[Tfug] FreeBSD vs. Linux

andy andyjones at cox.net
Wed Nov 28 01:24:32 MST 2007 

I appreciate the info and I'll try to make the next happy hour too. I'd
like to see BSD in action/installed, but there's no reason to do a fresh
install, I'll trust you that its just as easy as Linux. 

I'm going to assume that BSD because of the tight control is less buggy,
but also less cutting edge? It would make sense in a server environment
as opposed to a desktop where you can live with a few bugs. I was just
wondering whether it would work as well on a notebook with all the WiFi,
sound, and other odd drivers that seem to give Linux fits.

Currently, I fall into the Ubuntu camp, as it simply works out of the
box on my laptops, and requires minimal work on my part to maintain it,
but I'm always interested in learning more about Unix and it's variants.

Andy

On Tue, 2007-11-27 at 23:36 -0700, Predrag Punosevac wrote:
> Well an operating system consist of several parts. Kernel(or hardware  
> control) being one which directly communicate with the hardware but there  
> are some others like file system, drivers, packaging system etc. Linux is  
> just a kernel. All other parts are coded by other people and each distor  
> (more than 350 in total) is putting a version of their OS together.
> 
> FreeBSD is like a big government project. There are 200 core developers  
> working on the various aspects of the OS. Entire system is written by  
> FreeBSD team (or OpenBSD team around 60 guys or NetBSE team I think around  
> 80 guys or DragonFlyBSD about 12 people)
> it goes through rigorous quality control and no single person has  
> authority to commit the code to the system.
> In Linux world Torvals pretty much does what he wants with kernel and I do  
> not think that my comments about Linux quality control would be  
> appreciated. Linux development is quite chaotic in the positive sense.  
> That is the major strength of the Linux as there are
> areas where FreeBSD will never reach.
> 
> I would strongly recommend the classical book by Maurice J. Bach "The  
> Design of the Unix operating system" if you want to understand more about  
> design of Unix and classic "The Unix Programming Environment" by by Brian  
> Kernighan and Rob Pike if you want quick
> introduction into Unix by some of very people who created it.
> 
> You asked about system administration. I said before it depends what you  
> wants to do. If you want a Desktop then PC-BSD is as easy to install as  
> Ubunut. PC-BSD is derived from FreeBSD while Ubuntu is derived from  
> Debian. Both of this distros have as ultimate objective to be as idiot  
> proof as possible and that "everything" work out of box. Unfortunately  
> sometimes things do not work as planed and than it becomes painfully  
> obvious that FreeBSD and Debian are actually easier distributions to work  
> with.
> 
> Setting a dekstop in FreeBSD or Debian is probably equally easy("hard" if  
> you are noob) as neither FreeBSD nor GNU/Debian have any graphical tools  
> for configuration. You are expected to read technical manuals and clicking  
> your mouse around will take you nowhere.
> 
> That lack of graphical tools which seems like a big disadvantage is  
> actually a good thing if you know what are you doing.
> Most of the time servers do not run X anyway as it is a big security risk  
> and is useless in configuration and maintenance of NFS server, MTA etc.
> 
> In summary, I think that the people who use Gentoo, Debian or Arch Linux  
> are equally technically minded as you said as people who use
> FreeBSD, OpenBSD or NetBSD. Everyone has its own reason for using  
> particular OS.
> 
> If you want me I will bring a computer during next happy hour and do  
> installation of FreeBSD. You will see how easy it is. We could
> further discuss about my personal reason for choosing FreeBSD.
> 
> Cheers,
> Predrag
> 
> P.S. Linux got publicity due to the corporate support from HP and IBM. The  
> reason for that are subject of different debate.
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:50:44 -0700, andy <andyjones at cox.net> wrote:
> 
> > Thanks Predrag, it was no troll, I'm just a fairly new Linux user and
> > have heard of BSD, but didn't really know what differentiated it from
> > Linux beside being another Unix variation.
> >
> > Besides, this politics discussion is way past the point of being boring.
> >
> > I was assuming that Linux was more for the casual user and BSD catered
> > to the more technical crowd or hardcore Unix folks. It sounds like from
> > your quick rundown that is true.
> >
> > What did you mean by BSD being a complete operating system vs. Linux
> > plus GNU tools? Not sure if I understand.
> >
> > Andy
> >
> > On Tue, 2007-11-27 at 22:10 -0700, Predrag Punosevac wrote:
> >> Depends what do you want to do?
> >>
> >> An obvious difference that FreeBSD is complete operating system. Linux  
> >> is
> >> kernel with the bunch of GNU tools
> >> that depend from distro to disto.
> >>
> >> Applications are however mostly common. Apache is apache, exim is exim,
> >> MPlayer is Mplayer.
> >>
> >> BSD was conceived at the University of California Barkley in early
> >> seventies.
> >> All present flavours of BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and DragonFlyBSD)
> >> are direct descendant of
> >> the Barkley 4.4BSD
> >>
> >> Linux was firstly coded 1993 by Torval Linux while 386BSD a first 386
> >> version of BSD was in legal troubles with ATT.
> >> Linux clone was based on the mix of V5 and BSD but the part which is  
> >> POSIX
> >> compliant should look very similar to FreeBSD.
> >>
> >> There are deep philosophical differences.
> >>
> >> Is this enough for the beginning? What do you want to compare in
> >> particular. Desktop features?
> >>
> >> Linux works better for Flash, Java, VoIP, web-cam, Linux ndis is better
> >> and many other things related to WiFi drivers and
> >> video card drivers. For a casual desktop user Linux is probably better
> >> choice even though PC-BSD, DesktopBSD, RoFreeSBIE are
> >> "desktop" distros of FreeBSD
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Predrag
> >>
> >>
> >> P.S. There are people in Linux gang who claim that their OS is better  
> >> than
> >> BSD and they are ready to kill to prove it.
> >> There are people in BSD gang who claim that their OS is better than  
> >> Linux
> >> and they are ready to kill to prove it.
> >> In reality both OS are quite good.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:42:43 -0700, Andrew Ayre <andy at britishideas.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > I don't think that question was trolling, they are merely asking the
> >> > difference...
> >> >
> >> > I was wondering the same thing. Is there a website somewhere that
> >> > concisely describes the pros/cons of each?
> >> >
> >> > Is system admin harder on FreeBSD than Linux? Why?
> >> >
> >> > Predrag Punosevac wrote:
> >> >> On Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:12:44 -0700, andy <andyjones at cox.net> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >>> What's the big difference between FreeBSD & Linux? I've only used  
> >> Linux
> >> >>> and it seems to get the lion's share of press attention.
> >> >>>
> >> >>> Andy
> >> >>>
> >> >>>
> >> >> This seems like a great topic for a troll but I will bite it anyway.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> Depends what you want to do? For a casual desktop user NONE if  
> >> somebody
> >> >> did system administration for you.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >>
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