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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!uunet!in1.uu.net!207.172.3.52!feed1.news.erols.com!super.zippo.com!zdc!szdc!szdc-e!news From: "John S. Dyson" <dyson@freebsd.org> Newsgroups: alt.os.linux.caldera,alt.os.linux.slackware,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: PC Unix implementations Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 15:37:11 -0500 Organization: John S. Dyson's home machine Lines: 45 Message-ID: <3310AA77.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> References: <01bc21c2$8f14ac40$4258ec8a@host.domain> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT i386) Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au alt.os.linux.caldera:1345 comp.os.linux.advocacy:85522 comp.os.linux.misc:160685 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:35979 Brian M. Choc wrote: > > Greetings, people who probably know more about Unix than me, > Since you seem to be the people who know most about such things, I am > going to ask you this question: which PC Unix implementation should I > commit to? > [... respectfully snipped ...] > So my question is this: which OS do you think > I should aquire, and why? Any advice would be appreciated. > Well, it would be a good idea to try FreeBSD, Linux and WinNT (IMO.) I have a multi-boot arrangement for all three, including Win95 also. Give yourself a few days (weeks) with each one and learn as much as you can about each. The major problem with WinNT would be the cost of the development environment for evaluation. (Cygnus does have a reasonable Win32 dev/POSIX-type environment for WinNT though -- but it isn't quite the same as using the Microsoft native tools.) If you compare FreeBSD V2.2 (which will be coming out soon) and current versions of Linux, I think that you would be satisified with either. I strongly suggest buying a CDROM instead of trying to download (even though the FreeBSD/Slakware/Walnut Creek main site: wcarchive.cdrom.com seldom runs out of steam for ftping.) (modulo networking limitations in the internet at large.) The CDROM(s) for both Linux and FreeBSD have been helpful for getting me out of uncomfortable jams on both OSes. Generally, it is more fun to use the U**X clones, due to the neat new source distributed software being released daily. NT is okay when you need interoperability with Microsoft Word and it's ilk. For general file sharing with NT and the Microsoft world, both Linux and FreeBSD are great. As a FreeBSD developer and user, I am biased towards that. We could also get into discussions regarding things like licensing terms, or performance aspects -- but those things are typically "fine line" issues for most people. Many applications that are Linux-only, BSDI-only or SCO-only also run on FreeBSD, so that is not much of a real issue either. John