From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Dec 7 13:25:55 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from pop.idx.com.au (pop.idx.com.au [203.14.30.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C962F14E91 for ; Tue, 7 Dec 1999 13:25:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dannyh@idx.com.au) Received: from psych (idxwc05-231.idx.com.au [203.166.0.231]) by pop.idx.com.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id IAA14255; Wed, 8 Dec 1999 08:24:22 +1100 Message-Id: <3.0.32.19991208082541.006c6978@idx.com.au> X-Sender: dannyh@idx.com.au X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0 (32) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 08:25:43 +1100 To: "Christopher S. Weimann" , wonko@entropy.tmok.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG From: Danny Subject: Re: Why is FreeBSD better than Linux? Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I clearly aggree with you pkg_add whatever.tgz is so much better than rpm -ivh whatever.rpm. Because pkg_add gets all the dependency. /stand/sysinstall is so much better to use than linuxconf (which does sod all) The list goes on. At 03:28 7/12/99 -0500, Christopher S. Weimann wrote: >On Mon, Dec 06, 1999 at 11:09:43AM -0500, Brian Hechinger wrote: >> ok. long time Linux user. found FreeBSD. won't touch Linux with a 10-foot >> pole anymore these days. i know it's better, i just don't know exactly why. >> i've used it and i like it more than i like linux is probably the answer. >> > >Start with why you won't touch Linux with a ten foot pole but you >are willing to touch FreeBSD. > > > >I personally run BSD on my servers and Linux on a few desktops. I am >getting ready to get rid of Linux and quite frankly don't want to touch >it with a ten foot pole myself anymore. > >Just two days ago I had to recompile a Linux kernel to add support >for a new device. This in itself isn't a problem since I would >probobly have to do the same in FreeBSD but the process in Linux >was a horror. I suppose it is possible that my problems with Linux >stem from the fact the I "grew up" on BSD but I really think that >the BSD systems just have it together better than Linux. > >My first mistake with building a Linux kernel was making it to big. >I don't really know why it matters but it does. Next I had to deal >with the conflicting documentation for building the kernel, which >both seemed to conflict with the reality. I eventually managed to >get the kernel in the right place and coaxed lilo into using it. >Now I rebooted and was greeted with "Out of memory System halted" >There doesn't seem to be any way of selecting your old kernel >from the boot prompt so I decided to download the "rescue" disk >from RedHat ( well actually from cdrom.com, RedHat server was >too busy ) I eventually discovered that 6.1 apparently doesn't >have a rescue disk so I picked up the 6.0 disks rebooted my >system and put my old kernel back in place ( using the lilo >command on my hard drive since it doesn't seem to be on the >rescue disk for some reason ) > >Next I went back to kernel configuration and disabled everything >that I could find that I didn't think I needed and repeated the >process ( from my own pseudo documentation ) and it started up >right. Now I was faced with the problem that the driver for the >device didn't seem to recognize the device. I found a howto that >told me that I needed to set some options but it didn't tell me >how to go about setting them. Also it seems that not all the >drivers use the same syntax for options, one might use io=0x300 >and another might use base=0x300. I added the appropriate >options to the modules.conf but upon reboot they seemed to be >ignored. I tried putting in at the boot prompt but they were >also ignored. > >I finally looked at the source for the driver and found that it >can't be passed options unless it is compiled as a module separate >from the kernel. So here we go again rebuilding a the kernel. Success >finally. It only took me a day and a half! > >I have had on three occasions needed to rebuild my Linux ( RedHat ) >kernel. Two of those occasions resulted in a non functional system >and I had to fall back to booting from the rescue set of floppies. >Thank god it was a desktop and not a server. In FreeBSD and BSDi >I have rebuilt the kernel dozens of times and have only had a problem >once but was able to pick my old kernel from the boot prompt. > >My main complaint about Linux is documentation. There is loads of >documentation for Linux and none of it seems very useful. It either >contradicts other documentation or it is a Howto that is horribly out >of date. I also can't seem to find a mailing list archive anywhere >but there might be one. RedHat's site doens't seem to make it easy >to find anything. I stumbled onto the redhat-install mailing list >by accident but I still haven't found an archive. > >If I have a problem with FreeBSD the answer is either in the handbook >or in the mailing list archives. I have never needed to look at source >except out of curiosity. > >Keeping a FreeBSD system up to date is a piece of cake with cvsup. >I am quite frankly am still not quite sure what the appropriate way >of keeping a Linux system up to date is short of buying another CD. > >Keeping packages/ports up to date is FAR easier with for me with >FreeBSD. Dependancies are handled for me. I had less trouble >getting Gnome working under FreeBSD that I did under Linux! I just >went into the appropriate ports directory and ran make. In Linux >I had to download a dozen or so RPM files that didn't want to install >because replacing the old libraries would break dependancies for other >applications so I had to use the --force option ( advice which I found >after quite some time searching the web rather than a few minutes >searching a mailing list archive ). > >I don't care what anybody says the BSD kernel config file is a thing >of beauty compared Linux's process. > >All in all Linux seems to me like a hodge podge of software that isn't >quite done yet and FreeBSD seems like a professionally put together >complete package. > >I'd much rather maintain any BSD. > > > > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message