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From: rick@ee.ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: Pros/cons of linux/386bsd?
Date: 14 Dec 1992 20:26:46 GMT
Organization: Just me.
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mharm@pollux.usc.edu (Michael Harm) writes:
>Hi folks.
>We are trying to decide whether to go with linux or 386bsd for 
>our 486 machines.  Particular constraints are:

First off... Who's "we"?  That might give us a clue.  You see, if "we"
is a law-sensitive organization you may want to avoid 386BSD because it's
derived from the NET-2 tapes which AT&T now claims to have Copyrights on.

>We don't have a lot of disk space.

Linux uses shared libraries, 386BSD doesn't.  This means that Linux will
take up a *lot* less disk-space than 386BSD will... especially if you intend
to have lots of little executables (such as the usual suite of UNIX-ish
commands:  ls, more, cat, etc.).

>We need X11.

Both do this, don't they?

>We don't have a lot of memory per machine.

Linux will run with only 2 MegaBytes (though the install's a bit trickier).

>We don't have cd roms

Neither Linux nor 386BSD require you to have a cdrom.

You didn't mention what you want to *DO* with your machines... That's CRITICAL.
If you want to do networking, perhaps 386BSD is your answer.  But if you want
to be POSIX-compliant, it's Linux.

Rick Miller   <rick@ee.uwm.edu> | <rick@discus.mil.wi.us>   Ricxjo Muelisto
Occupation:  Husband, Father, WEPCo. WAN Mgr., Discus Sys0p, and  Linux fan