*BSD News Article 27829


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From: michaelv@iastate.edu (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: Question about BSD/Linux/GNU
Date: 27 Feb 94 03:56:02 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Lines: 53
Message-ID: <michaelv.762321362@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu>
References: <1994Feb26.072724.1@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ponderous.cc.iastate.edu
cc: ae7140185@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg

In <1994Feb26.072724.1@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg> ae7140185@ntuvax.ntu.ac.sg writes:

>Hey everybody,
>	I have some small, trivial questions that I believe they have
>been asked before but I hope someone can enlighten me on this:

>1)	Are BSD, Linux and GNU are Unix clone for the PC?

NetBSD and FreeBSD are BSD Unix for the PC, Linux is a "posix
compliant" Unix clone.  GNU is free software *for* Unix -- GNU has not
released a Unix of their own.  All three of the free unices use GNU
utilities heavily.

>2)	Are they all freeware?

Yes.

>3)	Can we just dropload from any ftp site and merely install them
>	into our PC.

Pretty much, yes.  NetBSD 0.9 can be found on ftp sites including
agate.berkeley.edu, gatekeeper.dec.com, and ftp.iastate.edu.

Both NetBSD and FreeBSD are within a month or two of a new major
release (speculating on the next NetBSD release date).

>4)	Which of the three is better?

Depends on who you ask.  I like NetBSD best.  Each has its own
strengths and weaknesses.  What do you want to do with it?

>5)	Any FAQ around?

Look on comp.os.386bsd.announce.

>I asking them because I am rather interested to install a Unix system onto my
>PC but I can't really afford a Unix SVR4.2.

I wouldn't wish that on anyone but my worst enemy. ;-)

>Thank you.

You're welcome.

>Moebius



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  Michael L. VanLoon                           Project Vincent Systems Staff
  michaelv@iastate.edu              Iowa State University Computation Center
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