changed.

That being said, even though upgrades work 99% of the time without
fault in Gentoo portage, it's still way too complicated of a system
for most users to work with on a day to day basis.

> And that's why after using other OSes, I
> always arrived back on FreeBSD. The effort which is going into ports is
> amazing and (for me) the most important part of the OS. FreeBSD is one
> of few systems where you can have configurable up-to-date applications
> and this is what I need. And this is mostly the reason why I use
> FreeBSD.

Most people wouldn't necessarily agree because apart from the breadth
of packages in ports, the infrastructure needs a serious overhaul to
be used by less seasoned Unix folks.

> I suggest that you look at the applications of FreeBSD in the world.
> How people use it and why the decided to use it. I heard many people
> prefer FreeBSD on web servers (yeah, Netcraft also says so). But why?
>
> You tell me that FreeBSD has the best IPv6 implementation? So what?!
> Please tell me what you do with it, when it's "so great".
>
> Jails are nice, yes! There are surely scenarios where jails are needed
> above every other concept. Instead of telling people about "lightweight
> virtualisation"... tell them what others do with it.
>
> Many people are too dumb to understand technical or abstract concepts.

I don't think it's that users are dumb -- just uneducated. Many people
lack the time or interest to try out new OSes that don't just work
(tm) out of the box.

> They need examples to understand the features.

Agreed.

Thanks!
-Garrett



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