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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!arclight.uoregon.edu!hammer.uoregon.edu!newsgate.cuhk.edu.hk!agate!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!qualcomm.com!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.indiana.edu!news From: Lars Hofhansl <lhofhans@indiana.edu> Newsgroups: comp.unix.advocacy,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux Date: Mon, 11 Nov 1996 03:57:05 -0600 Organization: Indiana University Lines: 38 Message-ID: <3286F871.27144FAB@indiana.edu> References: <328709F4.199E@dei.unipd.it> NNTP-Posting-Host: pionier.eigenmann.indiana.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (X11; I; Linux 2.0.25 i586) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.advocacy:29349 comp.os.linux.advocacy:72180 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:30878 Enoch Peserico wrote: > > Hello! I'm sorry if I bring up a common subject but I'm in no way an > expert Linux or FreeBSD user (and know little of Unix in general). In > fact I want to install one of them (and become an expert user of it ;) ) > while remaining -almost- blissfully ignorant of the other. > > The platforms are two 486 DX 66 VesaLB, one with 8 and the other 16 megs > of ram, the first with a 420 meg hard disk, the second with a 720 one, + > modems, printers and 1 HP scanner (and soon, I hope, some local network > connecting them). > > Which should I choose and why? I'd like to here comments both in favour > and against each of the two OSes. > Ok, you asked for it. this is my very personal impression: (all following flames are redirectd to /dev/null) I used both Linux and FreeBSD. I started off with Linux and switched later to FreeBSD. FreeBSD was noticably faster under load on my machine, whereas Linux supported a wider range of hardware, and has a larger pool of preported software. I'm now using Linux again, because of its better PCMCIA support. Seriously, it depends on what you like. FreeBSD is more modeled after a commercial company, with defined releases (you can always download the test-releases, though). Linux impersonates the idea of free development. Bottomline: If your friends have Linux... Get it. If they have FreeBSD... Get it. Or try them both! Lars