*BSD News Article 21033


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From: osyjm@cs.montana.edu (Jaye Mathisen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: 386BSD or Linux ??
Date: 15 Sep 1993 19:54:08 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, MSU, Bozeman MT, 59717
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <277rt0$b0e@pdq.coe.montana.edu>
References: <16SEP93.02290762@tifrvax.tifr.res.in>
NNTP-Posting-Host: schizo.coe.montana.edu

In article <16SEP93.02290762@tifrvax.tifr.res.in>,
Sundar Nagarajan <basant@tifrvax.tifr.res.in> wrote:
>3) I want a DOS partition on my machine and I heard that BSD386 crashes
>        destroying the DOS partition. Is this true ? Are there any workarounds
>        to 386BSD to ensure that the DOS partition remains inviolate ?
>        The stuff on my DOS partition is of utmost importance to me.

Well, if it's that important, you should have a backup anyway, if you don't,
serves you right if it gets trashed.

That aside, the new FreeBSD install disks will preserve your DOS partitions
and such, I've done several installs with dos co-existence, and no
problems.

>4) What are the merits / demerits of Linux in this respect ? How does Linux
>        compare with 386BSD ?

Frankly, they're all OK.  I feel I can speak with some authority on this,
as I have them all running at home.  Linux is a little weak network wise,
and it suffers from patch-of-the-hour syndrome.  But it has good install
tools, runs with minimal memory, and doesn't require quite as much
disk space.

NetBSD and FreeBSD are approximately equivalent, in that you won't be making
a huge mistake running either.  Networking under *BSD is much more solid
than Linux.

You don't mention what ethernet card you have, that may affect your choice
a bit, not all drivers are available on all machines, although it's close.
-- 
 Jaye Mathisen, COE Systems Manager                (406) 994-4780
 410 Roberts Hall,Dept. of Computer Science
 Montana State University,Bozeman MT 59717	osyjm@cs.montana.edu