*BSD News Article 91450


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From: Peter Mutsaers <plm@lucent.com>
Newsgroups: alt.os.linux,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux or FreeBSD (or something else?)
Date: 18 Mar 1997 09:56:09 +0100
Organization: Lucent Technologies, Indian Hill
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>> On 17 Mar 1997 16:40:19 GMT, "C_MCKINNON"
>> <C_MCKINNON@colloquium.co.uk> said:

    CM> The linux kernel is smaller (faster?) & more widely used. I
    CM> wouldn't recommend that you download it - there are plenty of
    CM> people selling it on CD-ROM for a LOT less than it would cost
    CM> in air time. In addition you'll often get packages to run such
    CM> as Web browsers/servers, editors etc.

It's not faster than FreeBSD (2.1, 2.2 or 3.0). It is smaller
indeed. This is because:
- the Linux kernel is put on disk in a compressed format
- the Linux kernel is more modular, that is, more parts can be loaded
  as a kernel module.

FreeBSD also has kernel modules, but many drivers must be compiled in.

In the typical situation where you have loaded everything that you
need, the memory consumption of both kernels doesn't differ much
however.

-- 
Peter Mutsaers      Lucent Technologies, Network Systems
plm@lucent.com      Huizen, the Netherlands