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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.ysu.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!lade.news.pipex.net!pipex!handbag.tecc.co.uk!parody.tecc.co.uk!not-for-mail From: james@parody.tecc.co.uk (James Raynard) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD Date: 12 Dec 1995 02:34:50 -0000 Organization: A FreeBSD box Lines: 117 Message-ID: <4aipoa$202@parody.tecc.co.uk> References: <489kuu$rbo@pelican.cs.ucla.edu> <4ac46s$hfh@bell.maths.tcd.ie> <4ack8a$11b@parody.tecc.co.uk> <4af9o3$dc7@bell.maths.tcd.ie> NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:30240 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10396 comp.unix.advocacy:12179 comp.unix.misc:20081 In article <4af9o3$dc7@bell.maths.tcd.ie>, Timothy Murphy <tim@maths.tcd.ie> wrote: >james@parody.tecc.co.uk (James Raynard) writes: > >>On the contrary, any good book on system administration should explain >>how to mount file systems (and hopefully how to use the apropos command). >>You then read the system's man pages for the specifics of how to do what you >>want to do on the particular system you are using. Or you can read the FAQ >>for an appropriate newsgroup (which, being a good Net citizen, you should >>always do before posting to it 8-) > >>>Some people answered this by claiming that no documentation was necessary, >>>since FreeBSD is identical to any other BSD. > >>Please could you cite a posting where someone has claimed that FreeBSD >>doesn't need any documentation. > >I don't keep a record of postings I read; Neither do I. >but several people said more or less exactly that. I've been reading this newsgroup (and its predecessors) for over a year and don't remember anyone saying anything of the kind. However, I'm willing to be corrected. >In fact it seems to me that what you have said above >amounts to the same thing. No, what I said was that you need to read the man pages (which presumably count as documentation) to be able to do things on a particular system. >Why tell us that "any good book on system administration" >tells you how to mount a file system, >unless you think it is an answer to my query >about mounting floppies? Because you claimed it was impossible to find it out by reading a book on BSD. I humbly submit that it is possible (obviously not ideal, just possible). For example, if you know how to mount a filesystem, it is possible to mount a floppy by making an intelligent guess at an appropriate device name. This is how I did it with version 1.0.2, which as far as I recall had no documentation apart from the manpages! This is also what you often have to do with commercial Unices, where the documentation is usually either useless, not available or too expensive (if not all three). Alternatively, as I hinted, the answer may be found from the FAQ (which has come with FreeBSD since at least version 2.0). >[Nb I defined FreeBSD documentation as >documentation which comes with FreeBSD. >It was clear from the rest of my posting >from which your exerpt above came >that "documentation" referred to FreeBSD documentation in this sense.] Yes, this was what I assumed you meant. >I would also like to see the posting in >>which it was claimed that "FreeBSD is identical to any other BSD". > >You are just being pedantic. No, I am just asking you to substantiate this extraordinary statement. >You yourself seem to believe that "any good book" on BSD >will explain how to use FreeBSD. It will explain the *principles* of how to use FreeBSD (or any other BSD-style system), not the *particulars*. >You must therefore believe that FreeBSD is simply an examplar >of the BSD species with no special features requiring >separate documentation. That would be a ridiculous position - fortunately not one I hold (nor anyone else that I am aware of). >If I am right in that -- >and if I am not then you have not explained your position clearly -- I haven't even tried to explain my position. Unfortunately you seem to have jumped to certain conclusions. >To repeat it in a nutshell: >I do not believe a person unfamiliar with Unix >and running FreeBSD on their PC at home >could possibly discover what to do by reading books on BSD. If you mean reading books and nothing else (not even the manpages or the FAQ) then I agree it would be extremely difficult. >I am told there is now good documentation on FreeBSD. There is certainly far more of it with 2.1.0 than previously, which I happen to think is a very good thing. I wish I had the time to contribute something to it. >If that is so -- I have not yet been able to check it out -- >then I for one would be more than happy, I for one would have been happier if you had checked it out first rather than leaping in and announcing that it's a terrible shambles. >since I believe that Linux and FreeBSD are good for one another, >and that one does not have to hate one to like the other. Agreed with 101%. Cheers James -- Segmentation fault (core dumped): cannot find file '.signature'