Date: 27 Jun 2000 10:17:21 +0100 From: Harry Newton <harry_newton@telinco.co.uk> To: "Dion E Viglione" <dionv@spots.ab.ca> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SOLARIS VS FreeBSD Message-ID: <867lbbzdni.fsf@chimaera.locus> In-Reply-To: "Dion E Viglione"'s message of "Tue, 27 Jun 2000 00:51:21 -0600" References: <000801bfe004$1b936a00$55ae73d1@ppp>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>>>>> "Dion" == Dion E Viglione <dionv@spots.ab.ca> writes:
Dion> Solaris 8 is now "open" and free. Sun told me that it is
Dion> the superior UNIX of all UNICES--to end all UNICES! (--to
Dion> that effect) And-- Solaris' kernel algorithm design is
Dion> suppose to be better than BSD's. I want to learn UNIX, but
Dion> computer scientists predict Linux will gradually fade away,
Dion> leaving BSD; but now Solaris is free--won't that "crush"
Dion> BSD? Won't everyone flock to Solaris? Should I now
Dion> uninstall my OpenBSD?
[...]
Hi there Dion,
This is one question to which you won't find an unbiased answer of
course; however I will put in my twopenny-worth ! The following points
occured to me:
- Solaris of course is now only free because of the efforts of the
Linux and *-BSD communitites. Sun are pushing it because they make
it and that's the only reason. It is a good operating system and
will do somethings better than other operating systems and other
things worse.
- It had a reputation as being more stable than Linux and running
better than Linux on more hefty machines.
- Solaris is System V based, the *-BSD's are of course BSD based, and
Linux has BSD like internals, and a System V programming
interface. Don't worry if you don't understand what this means,
they all share more similarities than differences.
- Sun used to have a reputation for shipping ancient software with
SunOs --- the classic example was the superannuated version of
sendmail. This may have now changed ( SunOs was the predecessor of
Solaris ). Of course, you'll probably find it a lot more difficult
to set up Solaris as the cd's don't include anywhere as much
software as you'll get on a Linux or BSD disk. You can get third
party disks to supplement Sun's disks, but its a lot more hassle.
- Won't Linux & BSD be crushed ? No way ! It seems to me it's the
other way round: Sun have released a free version of Solaris
because they are finding it difficult to sell. I have the
impression that the commercial Unices are standing still whilst
Linux and *BSD are catching up rapidly. They are of course better
in some respects, worse in others.
- I use FreeBSD. I moved from Debian Linux and have not regretted the
move. It's a very nice operating system. I would advise you to
stick with either Linux ( a good distribution though, not Red Hat !
) or one of BSD's. You will learn transferrable skills whatever
UNIX variety you use.
All the best, Harry
--
Harry Newton
harry_newton@telinco.co.uk
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?867lbbzdni.fsf>