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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!solace!nntp.uio.no!news.cais.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in2.uu.net!news.new-york.net!ritz.mordor.com!bet From: bet@mordor.com (Bennett Todd) Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux X-Newsreader: slrn (0.8.8.1 UNIX) X-Nntp-Posting-User: bet Sender: news@ritz.mordor.com (Network News) Organization: Mordor International Message-ID: <slrn4p2di8.g4v.bet@ritz.mordor.com> References: <318FA7CB.8D8@hkstar.com> X-Nntp-Posting-Host: ritz.mordor.com Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 00:03:21 GMT Lines: 40 On Wed, 08 May 1996 03:43:07 +0800, Law Chi Ming <lcmlaw@hkstar.com> wrote: > Can you tell me, > FreeBSD is better? > or Linux is better? Nope. Nobody can. They're both excellent. If someone takes the time and effort to do a detailed comparison of the current versions, they can say accurately that FreeBSD does some things better than Linux, and Linux does some other things better than FreeBSD. The next major release comes out and these lists of things are all different; when Linux is better at something, the FreeBSD folks generally fix whatever is broke in their OS, and vice-versa. They act as _wonderful_ goads for each other:-). Today, they are both so solid and mature that it's safe to say use whichever you like better. Your best bet will be to try both, and see which you like best, then use that. If you can't do that, then use whichever is used by more people that you know locally, and can ask for help. If you don't know people locally to ask for help (or if they are perfectly balanced on the question:-) use whichever you can get more easily. But your best approach is to try them both, because while they are very very comparable, they've got a strongly different feel. FreeBSD retains a strong feel of Berkeley Unix. Linux comes out with a feel all its own, acquired by working off the Posix spec, using the GNU utilities, and accumulating an OS with the best pieces available from here and there. It is probably still the case that FreeBSD enjoys an edge if you are setting up a router, or a really dedicated network server, because the reference implementations of many protocols were/are born in BSD. It is probably still true that Linux will feel more snappy for interactive use, as a single-user workstation, because it's been tuned to optimize for that from its birth. -Bennett