*BSD News Article 46113


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From: larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu (Larry Riedel)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs. FreeBSD
Date: 26 Jun 1995 01:31:03 GMT
Organization: San Diego State University, College of Sciences
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Peter Berger (peterb@telerama.lm.com) wrote:
> Larry Riedel <larryr@saturn.sdsu.edu> wrote:
> >I don't have a price cutoff for elitest, because I don't even use the
> >term, and I don't see why sending, e.g., 50 2kByte mail messages is
> >significantly less costly than sending 50 2kByte USENET articles, so
> >consequently I don't see how USENET is inherently any more elitest
> >than a mailing list or requires a better "net connection."
>
> There is a huge cost in both time and CPU cycles in setting up INN
> for the sake of receiving one group.

That is a matter of opinion, relative to interpretation of "huge."
I personally don't think that a small newsfeed is difficult to
set up for a technically-oriented person running FreeBSD, or inherently
resource intensive, but this has nothing to do with the issue I was
addressing, which was whether or not there is something about a receiving
USENET articles that requires a significantly better "net connection" than
receiving mailing list messages.


>                                       Depending on your provider, there
> may also be an additional monthly charge.

I have pointed out that it is possible in extreme cases to use an
E-mail gateway to access a USENET group.


> Email has no such weaknesses.

A couple of weaknesses of E-mail are first that some people do not have
convenient access to a mail reader which will split the mail messages
into the appropriate groups and thread the articles and present them
with a GUI - but do have that for USENET, and second that some people
have to pay extra to receive and/or store lots of E-mail, but not to
read USENET.


Larry