Linux or BSD?

[Degrado]

i've never used linux or bsd before but i have a pretty good understanding about linux. i haven't heard much about bsd and was wondering what advantages\disadvantages is has compared to linux. i know that they're both based on unix. i've ordered linux(still waiting for it), would it be beneficial to have both OSs?
:o

[Beowulfs_Ghost]

It is hard to put the differences in an advantages/disadvantages catagory. About all you can say about them is that they are different.

As far as the general UNix'ness of them, they are pretty similar, and for the most part, make use of the same software (the GNU utils, XFree86, etc.).

The major difference center around history, and design philosophy.

Linux, is the proper sense, is just the kernel. Other parts are added by the distributors (Red Hat, Debian, Mandrake, etc.). So other people make the guts, and the distributors package it into something the end user can use.

With FreeBSD, everything from the kernel to the userland is handled by them same organisation.

In my experience, I've found FreeBSD to be more stable and easier to manage. But that comes at the cost of less features. The FreeBSD people just seem more concerned about quality then with the cutting edge. And sense their is only one FreeBSD, the documentation is also much better. With Linux, the documentation various from distro to distro. And sense the FreeBSD people as manage the userland, installing software is alot easier then most Linux distro's.

The draw backs of FreeBSD is that most Unix developement today is done for Linux/i386. So you'll have to wait for a native FreeBSD port. Even then, alot of stuff already has been ported. FreeBSD also has excelent Linux compatability, so you can run Linux binaries (I do so for Real Player and Mochasoft 5250 emulator). But your milage may vary. Also understand that FreeBSD doesn't market itself as a desktop OS. That doesn't mean you can't use it as such, and xf86 and several WM's are available for FreeBSD.

If you are planning on building a server, I would highly recomend FreeBSD. It's easy to administer, and includes alot of server oriented utils.

Hope this helps. It it didn't, feel free to ask more questions.

[jbstew32]

BSD seems to be marginally faster with TCP/IP and other net protocol transfers. It is also very stable, as is linux. In the end its almost a preference thing, unless you REALLY need that extra speed. BSD is great, and if you know linux commands you should navigate around BSD in a breeze...for the most part.

[FoBoT]

what about security?

i have read statements to the effect that *BSD is more secure than linux?

any comments?

[Beowulfs_Ghost]

It is kind of hard to compare the one FreeBSD to the multitudes of Linux distro's.

I think FreeBSD is more secure out of the box then most Linux distro's. It gives you more control over services during installation, and makes use of the wheel group by default. Most of the time, in Linux, the first thing you do after installing it, is tie down inetd.conf and turn on logging and other security features. In FreeBSD, most of this is on by default. This goes with FreeBSD's tradition of being used primarily on servers.

If you really need security, go with OpenBSD ( www.openbsd.org (http://www.openbsd.org) ).

[S0larfluX]

If you have never used linux or BSD before, you should definitely get your feet wet with linux first. Learn some UNIX commands and how to manuever the file system. Set up all your hardware, play around with installing programs via package systems and also compiling programs from source. Learn how to configure networking/ppp. Get Xwindows running, experiment with window managers. Learn how to configure some of the many daemons (services). Definitely learn about firewalling, too.

After you've done all that, trying out BSD will be that much easier. But, that's JMO...

Re: security...

A linux box can be just as secure as BSD, but it takes a bit more effort to do so. Remember, the more services you run and the more users you have, the less secure you will be.

------------------

You are the weakest link... Good-bye!

[S0larfluX]

BTW, I prefer NetBSD (http://www.netbsd.org) because everything is turned OFF by default and you have to know how to enable services/networking to become functional. Very solid OS, but it's not for the newbie.

[ 25 April 2001: Message edited by: S0larfluX ]

[tolstoy]

I'm taking a crack at FreeBSD for the first time this week. I bought the Walnut Creek book and find it much more comprehensive then any Linux book I've thus far read and for this I'm liking what I see and have a much better grasp of how everything ties together on the system. I like Linux, don't get me wrong. But when I first came at it, I could not find any one book that helped me understand everything in the way that I really wanted. Learning Linux seemed to be mired with slogging through HOWTOS, man pages, O'Reilly books, etc. etc. If your planning on running at a desktop, I don't have much advice. If your planning on doing a server install, I would go FreeBSD. I've been working with RH servers for the past year and wished I had looked at FreeBSD before I chose to install RH. The only FreeBSD box I have is my desktop at work (I just installed it last week). I got the Linux version of Opera to run on it without hitch and am assuming I can do the same with most (or at least more) linux binaries. I think FreeBSD is worth a shot if you are familiar with Linux or not, simply because like everyone has pointed out, it has abundant documentation, Linux binary compatibility and strives for stability. Plus, if you know FreeBSD, Learning Slack or RH will be that much easier. I think I've gone BSD for good and may not come back.

[ 28 April 2001: Message edited by: tolstoy ]

[jbstew32]

FreeBSD is a lot different than linux. Its not a HUGE switch, but there are a lot of differences. Mostly little things, but things like Kernel compiling and stuff like that will be foreign to the average linux user. BSD is great, and so is linux. As far as security, NetBSD is probably more secure, but it has a lot less hardware support. All around, I think FreeBSD is the best, just read up on the howtos and make it secure. IF you go with linux, i suggest Slackware, as it is very secure right out of the box. I wont recommend Debian, because you have never used linux b4. I suggest buying a book on linux/freebsd and reading up on commands and system administration.

Hell, try em both...go nuts. Crash your system a few times, its the way we learned, right?

[Beowulfs_Ghost]

Once you deal with enough Unix systems, it all pretty much breaks down to; how the file system is laid out, how /etc and /dev are laid out, and how well /usr is used.

Personaly, I like FreeBSD's stability. I hop from Linux distro to Linux distro when something cutting edge comes out. But for day to day work, I put my faith in FreeBSD.

[jbstew32]

FreeBSD is very good.

I would only trust/put faith in Slackware, Debian, and FreeBSD....they seem the most stable and flexible to me