FreeBSD for Linux users

[Bill Moran]

Dan Pelleg wrote:
> Bill Moran <wmoran at potentialtech.com> writes:
> 
>>Ceri Davies wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, Nov 26, 2003 at 03:25:37PM -0800, bri an wrote:
>>>
>>
>>>>I am a Work-study at a University. I have allot of
>>>>staff using Redhat. I have been working on helping
>>>>people move to Freebsd. I have been using it for a two
>>>>months. I would love to help in anyway. I am not very
>>>>versed in Freebsd, But I know how to RTFM. I can be a
>>>>great tester to see what the document needs.
>>>
>>>I think it needs writing. ;-)
>>
>>>Seriously, on the doc team we are all long term FreeBSD users, and lack
>>
>>>the newcomer perspective to write this document.  A list of pointers to
>>>things that people migrating find difficult would be useful to start.
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>3) Hard-core admins are confused by the fact that so much config info is in
>>    /etc/rc.conf.  They're even more confused by the fact that the rest of
>>    the config is in /usr/local/etc
> 
> The location of the config directory isn't the only thing that looks
> strange to them. The linux executables, as well, traditionally go in /bin
> (or /sbin). It seems that someone migrating from linux would find it more
> familiar to have ports' PREFIX set to / (instead of /usr/local). The
> disadvantages are: 1. risk of filling the / slice (which is typically very
> small on FreeBSD and very big on most linux distros). 2. a port file
> overrunning a same-named file in the base system. Some people find it
> easier to keep these two things in mind than to get used to the idea of
> /usr/local.

In my experience, I haven't seen anyone have trouble with this, I would
assume the reason is that they seldom need to know where the binaries are.
As long as their path looks for them, they'll run and nobody's the wiser.

It would be useful information to impart, however.  But most Linuxites
would try "whereis binname" if they were wondering where it was.

I agree that setting PREFIX to / is a bad idea.  There's a reason why
ports are installed in /usr/local, and I think it's a good reason.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com