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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!glt From: glt@cco.caltech.edu (Greg Tanaka) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: 386BSD vs Linux Date: 11 Apr 1993 04:38:49 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 75 Message-ID: <1q87cpINNfql@gap.caltech.edu> References: <1q7ot2$guo@sunb.ocs.mq.edu.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: punisher.caltech.edu I have done a side by side comparision between the two operating systems with a friend. My friend has a 486/33 with 100 megs devoted to Linux I have a 386/40 with 245 megs devoted to 386bsd We both live in the same dorm at Caltech two rooms down from each other. We both also have ethernet connections to caltech's internet. Aside from the fact that he has a 486 and I have a 386..we both have similar configurations (ie. both have 8 megs, 256k cache, ide drives, 16 bit ethernets, etc..) What I can say about the two operating systems comes from the four months we have been running dos alternatives... Advantages of Linux: Shared Libraries which allow one heck of a lot more stuff to be put on t o a disk than 386BSD.. in fact my friend with his 100 megs has a lot more programs than I have with my 245 megs. However he doesn't have 88 megs of 386bsd sources on disk like I do. Let me also note that Linux now has an awsome Shared Library system, instead of the old style statically share libraries it had before. Compressed man pages which format on the fly. It is like the sun man pages Linux has a vastly easier installation system. My friend has little knowledge of Unix or C yet with the SLS distribution of Linux, he was able to install Linux without having to muck through kernel sources, devices, a tremendous number of patches, or any of that fun stuff. He was also able to install X without much trouble. Openlook window manager. I am at lost to understand why Linux can be distributed with the Openlook window manager for free..I thought sun owned Openlook a working TCX which compresses the binaries Working virtual consoles with automatic vga card recognition. It even supports 144x48 text mode with my ati vga wonder xl. Yes 386bsd does have virtual consoles but for me it doesn't work very well. I am using syscons .2 maybe codrv is better. How bad is my console driver? The crappy formating of this post should be representative of how bad my console driver flakes out. It is becomming a real pain! Linux appears to be more memory efficient. When I am running X, 386bsd swaps like crazy as if it didn't have enough memory. There is virtually no swapping with linux and X. mouse support in text mode. more rapid update and patches. more programs seemed to have been ported to Linux than 386BSD. Perhaps it is because Linux started before 386BSD? If not, I don't know why Linux seems to have such a head start over 386bsd. The ability to mount different types of file systems like dos. This means you don't even need mtools to access a dos partition. It is totally transparent. You could even use MS Windows' swap partition. n Advantages of 386BSD a better file system. Although it is hard to set up due to the fac that there is no SLS for 386bsd, 386bsd's filesystem seems to be faster and more reliable than Linux's. Better networking. I get about twice the ftp rates my friend does and my telnet sessions don't lock up and die like my friend's. Somehow my system seems more complete in terms being a genuine Unix syst em. I have more of the standard unix programs and man pages. I am sure there are more advantages of 386BSD, but right now I am experiencing so many problems with it that somehow I can't think of any more than those three. -Greg Tanaka glt@cco.caltech.edu glt@ugcs.caltech.edu glt@macross.caltech.edu (my rather unstable 386bsd system) .