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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!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!agate!news.ucdavis.edu!library.ucla.edu!info.ucla.edu!news.bc.net!felix.junction.net!okjunc.junction.net!michael From: michael@okjunc.junction.net (Michael Dillon) Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,alt.os.linux,alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Questions about Linux vs. FreeBSD... Date: 18 Dec 1995 05:43:52 GMT Organization: Okanagan Internet Junction, Vernon B.C., Canada Lines: 74 Message-ID: <4b2v2o$b9s@felix.junction.net> References: <4ajc07$sb7@unix2.glink.net.hk> <4apnvc$hhk@er5.rutgers.edu> <4as5gr$6g2@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: okjunc.junction.net Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.admin:36238 alt.os.linux:6577 alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions:5208 comp.os.linux.advocacy:30979 comp.os.linux.misc:76613 comp.os.linux.setup:33112 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:10867 In article <4as5gr$6g2@bmerhc5e.bnr.ca>, Kevin Currie <kcurrie@bnr.ca> wrote: >tormentvm (prw@eden.rutgers.edu) wrote: >: achan@glink.net.hk (Alan Chan) writes: > >: > Hope someone could give me some information. >: > Which is better? Linux or FreeBSD? This is just a PLAIN DUMB QUESTION!!!! >: > Which one is more stable/better for networking as an Internet >: >Service Provider, a news server and a tape backup machine? This is better, but the correct answer is BOTH Linux and FreeBSD work well in this application and there are mailing lists for both. Send a subscribe message to linuxisp-request@lightning.com and/or freebsd-isp-request@freebsd.org and you will find a two communities of successful ISP's that are happy with their choice of Linux/FreeBSD >: > What I heard is, FreeBSD is more stable on networking >: >performance, am I right? Correct me if I'm wrong! This is still a pretty dumb question, but the answer is NO. FreeBSD is not more stable on networking although its TCP/IP capabilities are somewhat more efficient than Linux. This is important for heavy duty servers but most ISP's don't run into this until they get their T3 line installed. I suppose if you plan to use a 486 for a router and plan to have two T1's and talk BGP fairly soon, you should know that you will have to run FreeBSD on that 486 and use ET's sync cards http://www.etinc.com, due to the way Linux inefficiently deals with large numbers of routes. But if you don't need that right away, it will probably be fixed in the next stable 2.0 release of Linux, right Alan? ;-) (Cox, that is...) So you see, the very ground is shifting beneath us as we compare landscapes. What was a mirage last week bvecomes reality today. Hown can mere mortals make a comparison? How can we possibly decide? The sages of old have developped a wise technique which we should be grateful to follow. Flip a coin! >: > From my point of view, I see, there are more technical support in >: >the net for Linux, like more newsgroups, lots of HOW-TO documentation, >: >web pages, lots more hardware compatibility, etc... seems more people >: >know/use Linux than FreeBSD. Definitely wrong on this one. There is more net information and support for MS Windows and more people use Windows by far than Linux/FreeBSD. On the other hand, Windows is worse than useless to an ISP.... Basically, you don't start a business (like an ISP) based on a popularity contest. Get both Linux/FreeBSD and use whichever one turns out to be easiest for you or your technical people. Better yet, since you will need at minimum two servers, set up one of each. When you set up your third server for WWW only (around the 300-400 user mark) you will know without a doubt which one works best for you. > Did it ever occur to you that he's NOt trying to start a flamewar >but get USEFUL information? I too am sick of these matters of religion >but sometimes this is necessary. To get useful information, you need to ask useful questions. In order to ask useful questions you must start by doing your research. Nobody who has done their research could possibly ask "Which is better, Linux or FreeBSD?" since they would know that both are very good, top notch quality stable OSes with widespread support both commercial and free. -- Michael Dillon Voice: +1-604-546-8022 Memra Software Inc. Fax: +1-604-542-4130 http://www.memra.com E-mail: michael@memra.com