On Fri, Mar 29, 2002 at 09:06:23AM -0500, Derek D. Martin wrote:

[snip]

> patches...  "Broken and misbehaving" to me means it doesn't do what
> the man pages say it does, or does so inconsistently, or core dumps
> semi-regularly.  Unfortunately, most software I've used falls into one
> of those categories...

  Yup, that pretty much mirrors my experience. :-(

> I'm sorta of the opinion that *all* software sucks; *nix just sucks
> less, and Linux least of those.

  Something I've said to at least a few people who have complained about
something in Linux.

> pick) to change it.  Red Hat with updates is usually very stable and
> reliable, in my experience.]

  This is also my experience.  And in terms of security, if you follow
Linux Weekly News (http://lwn.net/) at all, for quite a while now I've
noticed that their list of vulnerabilities with lists of distributions
with fixes, past and present, consistly has Red Hat listed as either
previously fixed (sometimes several months previous) or the only one
or one of a very short list of current fixes.  Today, it seems rare that
a known vulnerability festers in Red Hat.  Mind you, it wasn't always
like this.  I do remember Red Hat getting low scores in this area, at
least by LWN standards.

> I've also been meaning to check out the *BSDs for years now, and I
> know many of its fans regard it as much better than Linux.

  Fans regard it much better?  Isn't that a redundant statement?  I would
think they are fans of it *because* they regard it as much better.  No
matter, I have a great deal of respect for the BSDs, save Theo de Ratts'
cockiness.
  However, I've tried NetBSD, and OpenBSD and sat through someone else
installing FreeBSD.  I find their install routines quite rough, even compared
to Debian (not a jab -- the initial install doesn't define the OS).  I
also believe that their statements about network performance outclassing
Linux is a bit dated.  I don't think anyone's done any good network load
comparison between the Linux 2.4 kernel and the BSDs.  Much rework has gone
into the network subsystem of Linux in recent years, so lets see them go head
to head with recent code before judging them.
  Incidentally, though still a little rough around the edges, I found a
typical install of NetBSD to be one of absolute fastest install of any
OS out there.  Yes it's stripped down, but comparing it to even OpenBSD
is almost laughable.  Kudos to Margo Seltzer and others on the NetBSD
team for at least that feat.

-- 
-Paul Iadonisi
 Senior System Administrator
 Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
 Ever see a penguin fly?  --  Try Linux.
 GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets

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