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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.help:8371 comp.os.386bsd.questions:6766 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!usenet.coe.montana.edu!bsd.coe.montana.edu!nate From: nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.386bsd.questions Subject: Re: SUMMARY: FreeBSD vs. Linux Date: 12 Nov 1993 00:49:59 GMT Organization: Montana State University, Bozeman MT Lines: 136 Message-ID: <2bumjn$649@pdq.coe.montana.edu> References: <2brq1b$a8j@news.ysu.edu> <2brtgj$bbv@deep.rsoft.bc.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: bsd.coe.montana.edu In article <2brtgj$bbv@deep.rsoft.bc.ca>, Curt Sampson <a09878@giant.rsoft.bc.ca> wrote: > >Sorry, but this is quite untrue, unless you're willing to do quite a >lot of work. The Slackware release of Linux comes with most everything >under the sun already installed (including elm, smail, cnews, various >newsreaders, XFree86 2.0, ghostscript, emacs, GNU Smalltalk, and >tcl--none of which come with the standard NetBSD [or, as far as I >know--which isn't too far, FreeBSD] install kits). FYI - FreeBSD provides most of these as additional add-on packages. Why should you download something you have no intention of using. :-) These are pre-compiled/pre-configured versions ready to be installed via Jordan Hubbard's pkg install suite. >I have heard that the networking code is NetBSD is considerably more >stable and solid than Linux, which is why I'm tending that way right >now. My box has been on the network for almost a year now with NO (none!) problems due to networking. >Feature Linux 386BSD >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Orientation Similar to SysVr3. Is BSD. > >Internals: > POSIX compliant system calls yes almost > POSIX compliant libraries ??? ??? > Shared libraries yes not yet *BSD very close. I'm testing them right now. >Security > Shadow passwd yes ??? *BSD yes. > Kerberos no yes > >Utilities: > Shells bash, tcsh, ksh sh, csh *BSD yes. > Version 7 (eg, ed) yes yes > Berkeley (eg, more) ??? yes > Usenet (eg, perl) yes no (for NetBSD, anyway) FreeBSD has a package ready to install. >Text processing > TeX yes (SLS) no > ghostscript yes (Slackware) no FreeBSD has packages for both. >Network: > UUCP Taylor yes, (flavour?) *BSD - Taylor > Basic TCP/IP yes yes > Name Services (DNS) BIND BIND > NIS no no? If you mean YP, then *BSD have it. > Telnet, FTP, etc. yes yes > r-utils (rlogin, etc.) yes yes > NFS slow yes > SLIP yes yes > PPP no? yes > >Email: > Mailer smail, sendmail sendmail *BSD - smail has been ported. >Usenet news: > Cnews yes no > NNTP yes no > Newsreaders rn, nn, tin none FreeBSD has a Cnews package I belive. (NNTP too) However, these really need to be re-compiled locally if you are the network since they all have hard-coded data in them. Newsreaders, same thing. >X-Windows: yes no *BSD - Of course yes, it's the same package, XFree86. >Documentation > man pages yes (complete?) yes > system guides The LDP is working on NetBSD includes some > this; the ones I've papers from Berkeley; > seen a rather good, most technical, some of > esp. for beginners. limited applicability. Limited documentation? I'm sorry, but that's got to be the biggest joke I've heard in a long time. Since BSD has been around a *LONG* time, it has as much documentation available for it as most SysV's (more than some) *Any* good bookstore has BSD unix documentation. >Other Notes: > >Linux: > Linux has a somewhat easier installation program and comes with it's own >program to make the required partitions. You may install from floppies, an >MS-DOS hard disk partition or a CD-ROM. > >386BSD: > The 386 BSD installation requires more technical knowledge, and you've also >got to find your own partitioning program (the MS-DOS one won't do). You may >install from floppies or over a network (via FTP or NFS). (Can one install >from a CD-ROM, as well?) That has changed with both FreeBSD and NetBSD. Try out the new install floppies. Nate -- nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu | Freely available *nix clones benefit everyone, nate@cs.montana.edu | so let's not compete with each other, let's work #: (406) 994-4836 | compete with folks who try to tie us down to home #: (406) 586-0579 | proprietary O.S.'s (Microsloth) - Me