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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yeshua.marcam.com!MathWorks.Com!news2.near.net!news.delphi.com!usenet From: John Dyson <dysonj@delphi.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: Which 386-BSD is reliable? Date: Mon, 8 Aug 94 07:26:57 -0500 Organization: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice) Lines: 40 Message-ID: <x23yUAp.dysonj@delphi.com> References: <pmiles.776112888@tdc> NNTP-Posting-Host: bos1g.delphi.com X-To: Peter Miles <pmiles@tdc.dircon.co.uk> Peter Miles <pmiles@tdc.dircon.co.uk> writes: >I'm looking for a system to act as a news/mail server, and several >people have suggested I look at one of the BSD versions of UNIX, >especially BSDI. Reliable and supported commercial product... >Can anyone send me their experiences of BSDI (and FreeBSD or NetBSD). On FreeBSD V1.1.5 we have revamped the VM system and also a FreeBSD box is one of the busiest internet sites and is capable of impressive performance. For example, one FreeBSD box is supporting 10-12 simultaneous users doing email and net type stuff in 8MB. The interrupt system and serial driver is capable of very good performance. The system is very crisp (except a minor problem with bash start-up.) If you do compiles and lots of short-run processes, while running X, you'll notice that X does not get very jerky (there are some scheduling enhancements.) >I'm particularly interested in BSDI; as it seems to be the most complete >ready-to-run package. What is BSDI's support like (especially in the UK?). >Does it have any major bugs? Do bugs get fixed rapidly? How many sites >are out there using BSDI? Good choice, but the FreeBSD users and core group are also very fast responding to problems. Of course, there are no guarantees that the response will be quick. There have be some individual problems that I have not been able fix for specific sites (probably HW problems), but generally we are extremely fast at fixing problems. Also there is usually a 3-6mo release cycle for FreeBSD. Also, FreeBSD is currently being moved to the 4.4Lite platform (with most of the older FreeBSD enhancments and more.) The *BSDs in general are like a set of available tools, each with advantages and disadvantages. It is *very* difficult for someone to prescribe a perfect solution -- and whatever you choose will probably not be a "bad" decision. Good Luck!!! John dyson@implode.root.com