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From: byron@cc.gatech.edu (Byron A Jeff)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: I hope this won't ignite a major flame war, but I've got to know!
Date: 18 Jul 1994 08:54:21 -0400
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 57
Message-ID: <30du1t$1uk@virgo.cc.gatech.edu>
References: <30drlt$7tc@news.u.washington.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: virgo.cc.gatech.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: byron
In article <30drlt$7tc@news.u.washington.edu>,
Tim Smith <tzs@u.washington.edu> wrote:
-I realize I'm treading on dangerous ground here, since I'm going to
-mention {Free,Net)BSD and Linux in the same post, but something
-puzzles me. From what I've read (I've not had a chance to try any
-of these systems yet--I'm still shopping for hardware to try them
-out), {Free,Net}BSD are Berkeley-like (duh!) and Linux is closer to
-System V.
Well Linux is Posix compliant which means it has features of both SV and BSD
but favors SV.
-
-From what I've seen on the net, it appears that most of the users of
-these systems are academic types or are professional programmers who
-want to hack around with operating systems.
-
Debatable. There are all kinds of folks that are using Linux. Many are
DOS refugees with little or no Unix experience.
-Historically, these classes of people have preferred Berkeley Unix
-to System V. System V appealed to the corporate world, where what
-was important was a supported Unix.
I think the issue is more that the machine these class of folks you refer
to ran BSD Unix. SunOS is a BSD variant and it runs on a whole lot of
academic machines.
-
-Hence, I would expect {Free,Net}BSD to be overwhelmingly more popular
-than Linux. Yet, based on the volume of posting on the net, the number
-of FTP sites that carry each system, and the number of CD-ROM places that
-I've seen selling each, it seems the Linux is by far the winner in the
-popularity contest.
-
-What is going on here?
Well I can only speak for myself. I heard about Linux on the newsgroup about
19 months ago. I installed it and tried it as soon as I had enough hardware.
In fact I still have the same core: 386DX40 + 4MB ram + 160Meg of HD. Linux
turned my PC into a multitaking, multiuser Linux workstation. I was so pleased
I never tried *BSD*. I tell my friends about Linux, I install it on their
machines. They have the same reaction.
Another key is perception. When I got started Linux had a well publicized,
easy to install, easily available distribution (SLS). The perception I
had was that *BSD* didn't have the same. That perception was false but
did influence my initial decision.
Anyone else?
BAJ
--
Another random extraction from the mental bit stream of...
Byron A. Jeff - PhD student operating in parallel - And Using Linux!
Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332 Internet: byron@cc.gatech.edu