Date: Fri, 23 Jul 1999 13:43:29 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Radu-Cristian FOTESCU <rfotescu@idsrom.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What to tell to Linux-centric people?! Message-ID: <3798C5E1.EFF3026@softweyr.com> References: <C1F3617BDC52D21185E40000214C247C15404E@id-bucharest.idsrom.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Radu-Cristian FOTESCU wrote: > > Hi, dear advocates :-) > > Don't shoot on me, if it happens that I'm currently developing applications > for Windogz with M$WC 6.0 under NT4 for living! That's the employment market > in the country I'm living in... :-[ > > Since '94, I was in touch with many Unix flavors: DigitalUNIX, SCO > OpenServer, Slackware Linux [starting with 2.0!], RedHat Linux [starting > with 3.0.3!], FreeBSD [starting with 2.0.5] and NetBSD [some 1.0 beta > something]. Unfortunately, to earn more money I've had to change the > company, and just about everybody wanted C++ with MFC (M$ Foundation > Classes, not... what are you thinking of? :--)) > > Now, when "RedHat Linux" started to become something like "M$ Windoze", I'm > coming back to "old friends", because I was surprised in a very pleasant way > by FreeBSD! > > Whem I'm trying to explain things like these to my Linux-centric friends or > colleagues, I encounter many problems. Even when talking to "WinNT-addicted" > people, they always say "but compared with Linux...". > > Now, I'm stressing in my "speeches" the way FreeBSD project is managed, the > pluses of having a single and unitary distribution [keeping your freedom > meantime!] compared with the fact that Linux is theorically only a kernel, > and the various distributions are really different in matters like > configuration files, installation procedures, etc. so Linux development is > quite messy and chaotic and "serious" users could not count upon. Except for > the kernel, maybe, but it's hard to define what's the kernel and when Linux > really became an OS and where you can know who's responsible for what! Not > to mention the confuse and accelerated way the kernel evoluted since 2.0.! > > Now, I'm asking myself what to tell to Linux users that are asking me... > > 1. Why Linux has bash as default and FreeBSD csh? They want "command > history" with ARROWS, not with "!". Install it from the package: pkg_add /cdrom/packages/shells/bash2* > 2. Why Linux has "ls-color" by default and FreeBSD doesn't? [please excuse > me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen FreeBSD since 30 months ago, I can't > install it now, only Linux boxes are available here and for the moment I > don't own a PC!] Install it from the package: pgk_add /cdrom/packages/All/colorls* > 3. What is the performance loss when running Linux apps under emulation in > FreeBSD [assuming no sources are available]. Pretty close to NONE. It's not really an emulation, it's what Microsoft would refer to as a "thunk." It's not like we have a virtual x86 running Linux, all we do is rearrange the Linux syscall and parameters into equivalent FreeBSD syscall and parameters and forward the syscall. (For the most part; there are some Linux syscalls that require more work.) > 4. Why _nobody_ is making a site like "http://www.linuxapps.com/" for the > *BSD system(s) in order to find easier apps? Uh, perhaps we need to make the commercial software page at http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/software_bycat.html a little more obvious? You seem to have missed it. > Even images with the BSD daemon are impossible to find in sizes and formats > that would make them suitable for a wallpaper or something like that... Install WindowMaker from the package; it comes with a great background in the FreeBSD theme. There are others on the web site, but they probably need to be collected into a nice web page that's easy to find. -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://softweyr.com/ wes@softweyr.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3798C5E1.EFF3026>