What's so compelling about FreeBSD?

[Girish Venkatachalam]

On Tue, Oct 17, 2006 at 10:28:40AM -0700, Simon Gao wrote:
> Even though there are many Linux distributions, but Linux core pacakges
> are the mostly the same. The differences are mainly in window manager
> and GUI applications. No matter which Linux distribution, kernel 2.6.16
> is always the same. When it comes to X window, it's xorg across the board.
  
Wrong. Different vendors patch the stock linux kernel.

Remember that linux has moved device handling to userland.

And when the kernel itself is not same across distros what to talk of userland? My God, it gets really messy.

Ubuntu stopped using /sbin/hotplug but Gentoo is still using them.

Damn, there is much more confusion in the linux world than in Windoze...

Damnit, but I have no bloody choice. I don't wany to buy an expensive piece of hardware like a DVB card or webcam ; then come home and find that the most precious buy is not worth  a penny bcoz FreeBSD doesn't support it.

At least for the really price conscious customer like me, linux has made my day.

I was really surprised to find that both my webcams are supported in linux. Not with the stock kernel but with some add on.

You guys sit and lament about the quality of linux code and the presence of bugs.

But there is no gainsaying the fact that at least my hardware is supported albeit buggily or ineffectively...

I think it is neither practical nor always possible to figure out what hardware is supported in FreeBSD and what is not.

However to quote my own experience my expectations from FreeBSD has been rather modest and has never disappointed me. The support on old machines and performance simply rocks! 

regards,
Girish