I think you're missing the point here. There were 2 questions asked in the original thread. First was are there any commercial distributions and second, are there any companies that provide a for-fee support chain. Linux was brought up as a well known example of the types of services being requested by the poster. He gets a "Linux is a kernel not an operating system" comment instead, which while factually true, proves to the case of missing the forest for the trees. Get him his help if you know it, otherwise debate finer points in classrooms.
To the original poster: Just to end the Linux/FreeBSD stupidity, as these knuckleheads have stated, yes, Linux is a kernel, however as happens in human language, Linux has come to mean more than just the kernel, it's come to mean the entire distribution of applications with it as well. None of the applications will run without a kernel, nor would the kernel be much use if there was no shell interpreter or other application. Yes, the word Linux itself refers to the kernel, but for them to suggest to you that Linux is not an operating system but simply a collection of software packages stuck around a kernel is laughable at best. This is usually a sign of <some operating system here> purists trying to wrangle details in a way that somehow makes their <operating system name here> better than XYZ. Please read http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/o/operating_system.html to understand what an operating system is. An operating system IS the kernel. Any additional software that comes with it reside in the application layer which is NOT part of the operating system. FreeBSD is entirely no different in that regard. The point still remains, that if I understood your question correctly you were wondering if there were any commercial FreeBSD distributions that also provided technical support ranging from kernels to individual applications. An example of the difference would be Red Hat which is a commercialized distribution and Debian which is a GPL'd project that has no technical support, other than it's mailing lists and IRC chat channels. Check out this list of companies willing to provide support for the FreeBSD distribution. Some are of higher caliber than others of course, so check them all. http://www.unixporting.com/freebsd-support.html http://www.bsdmall.com/fbsdsupport.html (I'd check this one for sure) http://www.freebsdmall.com/cgi-bin/fm/support.html (Same as abve) http://www.freebsdsystems.com/support.html (iNet system specific) http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consulting.html (DEFINITELY READ THIS) http://www.bsdsearch.com/dir/support/commercial/consulting.php (Nice list) http://bim.bsn.com/~jhs/freebsd/consultants.html Check these out. I have a few clients I work with that also offer technical support on Solaris, Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD and FreeBSD. You name it. These are all different operating systems arround a linux kernel. FreeBSD is the operating system, linux isn't. That's the whole difference. -Harry P.S: Lot's of tools are developed by *BSD developers and included instead of GNU versions (ls e.g.) _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
