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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!inquo!hookup!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!quanta.com!rsww From: rsww@quanta.com (Ross Walker) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,,comp.unix.bsd.misc Subject: Re: BSDI vs FreeBSD Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,,comp.unix.bsd.misc Date: 6 Feb 1996 02:31:55 GMT Organization: Quanta Communications, Inc. Lines: 37 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4f6eir$odk@news.quanta.com> References: <AFj4X5nCg4@qsar.chem.msu.su> NNTP-Posting-Host: quanta.quanta.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:13275 comp.unix.bsd.misc:481 Eugene Radchenko (eugene@qsar.chem.msu.su) wrote: : Hi people! : I wonder what is the relation between the BSDI and FreeBSD Unix versions? : Is the BSDI a commercial version of FreeBSD (like Caldera/Linux), another : product, same/better/worse product with support, result of product : divergence or what? Is it developed by the same team? : Which is better (features, stability)? : The problem is: the university here has the enterprise license for BSDI. : Should we use it for the department's Internet server we are putting : together or stick to FreeBSD (2.1)? : Any hints will be appreciated. : Thank you Genie BSDI is different from FreeBSD. It is a commercial implementation of 4.4BSD while FreeBSD is a public domain implementation. I believe that BSDI uses the AT&T kernel code parts and therefore those parts of the kernel sources cannot be distributed. FreeBSD has re-written those parts to avoid the AT&T copyright and has re-vamped the VM system to give some better performance. BSDI has more device drivers, but a lot are under a non-disclosure agreement so their sources cannot be distributed only their object files. I'm not sure if the development software is included with BSDI. From what I've heard is that FreeBSD might even be a little more polished then BSDI, but I have no first hand experience. I personnally use FreeBSD for my Internet site and love it (but I come from a BSD experience). Since you seem to have both there why not compare the two side-by-side yourself and get a more detailed opinion. FreeBSD is of course Free and support for it can be found through third parties. BSDI you buy the product and if you buy the support it's there. Cheers, Ross Walker