"Howard Schwartz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I notice almost a complete absence (blackout?) of any mention of Free BSD
> Unix, in discussions of OS's for the PC. Free BSD, unlike Linux, is free
> but controls its software upgrades by a system of submissions to a work
> group, etc.
The BSDen (FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD) generally have good reputations for
stability, owing to the controlled release (no plethora of distributions
that you mentioned). Their strengths are:
- FreeBSD: Strong on the Intel platform, offering many of the goodies now
considered 'essential'.
- OpenBSD: Strong on Security. They tout several years with no exploits of
the default installation. Heavy on crypto and security in general.
- NetBSD: Highly portable to various hardware platforms. Not as many
goodies, but still well respected.
FreeBSD is the most widely known, but all have a following.
> Consequently, many have told me Free BSD is generally more stable than
> Linux, and it has gone to some length to be ``Linux'' friendly. That is,
> if one can port a program to Linux, there is a 99% chance it will also
> run on Free BSD.
Just realize that once you start moving over the Linux 'ports', you may be
moving away from the stability FreeBSD offers. Not to say that Linux is
unstable, but releases of the Linux stuff aren't as tightly controlled .
> However, I have only tried Phat Linux and not personally downloaded Free
> BSD. Anyone out there tried Free BSD?
I've played a bit with each, but not enough. I had OpenBSD running, but
found it awfully difficult to know where to start. I finally purchased one
of those fat FreeBSD book/CD bundles and found that most of what I was
missing from OpenBSD could be found there.
I'm moving to Debian Linux primarily because they have a similar approach to
releases. "It's not ready 'til it's ready". Yet they still offer all of the
Linux packages. I do want to try FreeBSD again soon, but I've got my work
cut out learning all this Cisco stuff for work already. SOON.
The installations of the BSDen aren't especially user-friendly (and neither
is Debian's) but if you're patient, I think you'll find any of them well
worth the effort.
Good luck!
- Bob
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