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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!xlink.net!fauern!winx03!wpzd07.pzlc.uni-wuerzburg.de!tom From: tom@wpzd07.pzlc.uni-wuerzburg.de (Thomas Heiling) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: BSD vs Linux Date: 11 Jun 1994 18:32:47 GMT Organization: University of Wuerzburg, Germany Lines: 82 Message-ID: <2td00f$dq1@winx03.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de> References: <2sva1p$llr@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> <2t659q$sn@s069.infonet.net> <2tbnop$elc@winx03.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de> <2tbnuj$elc@winx03.informatik.uni-wuerzburg.de> <2tcsas$5dr@s069.infonet.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: wpzd07.pzlc.uni-wuerzburg.de X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Dave Burgess (burgess@s069.infonet.net) wrote: : I have just finished your compilation of the differences between the : various U*ix clones and have a few things to say: : 1. This document is excellent. It succinctly describes the : differences between the OSs in their current (or close to current) : state. I will be using as much as possible for the *BSD FAQ in the : future. I hope someone will add my white some spaces RSN. : 2. This document will never be read again. It will serve the same : function as a FAQ. It will sit on the net and be ignored so that three : or four times a week someone will have to post a meassage that reads : "Please read the Differences List" instead of "Please read section 0 of : the FAQ". I hope it will :-) : 3. It is going to be a nightmare to keep current. It is already : wildly out of date for some of the NetBSD stuff, and leaves many newbie : type questions unanswered. There are many, many features of the *BSD : systems that exist that were not listed, and many features that have : been vastly improved in the past six months. For example, QIC-40/80 : support is built into FreeBSD, and if I can ever get it working will : get pounded into NetBSD. My intension was NOT to keep it current. The idea was and is to give a comparison of the *distributions*. For all people without net acess this is the crucial point IMHO. I have tried not to include anything from not usable because too slow - Dos emulator - or not yet stable - WINE or the iBCS2 Code- , or anything from {Free|Net}BSD-current. Your 3.rd sentence is the Problem "There are many, many features ..." If I cannot get/see this information in the FAQ, how can a new unix users read this info ? : I tried writing this document once, a long time ago. After getting : flamed nearly out of existence for it, I decided that it wasn't worth : the effort and gave up. That is why section 0 of the FAQ says what : it says. Why are you getting flamed for this work ? : I stand by my original answers: : 1. Get them and try them. You will like one of them. They are : available on the net for free and on CD-ROM for less than $50 total. Exactly this *is* the Problem. As a U*ix newbie you can't install them all. Mainly due to space or machine limitations. And for a usable system you must download XXX disks or have a supported CD-ROM drive. You will try it once for *one* system, but you will choose the system, where you get most informations *before* you start the download. : 2. Read the FAQs that are posted to the net regularly. Every two : weeks is plenty enough for the *BSD one (IMHO) but I can post it every : day if I want; I own my feed. I still think that this makes more sense : than any other advice I can give. If a newbie is so new that they : haven't even read the rest of the news in the group, then they are : posting completely blind and deserve to be flamed. A quick wc shows that the BSD-FAQ is now about 8415 lines long. Unfortunately you have to grep long to extract the info on the newer *BSD-system, i mean {Net|Free}BSD. : 3. Find out what your friends have and do that. It worked with Video : tape, and it will work here. True, but this works only if you *have* people, which are willing to try Unix ! If you must decide, what system is good and has no other systems, where you can look to - you start reading in the News Groups and on rtfm.mit.edu for the FAQS. -- --------------------------------------------------- Thomas Heiling Pharmacist & Doctorate at Pharmazeutisches Institut Uni Wuerzburg - Germany Email phar006@rzbox.uni-wuerzburg.de (HP-UX) tom@wpzd07.pzlc.uni-wuerzburg.de (Linux) or phar006@vax.rz.uni-wuerzburg.de ( VAX ) ---------------------------------------------------