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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!news.ci.com.au!metro!metro!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.coast.net!lll-winken.llnl.gov!osi-east2.es.net!cebaf4.cebaf.gov!recycle.cebaf.gov!doolitt From: doolitt@recycle.cebaf.gov (Larry Doolittle) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system Subject: Re: The better (more suitable)Unix?? FreeBSD or Linux Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system Date: 22 Feb 1996 13:13:51 GMT Organization: CEBAF Lines: 36 Message-ID: <4ghq6f$4to@cebaf4.cebaf.gov> References: <4g5ivp$28m@park.uvsc.edu> <4ge2qa$2gm@park.uvsc.edu> <4ggc9k$kbv@park.uvsc.edu> <4ggj2f$mej@park.uvsc.edu> <4ggo5v$mon@park.uvsc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: recycle.cebaf.gov X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:14534 comp.os.linux.development.system:18258 Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote: : The third (a)/(b)/(c) is mass creation (frequently only at : install time), mass remove (not frequent at all), and mass : create/remove (the artificial lmbench "benchmark"). I argue : that such operations are infrequent enough as to not be user : perceptible. I believe I am a typical PC-Unix user. My systems are even (mostly) single-user, although that paradigm breaks down a little because the machines can also act as servers (web, nfs, ftp, mail ...). I won't even dispute that the operations you discuss are infrequent. Maybe 92% of my use is simple stuff, like typing this message. Any background file operations (editor journalling, whatever) are fast enough to be invisible. The "rare" occasions when I get cranking on some oddball development -- that may involve large numbers of file creation and deletion (e.g., breaking a large data set into a number of smaller, calibrated ones) -- are _precisely_ the times that I care about performance. They are the times I had in mind when I chose a Pentium-90 to replace my 386/25. Don't tell me that speed doesn't matter while I am twiddling my thumbs to see if the tweak to my awk script did what I wanted. I am not saying that Linux is superior to *BSD or ext2fs is superior to ufs. I couldn't say that with a straight face unless I had first hand experience with *BSD or ufs. I _can_ say that I am pleased with Linux and ext2fs, for their robustness and speed (our monster HP-SUX systems around here barely edge out my Pentium-90 when they are unloaded. Normally they are _Loaded_ with a capital L.) - Larry Doolittle ldoolitt@cebaf.gov