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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.Hawaii.Edu!news.caldera.com!enews.sgi.com!nntprelay.mathworks.com!howland.erols.net!infeed1.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news1.best.com!nntp2.ba.best.com!zenin!thrush.omix.com!byron From: Zenin <zenin@best.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs. Linux Date: 19 Jul 1997 22:01:34 GMT Lines: 46 Message-ID: <5qrdfu$ca2$1@nntp2.ba.best.com> References: <01bc8d33$3f7a4f00$6870d3c6@einstein> <33C4F625.41C67EA6@together.net> <pa7nq5.r51.ln@gate> <5qnvb7$5kg@news.gvsu.edu> <9mooq5.9c4.ln@gate> NNTP-Posting-Host: thrush.omix.com Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:44701 Tim <tsweeney@harborhi.com> wrote: >snip< > Exactly. Just what I was talking about. You tell us WHY you make the > recommendation you do, not just offhandedly dump on one OS in favor of > another. >snip< Well, my original reason for running FreeBSD was that, at the time anyway, Linux did not support my network card (a 3com 905), while FreeBSD v2.1.6 did. After running it for good 7 months now I find I like it quite a bit more then most Linux distributions. I never did like the "Linuxezums" that much of Linux code has (SVGAlib stuff mostly, but lots of X stuff too), and the FreeBSD /usr/ports system just plain rocks. I also have found that FreeBSD handles large loads combined with high network traffic better then my Linux box (Yes, I still run it on another machine). My FreeBSD box handles a number of *vary* large jobs on a regular basis that both use heavy disk i/o, as well as heavy network i/o. While these ran fine on my Linux box, I always noticed a *high* drop in X server performance when they were running. -It's also my workstation. With FreeBSD running these jobs, I can notice slower disk i/o, but the X server never seems to miss a beat. The workstation is just as usable when running these jobs as when it's not. This was never really the case with my Linux box. I'd just use another machine while my Linux box was running these jobs. With FreeBSD I no longer have to. Both machines (except for the network card) are the same. P5/200, 64megs, PCI bus, IDE drives. I also like the fact that FreeBSD is more of a complete "system", were Linux is more a kernel with misc attachments. This makes it hard to know what to expect from one Linux box to another. Each distribution is a little different from others in many parts. This is not the case with FreeBSD. Code originally developed on FreeBSD is often easier to port to other systems then Linux if only because I find many Linux programmers tend to rely on Linuxezums that make the code a major pain to port, even with the aid of klugie compatibility systems such as FreeBSD's /compat/linux. MHO of course, YMMV. :) -- -Zenin Quake Clan After Shock (Did you feel that?) The Bawdy Cast - Rocky Horror Picture Show (San Jose, CA) Zenin's Rocky Archive (http://www.best.com/~zenin/) zenin@best.com