*BSD News Article 88497


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From: Axel Boldt <boldt@math.ucsb.edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs BSD
Date: 04 Feb 1997 20:55:10 -0800
Organization: Univ of California at Santa Barbara, Dept of Mathematics
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"John S. Dyson" <dyson@indy.celebration.net> writes:

> If you are comparing a FreeBSD V2.1 kernel with Linux 2.X, you'll
> find that Linux is faster in many ways.  FreeBSD V2.1 is of the
> Linux 1.2.X vintage, and we sorely need to release a 2.2 kernel
> (which outperforms Linux in some important and not so important
> ways.)  Run benchmarks of your choice and you'll see.

[...]

> Of course, the main reason for upgrading is for performance and
> stability,

You just admitted above that the current released version of Linux is
faster than the current released version of FreeBSD, so "performance"
is a vaporware argument. Higher "stabilitiy" of FreeBSD is often
claimed and never proven, (and also hard to disprove), but I would
guess that it is very likely a leftover from Linux 1.0.x days. One
thing that is easily measurable though is the much wider hardware
support of Linux, better documentation and personal user support, and
the larger variety of Linux based "fun" experimental projects.

Maybe FreeBSD 2.2 will come out faster if its developers spend more
time on the kernel mailing lists and less on advocacy groups.

Axel