Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.dacom.co.kr!news.kreonet.re.kr!usenet.kornet.nm.kr!agate!news.mindlink.net!van-bc!news.rmii.com!night.xinside.com!not-for-mail From: mjhammel@night.xinside.com (Michael J Hammel) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.misc,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD Date: 16 Nov 1995 15:25:31 -0700 Organization: Land of Confusion Lines: 46 Message-ID: <48gdor$3p3@night.xinside.com> References: <489kuu$rbo@pelican.cs.ucla.edu> <48aoee$j59@post.gsfc.nasa.gov> <48b7ra$26a@harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: night.xinside.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:27921 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:9216 comp.unix.advocacy:11238 comp.unix.misc:19619 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:8869 In article <48b7ra$26a@harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au>, sjlai@will.ct.monash.edu.au (Simon Lai) writes: |> Choosing something because "more people have it" is not necessarily |> the best way of making a choice. I would choose the tool |> that does the job best, whether it be FreeBSD, Linux, etc ... . True. If the "mores" were in charge we'd all be using M$ stuff. Thank <insert favorite deity here> we have freedom of choice. |> PS I run both FreeBSD and Linux which helps when comparing the two. True again. My personal opinion (not speaking for X Inside) is that its about a dead heat for the two. I got alot of written material that I could read and experiment with for Linux. For FreeBSD I've had Jordan help keep me pointed in the right direction. In either case, it wasn't alot of trouble to get done whatever I needed to do. A little frustrating at times, but these are computer OS's, not toasters. (Oh, and I didn't start working with FreeBSD till I got to X Inside, and someone else did the installations for me, so I don't know how much documentation there is for it.) From a commercial perspective, having a focal point to bounce questions off of helps alot. FreeBSD seems to have a central group. Linux doesn't. The switch from aout to elf on Linux has been a nightmare from the point of view of commercial support. I'm not convinced ELF is stable (lots of reasons for that), so I need to keep my aout stuff running. Unfortunately, all the commercial distributors jumped right to ELF and haven't been all that concerned with helping customers keep their aout stuff running. Thats fine for hackers, but its tough on the masses who have jumped on board the Linux train who just want a running system. I don't know if FreeBSD has ever had to go through this. It might not be a big problem if there isn't much support for commercial products (is there?). If anyone does want commercial products for FreeBSD, please keep the aout/elf scenario in mind. Try to avoid such things if possible. Please note that there is a demand for commercial products on Linux (we get a vast majority of requests for product from Linux users) but that didn't seem to help their situation (ok, it didn't help *my* situation :-). Just my 2 cents (ok, a buck and a quarter) worth. -- Michael J. Hammel@X Inside| Now available: MWM - X Inside's 100% Motif 2.0 mjhammel@xinside.com | compatible Runtime, Development and #include <std/disclaim> | Demonstration kits for Linux and BSDI BSD/OS! http://www.xinside.com | 1-800-XINSIDE/1-303-298-7478