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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!convex!hermes.oc.com!news.unt.edu!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!pipex!lyra.csx.cam.ac.uk!sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk!uknet!cf-cm!isl.cf.ac.uk!paul From: paul@isl.cf.ac.uk (Paul Richards) Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD v2.0 Message-ID: <1995Jan11.233217.1660@cm.cf.ac.uk> Sender: paul@isl.cf.ac.uk (Paul Richards) Nntp-Posting-Host: isl-gate.elsy.cf.ac.uk Organization: ELSYM, University of Wales, College of Cardiff, UK. References: <3em8bi$88q@clarknet.clark.net> <3eprlq$lm@knobel.gun.de> <kientzleD25HL7.H1x@netcom.com> Date: Wed, 11 Jan 1995 23:32:17 +0000 Lines: 32 In article <kientzleD25HL7.H1x@netcom.com>, <kientzle@netcom.com> wrote: >>darens@clark.net wrote: >>: What would be the advantages of installing fbsd instead of linux ? > I think one of the big reasons this question gets asked so often >is simply that there aren't nearly as many differences as the crusaders >would have you believe. Especially when you consider that the different >free Unices (FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux) have so much code in common. >They all use the same X code, the same GNU utilities, the same >editors, word processors, communications, etc, etc. From the notices >on the newsgroups, even driver code is rapidly ported from one to >the others. The only practical differences are in the kernels I'm not entering into the Linux vs FreeBSD or whatever argument but to prevent further misapprehension this above statement is largely untrue at least for FreeBSD and Linux. FreeBSD and NetBSD share a lot of code but even there it's not as similar as it once was. The differences between Linux and FreeBSD are immense, they're *completely* different systems and share a very, very small amount of code. Linux is GNU based whereas FreeBSD is 4.4lite based. FreeBSD has a few gnu utilities and I daresay some Linux dists have some BSD utils too. Nothing in the two kernels is even vaguely similar other than FreeBSD has picked up the Linux sounds drivers. Now if you're talking perceived similarities to the average user then you'd be right since all the unix systems have vi, groff, gcc etc. -- Paul Richards, FreeBSD core team member. Phone: +44 1222 874000 x5958 (work), +44 1222 457651 (home) Dept. Mechanical Engineering, University of Wales, College Cardiff. Internet: paul@FreeBSD.org, JANET(UK): RICHARDSDP@CARDIFF.AC.UK