On Mon, 26 Apr 1999, George Winn wrote:
> I remember a time when all there was known to me about operating systems
> was Apple Basic vs. IBM DOS. Eventually, as I learned about BBS', and this
> new thing called "The Internet", I learned that for large networks, the
> UNIX operating system is the most frequently used. I saw IRIX, Solaris,
> FreeBSD, Linux, etc etc etc. It seems to me that Linux is the one that
> gets pushed most to home users? (Maybe because of Red Hat's efforts to make
> it easy to install?) However, it seems to me that FreeBSD is a faster OS
> and can run linux apps faster in emulation that linux runs itself. Yahoo
> and even microsoft use FreeBSD for their bigass web servers.
I haven't used FreeBSD, but I doubt that it can run Linux apps in
emulation faster than Linux can. It has its problems, too. The TCP stack
(which I work on a lot) I know has several problems. The Linux 2.2 VFS
layer is now up to scratch with other UNIXes. If you can come up with
concrete examples of FreeBSD being substantially better than Linux in the
generic sense, please tell us.
> Isn't it true that programs written for other flavors of UNIX are more
> universal because /usr/include/linux makes code written for linux
> incompatible with other UNIXes?
Applications are not supposed to use /usr/include/linux at all. Those are
kernel headers, and lock you down to a certain kernel. (Yes, using
/usr/include/linux/* can cause your program to fail on different kernels.)
> Isn't it also true that because Linux doesn't have a standard
> distribution that it makes it far more difficult to fix actual problems
> with the kernel source?
Linux is not a distribution. However, I haven't seen any distributions
which vary substantially from the UNIX norm.
> Isn't it also true that FreeBSD has fewer licensing restrictions and
> is more open source because you actually get the kernel source instead
> of just modules and binaries like linux?
You get full kernel source with Linux. Modules and binaries you compile
yourself. Also, the lack of licensing restrictions on BSD is what led to
the code forking. Linux's GPL causes code forks to be less than
beneficial.
> Please correct me where I'm wrong on any of this, but it seems to me
> that if we want an OS revolution where one company doesn't end up
> controlling everything (*cough* microsoft *cough*) then we would want
> a completely free, completely open source OS. It seems to me after
> reading an article on CNET News.com that Red Hat may just be trying to
> head in that direction.
Beware what you read on those things. It all depends on who's writing
them. There have been several articles claiming that RedHat intends to
ignore the LSB (Linux Standards Base), but everything coming out of RedHat
itself says that it fully supports it. So be careful.
> The only advantage that I can see at all in running Linux over FreeBSD
> would be the ability to use vmware (allows multitasking OSs), but if you're
> going to multitask OSs, one of them will most likely be NT which vmware
> also runs on. So, before I go delete my Linux partition and install
> FreeBSD, would anyone like to make any comments? Also, if you're interested
> in some of the negative aspects of Linux, check out www.spatula.net and
> click "Why Linux Sucks". Also....is there a SigFreeBSD if no one is able
> to convince me to stick with Linux? :)
I haven't bothered to look, but I'm sure there's a "Why FreeBSD sucks"
page too. They both have advantages and disadvantages. You'll probably see
more Linux binaries of programs that otherwise aren't available as big
companies try to get in on the Linux market. But that doesn't affect
FreeBSD much, since it can emulate Linux. It's all up to you. We're not
evangelists here, are we?
> L8z....sorry for rambling, and I hope nobody calls me a commie or a traitor
> (or flames me) for openly analyzing two free UNIXes, and not finding Linux
> on top....
It's good to analyze what you're doing, rather than doing it "because
everyone else is." Keep it up.
Taral
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