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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.development:2613 comp.os.linux.development:17450 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!quagga.ru.ac.za!Braae!g89r4222 From: csgr@cs.ru.ac.za (Geoff Rehmet) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.linux.development Subject: Re: We a FAQ: Linux vs. *BSD!!! Date: 15 Oct 1994 07:54:51 GMT Organization: Rhodes University Computing Services Lines: 60 Message-ID: <37o1sb$444@quagga.ru.ac.za> References: <jmonroyCxLro2.IF6@netcom.com> <JKH.94Oct13042845@freefall.cdrom.com> <37mflh$f6s@unix1.cc.uop.edu> Reply-To: csgr@cs.ru.ac.za NNTP-Posting-Host: braae.ru.ac.za X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #4 (NOV) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <37mflh$f6s@unix1.cc.uop.edu> hughes@napa.eng.uop.edu (Ken Hughes) writes: >Normally I would agree, but in this case I doubt that ignoring the >questions will stop them from being asked. New people come into these >groups all the time and so these questions are bound to keep coming up. >The problem is, as you point out, not the questions but the answers. It's >impossible to answer "Which is better?" without being subjective; there >isn't any one OS which is clearly better or worse than all the others (and >I won't get baited into adding "except that they're all better than >386BSD-1.0", so please don't start THAT thread again either). IMHO, the >only chance for resolving this issue would be for someone to sit down and >compile a list of features that shows which OS has what and which doesn't. It's all very well and easy to say that "someone should go and compile a list of features and differences". I think the 386BSD FAQ tries to do this, to a degree, but the maintainer has (as far as I can recall) been pretty close to getting pissed of and "leaving the room" on a number of occasions. If someone does put together a list of features and differences, that list has to be maintained. Such a job would probably result in more aggravation than anything else, given the tendency for flame wars to develop. A feature, which to one person looks good, may look bad to another. Lets take shared libraries as an example. I'm pretty sure that you could get a pretty good flamewar going about whether Linux or *BSD have got the best solution to shared libraries. Without going into the details of each, both have advantages and disadvantages. I realize that what I'm saying doesn't change or help anything. It would however help, if those of us who do try to answer some of the questions would try and set our egos and our love for our pet systems aside when answering the questions, and try to give a balanced answer, and do our best not to write any flame-bait. I don't think we will get rid of the flame-wars. Also, the competition between the groups is good -- it keeps us all on our toes, and the people who benefit in the end are the users. It would be nice to see a factual list of differences between the different free UN*Xes compiled. I just don't see it happening, and I sure as hell am not volunteering to do it. (Remember that anyone who tries to pin down any one of *BSD or Linux is shooting at a moving target -- these systems all move so fast as they incorporate new features and borrow from each other.) Geoff. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQBVAgUBLp+KxsmtR07KMR7ZAQGuwQH/ULLO6PGI8a2eVvjDrNhfu66UsG+pHYKE ayQTOcIBh9BbNVbxOPwaymD38LoNPDP+qHDo2h7wRdEGQ+R4cUil9w== =qE5A -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Geoff Rehmet, Computer Science Department, Rhodes University, South Africa FreeBSD core team: csgr@freebsd.org | ____ _ o /\ csgr@cs.ru.ac.za, geoff@neptune.ru.ac.za |___ _-\_<, / /\/\ finger rehmet@cs.ru.ac.za for PGP public key | (*)/'(*) /\/ / \ \