Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 17:46:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Jason Victor <sloppyj123@yahoo.com> To: Andrew Hesford <ajh3@chmod.ath.cx> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Should I switch? [was Re: A novel idea....] Message-ID: <20010405004601.17621.qmail@web4302.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20010404160203.B17093@cec.wustl.edu>
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Wow, thanks alot for all your advice. I just have a couple (read: 412) questions about switching to FreeBSD (if I should do it.) Please keep in mind that I am a hobbyist developer, but am looking to get better. 1. Can I work on the GNOME project under FreeBSD? Does anyone have Ximian GNOME running? 2. Is the FreeBSD project smaller than Debian's? Does that mean that a certain individual has more or less projects to choose from? Do you guys need lots of help? 3. Can I compile apps in GTK/GNOME? I don't think gcc works in FreeBSD... 4. Can I get involved in the part of FreeBSD involving moving it to the home/desktop market? Competing with Linux? 5. How close is FreeBSD to Linux? 6. Is there any logo cooler than the Daemon? 7. Why isn't FreeBSD more popular than Linux? You say it is so much better!!! How quickly is FreeBSD developing? 8. Can I work on an apt-get for FreeBSD? Does one exist? 9. Can FreeBSD run ALL Linux apps (including source tarballs as well as binary installs like StarOffice's?) 10. Which is a better development/home user environment? Honestly. Does Glade work? 11. How steep will the learning curve be for a Linux user? 12. What are the reasons big companies like Yahoo! are using FreeBSD over Linux. 13. Does anyone think FreeBSD will be popular enough to compete with Linux? Windows? Thanks alot to anyone who can answer any of these questions!!! --Jason --- Andrew Hesford <ajh3@chmod.ath.cx> wrote: > On Wed, Apr 04, 2001 at 05:16:02AM -0700, Jason > Victor wrote: > > Hi. I have to have Windows on my computer, and > will > > NOT spoil my perfectly tweaked Debian > installation. > > What I was wondering was: is there a UMSDOS of > Phat > > Linux-type thing for FreeBSD? I think this would > be an > > interesting project to undertake. If there isn't > one, > > and anyone wants to start it, tell me what a > > (relatively) newbie C programmer can do. I think > it > > would increase migration to FreeBSD from Windows, > as > > opposed to ONLY Linux. > > > > And something completely unrelated: do FreeBSD > > drivers/HOWTOs work on OpenBSD and NetBSD? And > what > > are the REAL reasons that you guys prefer FreeBSD > to > > Linux? > > > > Thanks, > > Jason > > If you ask me, playing around with FreeBSD is sort > of pointless unless > you're prepared to trash your Debian install. If > you're fully content > with Debian, why bother learning something new? > There should be an > incentive to switch, or at least no vested interest > in losing what you > have. > > I too came from Debian, and was looking for better > performance, more > stability, and a real UNIX. I was willing to switch > because I had > nothing to lose by trashing Debian, so I just > jockeyed partitions > around. Eventually, I grabbed a copy of GNU Parted, > to begin resizing > partitions and such. This is what REALLY made me > want to switch. Because > of lousy program design, the GNU tools (fdisk and > parted, namely) > trashed my disk. Had intelligent beings created the > software, I would > never have had to re-rip 3G of MP3s, and lose > another 800M of MP3s > altogether. > > The problem was twofold: first, GNU parted > dynamically reassigns > partition labels when deleting partitions. For > example, if I want to > delete partitions 5, 6, 7 and 8 but keep partition 9 > on hda, it expects > me to delete partition 5, 4 times. Because this is a > moronic way of > writing software, I tried to delete partitions 5-8. > However, by the time > I tried to delete partition 7, the partition I > wanted to keep (9) was > reasssigned to partition 7. Hence, I deleted the > partition I wanted to > keep (Debian's /usr in this case), and kept > partitions I didn't want. > > The second problem was with GNU fdisk. You see, > FreeBSD doesn't care > where partitions end, as long as it ends on a > sector. GNU fdisk, on the > other hand, rounds all partitions up to a cylinder > boundary. When I > moved some partitions around with parted, one of > them didn't start on a > cylinder boundary. Thus, when I used GNU fdisk to > create a new partition > in front of the moved one, the tail end of the new > partition overwrote > the first few megabytes of my old one. Nice, eh?k > > That pissed me off, so I didn't bother reinstalling > Debian. I just > reinstalled FreeBSD, stealing the entire disk for > the new operating > system. I won't use a system controlled by an > organization and operating > system that uses software created by morons like the > parted and fdisk > maintainers. > > In short, these are the reasons I prefer FreeBSD: 1) > The filesystem is > so much better than any linux filesystem, ReiserFS > included. 2) The > system isn't made by idiots. 3) The system's > development is controlled, > and the system is consistent because of that. 4) > FreeBSD never trashed > my data. 5) It's more stable, the VMM system is FAR > superior, and it > contains the reference-standard IP stack (even MS > ripped this off). 6) > The license isn't a Communist-Hypocrite license > claiming to be "Free" > but really is restrictive. 7) I hate RMS with a > passion (remember, he's > the Communist hypocrite who claims his software is > Free). 8) For a > firewall, ipfw blows the doors off of Linux's > iptables/ipchains/ipmasq/whatever. 9) I prefer the > filesystem hierarchy. > 10) Bugfixes and development happen much quicker. > 11) None of those > shitty SVR4 bootscripts and symlinks; no abundance > of pointless > runlevels. 12) Fxtv is better than xawtv. 13) The > FreeBSD base system > behaves better than any Linux base system (e.g., the > stuff in /usr/bin > and /bin). 14) Linux ABI implementation gives me the > best of both > worlds. 15) Development is more conservative (e.g., > I don't see a bunch > of EXPERIMENTAL warnings in /sys/i386/conf/LINT, > like I do in Linux > kernels). 16) FreeBSD is lighter than Linux. 17) > Separation. People in > the Debian crowd believe that every dpkg should put > its files in /usr, > and only self-compiled stuff belongs in /usr/local. > I disagree. > /usr/local is for "site-specific" stuff, which > doesn't necessarily mean > self-built. To me, GNOME belongs in /usr/local, > because it is site > specific, even if it comes in a dpkg. By > site-specific, I mean anything > that is subject to change from box to box. > Therefore, only the base > system belongs in /usr. With FreeBSD, my programs > are divided logically. > > There's 17 reasons for you. I'd come up with more, > but I'd need to close > this vim session or open up another ssh connection > to hunt around for > things I like. Besides, isn't this message too damn > long? > -- > Andrew Hesford > ajh3@chmod.ath.cx __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get email at your own domain with Yahoo! 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