Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 14:56:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Ken McGlothlen <mcglk@serv.net> To: "Jeremy Domingue" <jer@hughes.net>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Disgruntled Linux User... questions about FreeBSD Message-ID: <199807132156.OAA22718@ralf.serv.net>
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jer@hughes.net (Jeremy Domingue) writes: | | 1) First and foremost, I am wondering what issues I will face being a user | very accustomed to linux. I know there will be differences between linux and | FreeBSD, but can anyone outline some of the major ones? The big difference is this: Linux is an operating system for PC hardware that closely emulates Unix. FreeBSD *is* Unix, optimized for PC hardware. As a result, you're going to have a lot more consistency and stability using FreeBSD. For example, here's the result of my "uptime" command: 2:51PM up 151 days, 4:45, 4 users, load averages: 1.25, 1.04, 1.14 | 2) Is there a way I can install FreeBSD without losing all of the stuff on | the server right now such as user files, web pages, programs, etc? And | possibly keep linux on there somewhere in case I ever decide to go back? Unfortunately, you're probably better off backing up the server, then doing whatever repartitioning you need to, and then restoring. Fortunately, I believe the dump formats are compatible between Linux and FreeBSD. | 3) Is anyone using SMP on FreeBSD with an Adaptec 7880 on-board SCSI | controller? Linux people keep telling me that this is not a good | configuration for Linux... how about for FreeBSD? Well, in fact, freebsd.org is running one of those; paddock is a 200MHz Pentium Pro with 32MB RAM, an AHC 7880 on-board SCSI controller, a 9GB SCSI WIDE drive, and an on-board Intel EtherExpress Pro 10/100B. | 4) I know that the current build of FreeBSD is listed as development and | should not be used in a mission critical environment, however, what are | people's experiences with it so far? If it seems to be fairly stable, I would | be willing to give it a shot... I really need the SMP support. I can't provide enlightenment on this one; I've been wary of using 3.x yet. There are a bunch of people that are pretty happy with it, but it is going to lend some instability to your machine. | 5) Are there any other problems or issues I may face with my hardware | configuration (listed below)? | | Gateway (formerly ALR) NS-7000 Server | Dual PII 266mhz | 512mb EDO ECC SDRAM (all from the same lot, same manufacturer) | Adaptec 7880 on-board SCSI controller | 3Com 10/100 Ethernet Card | 2-4.1gb IBM SCSI hard drives That's going to be a lovely machine. Getting the kernel configured properly may provide a challenge, but I think you'll handle it just fine. ---Ken To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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