Re: FreeBSD vs Linux, info. needed

[Arun Sharma <adsharma@xxxxxxxx>]

Hariharan Narayanan <umakanth@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Warning: This topic tends to be very explosive on some parts of the
net. So please be advised.

> Hello,
>     Could anybody point me to pages that compare FreeBSD and Linux. That
> is any article that answers the question "why should you one prefer
> Linux over FreeBSD or vice-versa?"

I haven't seen very many pages advocating Linux over FreeBSD - because
it's not necessary. Linux is already successful.

But it's easy to bump into pages advocating FreeBSD:

http://advocacy.freebsd.org/
http://www.freebsdrocks.com/
http://www.freebsdzine.org/
http://www.daemonnews.org/
http://www.freebsddiary.com/freebsd/

>     I also want to know if FreeBSD follows the GPL license.

No, it doesn't. It follows a modified BSD license called the FreeBSD
license.

http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/copyright.html

>     And lastly is minix a variant of FreeBSD?

No.

People who've made it this far in the mail, are probably
curious. Since I went out on a fact finding mission myself, let me
share my experiences.

FreeBSD is the proverbial cathedral. Unlike Linux, there is no one
center of power. There is something called a "core" group, which
manages development. There is a little more discipline, stricter
coding standards, reluctance for rapid change.

But once you stick X+KDE on top of FreeBSD, you can't tell a FreeBSD
box from a Linux box. The differences are visible when it comes to
hardware support. The driver set is smaller.

If you're a kernel hacker, then FreeBSD is definitely interesting:

	- It has a great book (4.4 BSD book by McKusick et al) that
          goes into a lot of detail.
	- Parts of FreeBSD (esp VM) are based on Mach, a research OS
	  of the mid 80s.

FreeBSD is also more receptive to commercial ventures, because of a
license which allows mixing open source with closed software.

On the negative side, you won't find as much free tech support,
support for common PC hardware and general awareness as Linux.

Bottomline: If you are a person who wants an OS to get your job done,
Linux is good enough for you. But if you're a hobbyist, who wants to
explore and learn, FreeBSD might be interesting. Cheapbytes has
sampler CDs.

	-Arun

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