Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 12:41:36 +0200 From: Johann Visagie <wjv@cityip.co.za> To: Library Rat <grobt@erols.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Newbie Question Message-ID: <19981208124136.C3192@cityip.co.za> In-Reply-To: <000701be2232$115a6ac0$115faccf@grobt>; from Library Rat on Mon, Dec 07, 1998 at 05:36:39PM -0500 References: <000701be2232$115a6ac0$115faccf@grobt>
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Hi Bob, On Mon, 07 Dec 1998 at 17:36 SAST, Library Rat wrote: > > Hi! I'm new to the whole OSS scene and a bit confused. I've read a lot > about OSS in general lately and have seen Linux and FreeBSD mentioned a > lot. I'm going to give OSS a try. Great so far. :-) > But, before I do, I have to get clear > what's what. Are FreeBSD and Linux the same; i.e., are they merely > different "flavors" of Linux much as Red Hat and Debian are different > flavors? As you can imagine, we answer questions like this rather often around here. One day I'm going to write a thorough answer and put it on the Web somewhere, so I can just point people at it. :-) Briefly: FreeBSD is a close descendant of the version of Unix developed at UC Berkeley, which in turn is one of the two major strains of Unix upon which many commercial and almost all academic versions of the operating system are based. FreeBSD is therefore as much a "real Unix" as anything (and far more so than most). Linux is a Unix-like operating system that was developed from scratch by Linus Torvalds. Note that Linux, per se, is *only* an operating system kernel. You have to add a whole lot of utilities and so forth to make it a full operating system. Hence all the Linux "distributions" (RedHat, Slackware, etc.), which are not really different flavours of Unix as such. FreeBSD, on the other hand, is still distributed as a fully functional operating system out of the box. > Will applications for FreeBSD also run w/o modification under Red > Hat/Debian Linux? The wide availability of Unix at academic institutions during the 70's and 80's have led to the situation where we have many different flavours of the OS. These two facts, combined, have led to a culture where software is mostly distributed in source code form (instead of the binaries you might be used to on PC's or Macs). This was, indeed, the basis for what is now called by the very politically correct term "open source". So yes, since apps are spread in source form, you can simply compile them (mutatis mudandis) on whichever flavour of Unix you'd like to use. In the perfect world, that is. In practice, some apps can be very closely linked to one particular flavour of Unix, and may not run well on others. And even in the Unix world commercial apps are spread only in binary form. Fortunately, FreeBSD has very advanced Linux emulation in order to run these binaries, should it be necessary. But for the most part, everything you would probably want to run on FreeBSD has already been ported to the OS. > Your assistance in getting clear about OSS in general and Linux and FreeBSD > in particular would be greatly appreciated. TIA! My opinion is that Linux is aiming more and more for the (power user's) desktop. FreeBSD, on the other hand, remains with its sights set on the server room. This does not mean that one cannot take the other's place in a pinch... just that each has its own ideal area of application. Good luck with your quest. :-) -- Johann Johann Visagie | wjv@CityIP.co.za | Tel: +27 21 419-7878 | ICQ: 20645559 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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