Hi
I use XP and PCLinuxOS. Now I see there is FreeBSD... How does FreeBSD fit in.. Whats its future looking like.. How is it for apps..
thx
FreeBSD is Berkly Unix (a derivitave of Unix) developed at the University of Berkley. It is very much like linux, but it has a different kernel. Mac OSX uses much of the BSD operating system.
Pro's
-Extremely stable.
-Mostly used as a web server (used by yahoo, microsoft)
-Has much of linux's open source software ported.
-Free
Con's
-Not as easy to learn as windows or Ubuntu/Red Hat
-Still working on porting over KDE/Gnome
Overall, unless you need a high performance web server and are willing to spend some time learning, stick with windows or an easier version of linux
Freebsd more like unix and linux,I think,But it's need litte memory and cpu,I used it as my web server and ftp server!
| benjicook wrote: |
| FreeBSD is Berkly Unix (a derivitave of Unix) developed at the University of Berkley. It is very much like linux, but it has a different kernel. Mac OSX uses much of the BSD operating system. |
Just to correct and clarify some things... BSD means Berkeley Software Distribution or sometimes called Berkeley Unix. It's basically a Unix clone/derivative like Linux. And like Linux, it has also "flavors" or, more appropriately, derivatives (or even descendants) like FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and many other.
Mac OS X core, called Darwin, is also a descendant/derivative of the original BSD.
I hope that clears up some misunderstandings/misconceptions. 
An easy answer, FreeBSD is another Operating System derivated from Unix, just like Linux, but it has a different name because it uses a different kernel, but much like Linux and Unix kernel.
It is a Open Souce system, just like Linux
It runs KDE just like linux
It runs GNOME just like linux
It runs fluxbox, blackbox, just like linux
It uses most same commands as linux, it is just another Operating System, it is a bit slower than some linux and a bit faster than another linux, it only depends on what you like, but it seems just like a linux
I've tryed it and i didnt see a worth difference between linux and it
| benjicook wrote: |
Mostly used as a web server (used by yahoo, microsoft)
|
See, Billy just isn't trusting his own products 
If you look at microsoft.com through netcraft, you will see that bill has all his servers running on Windows 2000.
FreeBSD is a good, stable OS. It isn't bloated like many linux distros like Fedora Core - it cuts the crap. You customize and setup the entire operating system to your liking, which usually takes just a couple minutes. This includes boot screens. I would not reccomend FreeBSD to a newb as it is hardcore UNIX - what you see outside of X is basically what Berkeley gave in the original BSD + improvements to code and functionality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD
Amazing what you can find on the web when you search 
Don't discount FreeBSD.
- This is the distro that Apple chose for OSX
- This is also a true free distribution that is undergoing active development by talented programmers
- M$crosoft code has revealed that a large part of WindowsTC/PIP is actually based on the code produced by the BSD, in particular BIND, and many other parts of the TCP/IP protocol specification.
Major difference...A BSD kernel is a bit different from a Linux kernel
Side Note: FreeBSD is the most popular flavor of BSD operating systems, but there's also OpenBSD and NetBSD. What's nice about FreeBSD is that their 'ports' collection (which is huge ~15k?) comes both in source and in binary...If only gentoo did the same 
I have used both FreeBSD and various distro of Linux (I'm currently running Ubuntu on the desktop), and I personally find FreeBSD much more straightforward to administer and use. I never had a crash with FreeBSD when I was using it.
As for apps, they have a huge repository of applications in their "port tree" -- kind of like a database that contains the various patches needed to apply to the source code to get them to work properly on FreeBSD. So if you mostly use open source software, you wouldn't run into too much trouble.
As for commercial product that doesn't have a native FreeBSD port available, FreeBSD also has linux emulation to allow you to run linux binaries. In most cases, it works quite well. Some people have even reported that the native Linux binaries run faster on FreeBSD.
Give it a try. If you don't like it, you can always go back to Linux.
