Subj : flavors
To   : Russell Tiedt
From : Roy J. Tellason
Date : Sun Jun 10 2001 06:06 pm

Russell Tiedt wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:

 RT> Hi Roy,

 RJT> Can someone enlighten me as to what the differences are between the 
 RJT> various *BSD flavors?  And how any of these might compare with 
 RJT> Linux?

 RT> The differences are not earth shatteringly large but they are
 RT> there.

I only ask because I've seen some comments here and there about the different 
kinds being better suited to some tasks.  The comments were unfortunately 
notspecific enough for me to get a handle on it.

 RJT> I'm not looking for "XYZ is better",  unless you're talking about 
 RJT> how it's better for some particular kinds of uses,  I'm more looking 
 RJT> for a comparison of their relative strengths.

 RT> From my point of view I have used FreeBSD and I like it a lot, I
 RT> feel it is possibly a better OS to build a firewall on than Linux,
 RT> but the 2.4.* Linux kernals will probably lessen the advantage that
 RT> *BSD has in this regard. 

FreeBSD is the one that I happen to have on hand here.  I've seen that "better 
for a firewall" comment on that one too,  though I'm not clear as to why it 
should be better for that use.

 RT> Other than that the device naming is different, 

Yeah,  now that you mention it I do remember that from my brief look at the 
"book" on that cdrom.

 RT> and that FreeBSD needs to be installed into it's own Primary 
 RT> Partion (slice), 

Hm,  I wasn't aware of that requirement.

 RT> it's a case of six of one and a half dozen of the others, ie. much 
 RT> of a muchness. The init scripts are different and so is the 
 RT> directory tree structure. 

Of course.

 RT> From my point of view I prefer Linux slightly, even if I find the 
 RT> structured release system of FreeBSD more appealling, ie. not the 
 RT> haphazard Linux way, which also has a few advantages. 

 RT> Like I said earlier, from my point of view, they are much of a
 RT> muchness, but in the end personal taste is what is going to win 
 RT> out. Knowing your Linux experience, chances are that after trying
 RT> *BSD you will still prefer Linux. BUT, you will only ever be sure
 RT> once you have tried it.

 RT> Have FUN!!

Oh,  I will,  no doubt.  But still,  there's NetBSD and I don't know what else, 
 not to mention the various flavors of real unix out there,  SCO,  etc.

I'm not necessarily going to take the time to try and get a hold of all these 
and try them out,  I don't have the time,  but I'd at least like to get more of 
a handle on it than I have now.

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