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From: ewt@merengue.unc.edu (Erik Troan)
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 14:43:07 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 87
Message-ID: <30e4dr$jno@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>
References: <30drlt$7tc@news.u.washington.edu> <1994Jul18.093302.19670@wmichgw>
NNTP-Posting-Host: merengue.oit.unc.edu
In article <1994Jul18.093302.19670@wmichgw>,
Patrick Khoo <31khoo@wmich.edu> wrote:
>In article <30drlt$7tc@news.u.washington.edu>, tzs@u.washington.edu (Tim Smith) writes:
>>
>> What is going on here?
>>
>> --Tim Smith
>
>Very simple Tim, Anyone and i mean Anyone can work on Linux development. The
>development is open and releases are fast (blazingly fast kernel releases!) As
>opposed to Free/NetBSD. As such, a hacker would prefer Linux, where he/she can
>hack and get updates fast.
That's a reason for hackers, true. But Linux does have more users then the
BSD flavors. I think this will continue for a variety of reasons (note that
I'm a Linux person, so "we" refers to the Linux group):
1) Before the USL vs BSD suit was resolved, there were legal questions
surrounding the BSD work. Linux was all coded from scratch by people with
no previous OS coding experience. That's legally very clean. Additionally,
there's no one for USL to sue anyway. There is no core development team.
2) BSD has a crowded namespace. Should you install 386BSD, FreeBSD, or NetBSD?
They're all similiar, they just happen to be different. There's only one
Linux kernel. That pretty amazing when you consider the Linux copyleft
encourages rival systems. There has been incredible cohesion in the kernel
community (Linus has done a wonderfull job keeping it together).
3) Linux started first. It was up and running before BSD was released which
gave us a head start on user count.
4) The GPL lets us cheat. The Linux kernel can borrow code from BSD with
no legal problems, but the BSD folks don't want GPLed code in their kernel.
I don't know how much BSD the Linux kernel actually uses, but I know
there has been some in the past.
5) Open distributions play a big role. When SLS's problems became unacceptable
Patrick stepped in with Slackware and saved the day. MCC/TinyX makes
Linux a great laptop system. Linux's GPL nature makes it easy for someone
to step in and fix problems. I don't know why this hasn't led to mass
confusion in the Linux community, but so far it hasn't.
6) Linux has better support for mixed operating systems. From what I've heard
from BSD folks, BSD is happier with a machine to itself. It can share,
but it doesn't like to. Since it's a port, it kept its ideas about
what hard drives look like and isn't terribly comfortable with the
partitions. Linux has the UMSDOS filesystem allows it to be installed
over DOS without repartitioning. I know lots of people who have
used this with high satisfaction. Linux also has LILO, which is the
most robust boot manager system I've seen. It can even boot BSD, but
it was written by a Linux hacker and that's how it got its recognition.
When Slackware installs, it makes setting up a dual-boot machine a
breeze. Most people don't want to erase DOS/OS-2 - they want both. Don't
forget the flexibility that things like swap files give you.
Linux is designed for users while BSD is designed for system admins. I
know a lot of good unix folks who run BSD, but they say Linux is better
for the average user. There are a lot more average users then power
users in the world.
7) Linux has the blessing of FSF - they help distribute Linux (Debian) rather
then BSD because it is GPLed. A Linux server for the Hurd is almost
a certainty. I'd be suprised if FSF wrote a BSD server for it, though
someone else certainly could.
8) Linux has faster bug fixes. New problems are almost resolved within
24 hours and the solutions are posted to the net.
9) The Linux Documentation Project (LDP) is doing a fantastic job. Anyone
trying to decide between BSD and Linux would find the Linux's Installation
and Getting Started Guide a good incentive to follow Linux. I can't
give Matt, Michael, et all enough kudos for their good work there.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Don't think that BSD doesn't have advantages
over Linux - it certainly does (especially in networking code, though Linux
is catching up). Both systems work very well and the competition between
the two is certainly a good thing.
Erik
PS: I forgot one reason for Linux's popularity - it has a fabulous ftp
site at sunsite ;-)
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm not like that -- except when I am" ewt@sunsite.unc.edu = Erik Troan
gr-ewt@druid.csc.ncsu.edu
- Nora from "Pump up the Volume" http://sunsite.unc.edu/ewt