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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!olivea!pagesat!news.cerf.net!kaiwan.com!luke From: luke@kaiwan.com ( Luke ) Subject: Re: bsd vs linux???? Message-ID: <CDDH3A.13A@kaiwan.com> Organization: KAIWAN Internet Access (714-539-2457,310-527-7358 guest) References: <26arjt$hkl@news.bu.edu> <1993Sep12.183113.9251@ichtys.rni.sub.org> <272ckr$c7c@mudos.pc.cc.cmu.edu> Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1993 01:49:57 GMT Lines: 57 In article <272ckr$c7c@mudos.pc.cc.cmu.edu>, Marc Unangst <mju@mudos.pc.cc.cmu.edu> wrote: =kmw@ichtys.rni.sub.org (Karsten M. Winkovics) writes: =>I was rather disappointed, I had liked the concept of porting a mature OS =>like bsd to the easily available pcs, but bsd/386 just couldn't cut it... =>after 2 months of waiting for the Jolitz' new release I tried Linux, I think =>0.96.6. = =I'd like to add my two cents from the other side of the fence. I =started looking at free Unix for the PC about a year ago, and started =with 386BSD 0.1. The original release was unstable, of course, and =I barely had enough disk to apply the patchkit. The fact that I was =running it on a 386SX/20 with 6MB of RAM didn't help much. After =a while, I got frustrated and decided to try Linux. Linux was =smaller, but somewhat less functional. Shortly after I installed =Linux, the DMA controller on the SX/20 motherboard (a non-socketed =part, sadly) died, and I gave up playing around with free Unixes for =a while. ..... =I think Linux and NetBSD are different solutions to different =problems. If stable TCP/IP and a stable filesystem are important =to you, but POSIX-compliance is less of an issue, go with NetBSD. =If you like your OS to have a SysV-ish feel, or if you want things =like the DOS emulator or WABI or iBCS2, go with Linux. = I am new in this area. So I want to try those OS out in my junk PC. PC 386/40 with MFM/HD 80 Mega and 2 Mega RAM only. I believe this is the minimum requirement by all PD UNIX. (I want to run it as a name server only. So networking is important.) First I tried to boot BSD386 0.1 from boot floppy. The floppy disk keep rotating forever. Then I turn the PC off and declare a failure. (Need not to say, before I give up BSD386. I disassemble the computer and check every switch, pin out and chips and reassemble the pc again. Just want to make sure.) Second I tried to boot Linux MCC distribution(the smallest one) 0.99.p10+ from boot floppy. This surprised me. It is bootable. No, I am not going to install an OS using stacks of floppy disks. Third, I tried NetBSD. Same result as BSD386 0.1 did. Never gonner trust any more minmum requirements. ;-( Last, I tried FreeBsd. Yes, I was in the sad mode. Last hope to my name server. :-( It works. It boots. BUT, it says "Too little RAM memory. Warning, running in degraded mode." Now I am going to find out what that means..... -- info@kaiwan.com, Anonymous FTP, Telnet kaiwan.com(192.215.30.2) Login: guest DATA# 714-539-5726(Login: guest) 16.8k/14.4k 8-N-1, FAX# 714-638-0455 Is $10.00/month cheap for a FULL Internet connected UNIX user account? Modems->AT&T:199.00/233.25,Intel:199.25/233.25,ZyXEL1496E:209.00,E+:429.00