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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:2136 comp.os.linux.misc:11808 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!epiwrl.entropic.com!usenet From: kenh@wrl.epi.com (Ken Hornstein) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: Impressions: FreeBSD vs Linux Date: 28 Mar 1994 04:33:48 -0500 Organization: Entropic Research Laboratory, Washington DC Lines: 62 Message-ID: <2n689s$5r2@sparc10.entropic.com> References: <CMzw69.92K@tower.nullnet.fi> <HJSTEIN.94Mar24111940@sunset.huji.ac.il> <Cn6txK.IDp@boulder.parcplace.com> <2n1l3n$821@clarknet.clark.net> Reply-To: kenh@wrl.epi.com NNTP-Posting-Host: sparc10.entropic.com In article <2n1l3n$821@clarknet.clark.net>, Rob Newberry <rob-n@clark.net> wrote: >Well, this seems to be the place for this sort of gripe, so I'm >going to post it. >[...] >IMHO, *BSD has a LONG way to go before its ready for users like me. I >guess what they need most is a kind of Slackware install, where someone >can get the system and many utilities installed quickly. I was >VERY VERY disappointed to find that, even though I downloaded every >distribution file for NetBSD at iastate.edu, I didn't even have a good >way to talk to my modem -- kermit is not there, I can't get tip >to work, and there's just not any instructions anywhere. I didn't have much trouble getting tip to work; what kind of problems did you have? There's a man page for tip, so it's not like there aren't any instructions. >Plus, when >there are instructions, they're wrong. The FAQ for makeing a new >*BSD kernel tells me to switch to a directory that doesn't exists on >my machine, and config a file that isn't there. Yes, I did manage to >find the right place, and create the GENERICISA file from the >GENERICAHA, but it wasn't in /sys/i386/conf. Plus, there's no >description of all that junk in the configuration file -- the FAQ >says, "Perhaps someone should tell us what all these options actually >mean." I thought that's what the *!@# FAQ was for! The FAQ covers Net,Free and 386BSD; while they're all close, they have some differences. For example, the kernel config files in /sys/arch/i386/conf on NetBSD. >It's not just the FAQ's, either. The man pages are screwy. I wanted >to add some users. In linux, "adduser" does the trick. So I do a >"man adduser", and it says that this is a command for adding new users, >and furthermore that it has been around since 3.0BSD. Great! So I >try "adduser" and whammo! "adduser: Command not found." Yes, I >did finally find out to use "vipw" (Thanks, O'Reilly), but that's >just plain dumb. I quote from the adduser man page (which, apparantly, you didn't read closely; it describes a procedure to follow, not a command): An account can be added by editing a line into the passwd file; this must be done with the password file locked e.g. by using chpass(1) or vipw(8) >*BSD desperately needs the type of installation packages available for >Linux. Linux installed on my system, and I added the users I needed, >and they had POP accounts immediately, and I could run "DIP" to set >up our SLIP connections out of the box, and I could compile kernels >right out of the box and install them quickly, and I got tons of >utility programs that I never even used. In *BSD, none of the things >I was looking for were there -- no virtual consoles, no comm package, >no "adduser", no good mail reader, no "pico", no nothing. *BSD may >have fine networking code, but I won't know about it until they make >it easy enough to use. What's wrong with getting any of these packages yourself and compiling them? I'venever had much trouble porting software to NetBSD; it usually very simple. And if you're allergic to compiling things, the FreeBSD gang has a nice set of already-ported packages ready for you to use. --Ken