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From: robert@I_should_put_my_domain_in_etc_NNTP_INEWS_DOMAIN (Robert Brockway)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.setup
Subject: Re: Linux or BSD?
Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.setup
Date: 16 Apr 1996 04:47:15 GMT
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Message-ID: <4kv8oj$em@hobyah.cc.uq.oz.au>
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Reply-To: ec531667@student.uq.edu.au
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3097 comp.os.linux.development.system:21608 comp.os.linux.setup:50929
: Slackware Linux is a decent package, though it can grow to over 150 MB
: quickly. RedHat Linux is easier to install, as is Debian (tho Debian is still
: v0.99.x with older version kernels), and each has similar features. Linux is
: POSIX compliant and does one or two things different than BSD. All Linux
: flavors are free by ftp (Slackware at ftp.linux.org, RedHat and Debian at
: ftp.[redhat,debian].org.
: >Some of the features I'm looking for
: > - multiple ethernet cards (PCI bus prefered)
: So long as each card can havge its own IRQ, or you have a multiport card,
Multiport cards are to do with serial ports, not etherent cards. Unless the
h/w supports it, each ethernet card requires its own IRQ - it is a good idea
to do it at all times if possible anyway.
: Linux will support it. Major support is for the 3com cards. Drivers can be
Many, many ethernet cards are supported, including NE2000 which means all we
poor students can get supported cards too :-)
: loaded as modules to keep kernels small (1MB limit for kernel size at boot).
This is being fixed in the 1.3 series. I believe people have already booted
kernels bigger than 1Mb (bzImage they call it). Lilo (and probably loadlin)
are being modified to accomodate this.
: > - reliable
: Slackware 2.3 is considered the stable version (a.out), and Slackware 3.0 is
: an experimental distribution (with ELF support) and not as stable. I've had
: fewer problems with 2.3 than with FreeBSD inre: installation, configuration,
: post-install customization.
I actually thought that Slackware 3.0 was a gamma (production) release of
Slackware (but i could be wrong). There was a Slackware-beta came out
several months before slackware 3.0.
: >did anyone use Linux or Netbsd in a realtime applications? (process control/monitoring)?
Linux is getting real time support (not sure if it will be ready for 2.0).
*BSD doesn't yet have realtime support either, AFAIK.
: IMHO, Linux isn't ready for realtime apps you mention because of multitask/
: multithread CPU demands. Some apps can take 95% or more CPU time, slowing or
: halting those of lower priority, and I've lost data packets while ftp'ing and
: running as little as four other apps (not counting daemons or init).
That is more likely to be a product of having a 16450 uart chip than anything
in s/w. Get a 16550a buffer chip. Read the serial howto for other possible
causes.
: I've very little experience with BSD (Net or Free), and I'm currently fetching
: NetBSD for my own evaluations.
I am a Sysop on a NetBSD box, as well as an my own Linux box. From a
user perspective they are virtually identical. From a sysop perspective,
they are almost identical.
I can't compare performance as the 2 boxes differ so much in h/w and in
usage.
Cheers,
-Robert
--Robert Brockway, email: ec531667@student.uq.edu.au
robert@karanthia.humbug.org.au
WWW: http://student.uq.edu.au/~ec531667
Computers: Can't live with them, can't play Doom without them.