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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msunews!netnews.upenn.edu!newsserver.jvnc.net!newsserver2.jvnc.net!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!btnet!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!jraynard.demon.co.uk!jraynard.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: james@jraynard.demon.co.uk (James Raynard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Linux or FreeBSD Date: 18 Sep 1995 23:16:30 -0000 Organization: A FreeBSD box Lines: 44 Message-ID: <43kuke$mv@jraynard.demon.co.uk> References: <409iah$inf@galaxy.ucr.edu> <1995Sep7.221221.28091@state.systems.sa.gov.au> <43dm5r$638@park.uvsc.edu> <43hqa7$3rk@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.jraynard.demon.co.uk X-NNTP-Posting-Host: jraynard.demon.co.uk In article <43hqa7$3rk@nntp5.u.washington.edu>, Tim Smith <tzs@u.washington.edu> wrote: >Terry Lambert <terry@cs.weber.edu> wrote: >>I mean I find it hard to believe that Linux has "10 times as many >>people" Actually, he said he found it hard to believe that the number of books available was the single main reason why Linux has 10 times as many users. Not the same thing at all. >I don't. First, consider non-net sources. Linux seems to be much >more widely available. Walk into any reasonable bookstore, and there >are Linux books that include Linux on CD-ROM. The closest thing you'll >find in most of those stores to any flavor of Berkeley Unix is the 4.4 >BSD CD-ROM. In the shop where I get my computer books, practically all the books on Unix cover Berkeley Unix to some extent. In fact, the Linux books are practically the only ones that don't! >Second, what does get out to stores is too out of date to run on many >people's systems. I've not been able to find a store that caries anything >later than FreeBSD 2.0. Since then, IDE CD-ROM has become the norm on >PC hardware, and is not supported in FreeBSD 2.0. A good point, though I notice there seem to be a few problems with Linux's handling of IDE CDROMs. (BTW is it supported on any non-experimental kernels?) FWIW, I think Linux has managed to set up a "virtuous circle" where people try it out, their friends get to hear about it and it spreads by word of mouth. Of course, the same thing happens with FreeBSD, but to a considerably lesser extent. A lot of impetus was lost at the very same time Linux was gaining momentum, due to things like the AT&T lawsuit. Also, there is the confusion caused by having three fairly similar OSs with very similar names (BSDI, FreeBSD, NetBSD). I've lost count of the times of the number of times I've told people I run FreeBSD on my PC and the next time I meet them they say "Oh yes, you run NetBSD don't you" (that's if they don't think it's Linux!). James -- "If English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"