FreeBSD vs Linux

[cpghost at cordula.ws]

On Wed, Apr 20, 2005 at 06:43:14PM +0200, koen de wijs wrote:
> I'm new to unix. This year I tried FreeBSD. Some friend of mine adviced 
> FreeBSD. I think it works great. Only one thing that I don't like is 
> that you will need to know a lot to setup a lot of basic stuff.
> I want to try out Linux. I heard it is more user friendly and the basic 
> stuff will be set up during installation.

Hi Koen,

comparing Linux to FreeBSD is a touchy topic here, not because of
the comparison per se (both are very good), but because it's regularly
being abused by trolls as the most likely flamebait.

Anyway: both systems are Unix-like, and almost all programs that you
know from Linux run natively under FreeBSD as well. It's just a matter
of installing the appropriate port or meta-port. The internals however
are different: it's a totally different kernel, a different userland, ...
but also a different approach regarding code contributions and project
management. But that doesn't matter (much) to the end user.

There are some comparisons between Linux and FreeBSD out there regarding
performance, but if you look at it from a bird's view, both are roughly
comparable and doing just well. Unless you run a big, very high load
server, you won't notice much difference at all.

Ease of administration is also an important topic, esp. if you have to
manage your own (set of) machine(s). Here, you can't compare FreeBSD
to Linux, at best FreeBSD to specific Linux distros (which all vary
widely w.r.t. admin philosophy). FreeBSD is extremely easy to configure
and manage. Not necessarily with flashy GUI yast-like frontends, but
by setting config variables in plain old text files like /etc/rc.conf
and putting scripts in /etc/rc.d, /usr/local/etc/rc.d. Keeping up to date
is also extremely convenient with cvsup/make buildworld... [gentoo
borrowed its philosophy from the BSD ports and source code driven
updating].

> I really don't like the sysinstall menu. It is really unlogically. Why 
> isn't there a desktop and a server installation?

What do you thing is illogical in the current sysinstall?

sysinstall is not the kind of program that you would spend a lot of
time using. Once the system is installed, you don't need it anymore
and can simply edit things in /etc/rc.conf yourself.

Of course, nothing prevents you from writing a GUIfied install program
once you're not a newbie anymore. But you'll probably then decide that
it is not really such a big deal or worth the effort. ;-)

> Could anyone give me a good site that describes the differences between 
> FreeBSD and Linux?

See previous postings.

Just give them all a try, and stick to the OS you like the best.
You can always re-evaluate later when you've acquired more Unix
knowledge.

> Koen
> (I don't want to start a flame war, only some good sites)

Cheers,
-cpghost.

-- 
Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/