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From: jehamby@lightside.com (Jake Hamby)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux or FreeBSD
Date: 15 Sep 1995 07:43:46 GMT
Organization: Lightside, Inc.
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References: <409iah$inf@galaxy.ucr.edu> <40alp5$psg@agate.berkeley.edu> <41ogs7$jui@park.uvsc.edu> <1995Sep7.221221.28091@state.systems.sa.gov.au>
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: There is absolutely no need to do it. Almost all releases are "stable",
: and the few that aren't are quickly replaced. If you get a Linux
: "distribution" (e.g. Slackware) it has a stable kernel binary. There is
: no need to look further. There is the _possibility_, which doesn't exist
: with FreeBSD, of downloading the latest version of the kernel, because it
: is available independently of the distributions. That it is possible doesn't
: mean you have to do it, though. I have had kernel version 1.1.59 on a
: machine at work for many months, and 1.3.9 at home for many weeks. Both
: are fine, and I have no plans to upgrade either just yet.
: -- Michael Talbot-Wilson
1.1.59???? I remember when I was using Linux, there was a whole series
of kernels from about 1.1.59 to 1.1.80 that were buggy beyond belief!
Bad networking code screwed up my PPP connection, and bad virtual memory
code caused my programs to core dump. I had to wait until 1.1.86 or so
before I was willing to use the "experimental kernel" again. And
Slackware, which you speak so highly of, WAS using the 1.1.72 (buggiest of
them all), kernel for a period of time.
The problem with Linux is that, as much as you might want to use the
"stable" kernels there's always one new feature that you gotta get the
"experimental" versions for. But, UNLIKE FreeBSD, one new feature isn't
ever going to get propogated back into the "stable" kernel, instead you'd
have to wait for 1.4.x, which probably won't come out for another year or
so. Ergo, as soon as one new feature that you want comes out, you HAVE to
get the experimental kernel.
Don't get me wrong, there are good points and bad points to both
operating systems, and I'm not about to start bashing Linux, like you
seem to enjoy bashing FreeBSD (inferiority complex, perhaps?). I've used
both operating systems, and they both have their advantages. The reasons
I switched to FreeBSD were simple, and you won't be able to convince me
that Linux is better in these areas:
1) Download speed during PPP: I get 3.2K/sec vs. 2.8K/sec under Linux.
That's a tangible 14% speed improvement (using NcFTP and the same Internet
provider/computer/modem in all cases)! Also, I have PPP-on-demand under
FreeBSD which dials the modem whenever I initiate an Internet connection
and hangs up when I've been idle for too long.
2) When you run out of physical RAM, FreeBSD is much more efficient with
swap space than Linux (i.e. your system doesn't slow to a crawl when you
switch from Emacs to Netscape). Now that I have 24MB of RAM, this isn't a
problem for either OS, but if you only have 8MB, FreeBSD will make a big
difference. I hear this is fixed in the 1.3.X Linux kernels, but see my
point above about "experimental" Linux.
3) When I switched from a.out to ELF under Linux, it WASN'T as stable as
everyone had promised. A couple of programs, including 'xbench' and
simple utilities like "fromdos" and "todos" caused segmentation faults no
matter what I did! And once you've seen how easy it is to build shared
libraries under ELF, you don't want to go back to a.out! So I either had
to use the buggy, yet programmer-friendly ELF or the obsolete (have to be
a guru to make a shared library), yet non-buggy a.out. This is the
question every Linux user must ask themselves, and it's going to be a
rocky transition, believe me! Yet FreeBSD has always had a solid shared
library system every bit as good as ELF, so there's no concern here...
4) A more solid release schedule. You praise the Linux kernel, yet what
about the other utilities that surround it? I've sent numerous E-Mail to
Patrick Volkerding, the author of Slackware, discussing various bugs, and
he's only responded to one or two. And he HASN'T fixed the bugs either!
There are many other distributions of Linux, and even with the FSSTND
(File System Standard for linux), they can be very different from each
other. There is only ONE distribution of FreeBSD and it is discussed on
numerous mailing lists, and available for public comment and review,
BEFORE release.
Finally, while the most serious problem with FreeBSD has been a lack of
documentation, and you see that as a serious fault (on the other hand,
you neglect the fact that anyone can pick up a book on System
Administration for SunOS or BSDI and 99.9% will apply to FreeBSD), I see
it as a challenge. Since I have knowledge to impart to others, there is
a real opportunity to do things like adding drivers to the kernel or
adding a chapter to the FreeBSD Handbook (my "Configuring the Kernel"
chapter will be coming out in 2.1.0, you MIGHT want to read it, if you
think building a kernel in FreeBSD is so difficult). With Linux,
anything you'd want to hack on, has already been done by somebody else,
there's hardly anthing left to DO anymore!
I apologize that this letter has gotten so long, but I thought I'd clear
some things up. I used to be an Amiga "fanatic" years ago, and I swore
off that when I realized there was a bigger world out there. It's
disturbing to me that Linux is becoming the new OS for "fanatics" and
even though I loved having a UNIX on my PC, I promised myself if
something better came along I'd switch. Between the ELF frustration and
the good news I heard about FreeBSD, I made the switch and I'm glad I did.
--
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Jake Hamby | E-Mail: jehamby@lightside.com
Student, Cal Poly University, Pomona | System Administrator, JPL
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