From owner-freebsd-questions Tue May 23 5:53: 5 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mail1.panix.com (mail1.panix.com [166.84.0.212]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D442E37B89E for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 05:52:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tomg@mailhost.nrnet.org) Received: from mailhost.nrnet.org (mailhost.nrnet.org [166.84.192.39]) by mail1.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 505BC30F50; Tue, 23 May 2000 08:52:39 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost (tomg@localhost) by mailhost.nrnet.org (8.8.7/8.8.4) with SMTP id IAA17292; Tue, 23 May 2000 08:53:18 -0400 Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 08:53:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Thomas Good To: Brennan W Stehling Cc: y u r i k , freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: newbie needs advice In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, 22 May 2000, Brennan W Stehling wrote: > After about a years experience with FreeBSD the Linux movement was > swelling and talk of hardware vendors jumping on the bandwagon encouraged > me to look at Linux. I installed SuSE, Redhat and Caldera. I tried each > one for a while but found that these more commercial products were not as > helpful as the less commercial FreeBSD. When I wanted to do an update for > my Caldera distro, I was only aware of one ftp server where I could get > RPM update files. I would run the updates and frequently the ftp server > would go offline and make it hard for me to continue with my updates. > > I am not sure if Caldera is trying to encourage me to go get a new CD > each time I upgrade my system, and I do not care. Their service was > horrible and it was largely the same with SuSE. Redhat I simply had > problems with in general and did not give much time to it. Brennan, You might want to try slackware. It's author (Pat Volkerding) refuses to 'dumb down' the OS to make it accessible to people who don't really want a unix box to begin with... Anyway, like FBSD it is a Walnut Creek product. In fact the FBSD developers are on speaking terms with Pat or so I'm told. ;-) Slackware is streamlined and smart. RedHat and its derivatives are cute. A little too cute. I tried slackware when I wanted unix at home and couldn't afford UnixWare (awhile back). Since then I've tried all the flavours. I still like slack but I also use FBSD. It is very reminiscent of UnixWare. Great filesystem and an AT&T Unix feel to it. I'd like to see FBSD modernise some of its feel - like some of the device names. They are unwieldy and could be simplified. I'd like to see Linux get a real filesystem. Anyway, both slackware and FBSD have strengths and weaknesses and I like both. Bottom line: Walnut Creek is simply the best. Therefore I have subs to both of their banner products. And I run both on production boxes. I am also a fan of Tim O'Reilly as are you...and waiting for the inevitable slew of FBSD books. That would really be helpful. The linux v. fbsd thing is getting rather stale. It was silly to begin with, I mean, why spend time arguing about the OS when you could argue about things like whether perl is better than python? (Obviously this is rhetorical! Perl is clearly better. ;-) TFIC here! Cheers, Tom ------- North Richmond Community Mental Health Center ------- Thomas Good MIS Coordinator Vital Signs: tomg@ { admin | q8 } .nrnet.org Phone: 718-354-5528 Fax: 718-354-5056 /* Member: Computer Professionals For Social Responsibility */ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message