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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!hunter.premier.net!news.mathworks.com!news.pbi.net!super.zippo.com!zdc!szdc!szdc-e!news From: "John S. Dyson" <dyson@freebsd.org> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: linux or freebsd Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 03:46:15 -0500 Organization: John S. Dyson's home machine Lines: 71 Message-ID: <32980B57.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> References: <3297850C.62B4@beavisandbutthead.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT i386) To: Beavischrist@beavisandbutthead.com ~ wrote: > > > both os's are unix clones. > i can run unix stuff in both os's. > linux seems to be more popular. > freebsd is smaller. > they are both free! > > sooooooooo, anyone have any ideas? tips or hints about what i should > use? > and does anyone know the differnces between slackware, redhat etc.. > versions of linux. > You will not make the "wrong choice" running either or both. Frankly, I suggest playing with both, perhaps trying out the latest Slackware or Red Hat Linux, and soon the new version of FreeBSD V2.2. You'll have fun learning more and more about U**X and OSes in general. We don't hide any secrets, and if you want to do something fancy, you can. And if you can't figure it out, you either have the source code, or people who can usually help you out... You have alot of freedom. The differences between FreeBSD and Linux are complex, but for an end user hacker (in the best sense) they aren't that different. Legally in commercial situations and performance on large systems under load, there are significant differences. The best bit of advice that I can give you is try to eventually play with both. Secondly, when you need help, ask for it nicely. Most flame wars and other nasty things usually happen when someone makes a claim that is a lie, or demands help in a way that hurts the developers feelings. Regarding FreeBSD (the team that I work on), you will find that usually people try to help. We all have limited resources and time, so sometimes when/if people have problems, they have to ask a few times. Also, if you are interested in the system technologically, there is significant external documentation such as the O'Reilly books, the books by Richard Stevens and others. FreeBSD is pretty much a productized Berkeley U**X and follows in many of it's traditions. We also try desperately to keep the development open, always trying to recruit contributors. We are very customer focused, and consider FreeBSD to be an integrated product. I think most of us on FreeBSD (both core and the committers) do it both because we like to work on OSes and utilities, also because we do know that we have users who are profitably using it in both proprietary and non-proprietary applications. In my case, other than liking to do OS things, I work on FreeBSD as a way to contribute back to the computing community. I am sure that you'll also hear from Linux people also. Again, I hope that you get a chance to try both OSes!!! (I actually run Linux and NT also, both OSes are very interesting, and of value to study.) Good Luck, and it is good to see good people open to learning. John dyson@freebsd.org