OT: FreeBSD vs Linux man pages, was: drm-i915kms + x11-intel eats out all of the ram and swap but not with x11-scfb

[Tomasz CEDRO]

On Wed, Apr 15, 2020 at 3:22 PM Ottavio Caruso wrote:
> Can you please give us a couple of examples of man pages that are
> outdated on Linux? Is it possible that the version of the software is
> behind FreeBSD, hence the man pages are also behind? (Debian stable
> springs to mind)
>
> Also note that FreeBSD runs different software in the base system from
> the Linux counterparts, even if the name is the same.
>
> All software installed from ports are third party, hence the man pages
> should be consistent between the *BSD's and the Linuxes.

Hello Ottavio :-) I have stopped using Linux on my desk around 2008
(time around 2.4.10 when kernel API started to change between minor
releases) then I have moved definitely to FreeBSD (when stable USB
stack showed up). Maybe things have changed since then. But I remember
different Linux distributions had different configuration schemes,
even different init and system services startup methods, not to
mention libc/glibs issues, even between updates/releases of the same
distribution. Constant complication of things. Back then things like
StackOverflow were not popular or did not exist yet. Ubuntu seems to
centralize the community a bit. The only good thing that comes from
Linux is promoting Open-Source, GIT, and free of charge low power OS
for embedded systems.

I don't really care anymore about Linux as I am happy FreeBSD user,
there is one distribution, one kernel, one base, one Handbook, and
really amazing community where you can ask questions and you will most
likely get a response or a patch from person who wrote the code..
things are just coherent simple and amazingly effective.. and I love
that! :-)

When Linux started changing kernel API from release to release it
looked like a maintenance nightmare. You had to constantly update your
code to follow the kernel changes (lets say you are kernel driver
developer). Not to mention OS changes multiplied by the distributions
amount. Ten years after we do already live in a world where this
became a standard and you even need a dedicated team for that. Is this
really necessary? Is this really the core work to follow updates and
maintain something already done in a constantly changing and
challenging environment? I don't think so. I would prefer to focus on
something that is really new.

Look at Windows or Android. They became monsters. They are the same.
Windows use PC, Android use Mobile. Android was supposed to become an
open platform for open people.. it pushed Linux development hard.. but
look what Google makes out of it :-(

Some people like red cars, some people like black cars, others like
yellow. Free means freedom of choice :-)

Long story short: yes I still think FreeBSD base is better documented
than Linux base :-) :-)

Best regards :-)
Tomek



--
CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info