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From: jkh@freefall.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.linux.development,comp.sys.unix
Subject: Re: We a FAQ: Linux vs. *BSD!!!
Date: 13 Oct 1994 11:28:45 GMT
Organization: Walnut Creek CD-ROM
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <JKH.94Oct13042845@freefall.cdrom.com>
References: <jmonroyCxLro2.IF6@netcom.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: freefall.cdrom.com
In-reply-to: jmonroy@netcom.com's message of Thu, 13 Oct 1994 08:31:14 GMT
In article <jmonroyCxLro2.IF6@netcom.com> jmonroy@netcom.com (Jesus Monroy Jr) writes:
This is a weekly question.
More often than not, we get into a flame war
on this. Let's stop this silliness!!!
The only way we're going to stop this silliness is to simply start
ignoring the querants. If someone asks "Which is better? Which is
better?", jumping up and down all the while, and everybody just flat
out _ignores_ the question and goes about their business as if nothing
happened, folks will eventually get the point and stop asking.
Consider carefully: It's not the questions that start the bloody flame
wars, it's everyone's pathetic attempts to answer! "Well, xxx is
better because of yyy.." "No it's not!" "Yes it is, you moron! Just
look at blah blah blah!" "Well, you're a complete idiot who obviously
wouldn't know an operating system if it bit you - yyy is _obviously_
better because bleh bleh bleh!". And so downhill it goes from there.
No FAQ will ever satisfy the two sides, and would rapidly become
obsolete even if it did. Dave Burgess's FAQ _tries_ to answer this
question about as well as any FAQ could, and people still aren't
remotely satisfied. One German magazine reviewer who compared FreeBSD
to Linux ended up making an unfavorable judgement of FreeBSD because
_it didn't have enough shells_ bundled in by default! He completely
ignored the other issues, he just wanted his bloody tcsh to be happy.
This almost perfectly exemplifys the average querant - they don't
really want to know which is better in general (as if "better in
general" meant anything anyway), they want to know which is better for
THEM, and how the hell are we supposed to know that?
The distraction is overwhelming and we need a solution.
The solution is obvious, and in right front of our faces. Don't even
bother with such questions. Ignore them. If you're dead-set on
answering questions, then there are PLENTY of more worthy questions
posed every single day that could use meaningful answers. Why waste
time with people who only want to know which brand gives you whiter
teeth, fresher breath, cures acne or gets out those nasty grass
stains? Such people are better off watching daytime television talk
shows or reading "USA Today" anyway ("Today on Sally Jesse Rafael,
we'll be asking the question "Which is better? Linux or FreeBSD?",
and we'll also be interviewing 3 truck drivers who like to do long
cross-country trips with live hamsters in their shorts.")
Sheesh!
Jordan