Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.questions:13192 comp.os.386bsd.misc:3511
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!newsrelay.iastate.edu!news.iastate.edu!news.iastate.edu!michaelv
From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs NetBSD
Date: 16 Sep 1994 02:30:35 GMT
Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes.
Lines: 69
Message-ID: <MICHAELV.94Sep15213050@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
References: <358o3g$p95@umd5.umd.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: stingray.cc.iastate.edu
In-reply-to: adhir@bigdipper.umd.edu's message of 15 Sep 1994 06:03:28 GMT
In article <358o3g$p95@umd5.umd.edu> adhir@bigdipper.umd.edu (Alok K. Dhir) writes:
I understand that NetBSD 1.0 will soon be released. I am curious as to
the advantages of one over the other. Do they match one another feature
for feature? What is NetBSD based on, BSD 4.3 or 4.4/lite?
It's hard to say what's different without getting into nit-picking.
Suffice it to say that they're more alike than they are different.
NetBSD-1.0 is a completely 4.4BSD(lite) based kernel. About half the
userland stuff is also from 4.4-lite. The rest is 4.3ish.
One main difference is that NetBSD runs on a lot of different
architectures, where FreeBSD only runs on Intelish PC's. So it has a
lot more to pull from on multi-architecture experience. On the other
hand, FreeBSD has a unified buffer cache and bounce buffers for using
ISA SCSI cards on machines with >16MB of RAM.
I have found compiling things for FreeBSD is sometimes a bit of a chore
(as compared to Linux and NeXTStep, which I also run), especially
since there is usually not a default config for it (for example, with
gcc, pine, and misc others). Is netbsd in the same boat?
Maybe... depends on what you want to build. Lots of stuff just builds
"right out of the box". Other things will require minor porting.
They're probably somewhat similar in this respect. I do know that
everyone associated with NetBSD who does a port, however, sends the
diffs back to the author and works to get them integrated as standard
parts of the packages. One example of how well that works is
emacs-19.25 -- just extract it, run configure, build, and install.
The machines are ASUS 486/66 motherboards with ATI Graphics Ultra Pro PCI
2mb graphics boards and onboard PCI SCSI. I have purchased SMC Ultra 16T
NICs for use with these machines. As far as I know, FreeBSD supports
this configuration (has NCR PCI drivers, and supports the BB2016 multi-
port serial card). Does NetBSD have support for my hardware configuration
as well (if it doesn't, my decision is easy ;-).
NetBSD and FreeBSD have almost identical hardware support. One
difference is that NetBSD-1.0 has automatic PCI autoconfiguration,
where it asks the PCI card where it's configured, and uses the values
it gives back.
FreeBSD 2.0 is just around the corner as well (perhaps not as close as
NetBSD), but I need things up and running in the next month or so. Are
there any compelling reasons to wait to FreeBSD 2.0 instead of using NetBSD
1.0 when its released?
You'll have to make that choice yourself.
I am not including Linux because its networking code has proven to be
extrememly unreliable in my experience (used it up to 1.1.45), and because
Linux vs *BSD seems to be somewhat of a religious issue... FreeBSD and
NetBSD people seem to have a mutual respect for one another which is a
pleasant change from the usual "this vs that" situations.
Shhhh! Don't say that so loud! Pretty soon we might start talking
nice to each other if you keep this up!
Last question - where are the NetBSD mailing lists?
On ftp.iastate.edu in /pub/netbsd/mailing-lists/.
--
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com michaelv@iastate.edu
Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x for PC/Mac/Amiga/etc.
Working NetBSD ports: 386+PC, Mac, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4c, PC532
In progress: DEC pmax (MIPS R2k/3k), VAX, Sun4m
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -