[ale] BSD.v.Linux essay

[Courtney Thomas]

I doubt you'd find driver support lacking in FreeBSD.

Courtney

James Sumners wrote:
> The only problem I have had with BSD, specifically OpenBSD, is driver
> support. The last time I gave it a shot was about two years ago. I
> wanted to load it on an old Dell PowerEdge (a very big and heavy
> machine) and use it to run an in-house web server. I eventually got it
> to load but it would keep crashing because of the RAID controller.
> Evidently, there was some quirk to the hardware that the Linux drivers
> either work around or ignore but the BSD drivers crashed upon
> encountering it. When the hard drives won't consistently work because
> the controller drivers keep crashing the system then the OS is
> useless.
> 
> Admittedly, that is only one machine (well, machine type. I had
> multiple machines of the same model to work with), but the experience
> left me with an impression that the driver support is lacking even
> more than Linux's. However, I use a BSD derivative every day on my
> PowerBook and am quite happy with it. The cp command can be a little
> quirky ( http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20051112100007372&lsrc=osx
> ) but I get by :)
> 
> On 11/22/05, Jay Loden <jloden at toughguy.net> wrote:
> 
>>I read this article a while back and it actually convinced me to give FreeBSD
>>another try. The author is a pretty fair to both sides (though clearly
>>somewhat biased to his choice, BSD). Mostly he just points out that BSD is
>>all about a controlled development process and structure, whereas Linux grabs
>>anything useful from wherever it can find it. It's not that one is better
>>than the other necessarily, just different.
>>
>>Both have their merits, but certain people's personalities may fit better with
>>one of the other. In a lot of respects, despite being more familiar with
>>Linux, I'm finding a lot of things on my test FreeBSD install that I like. It
>>took some getting used to before I realized they're not the same thing just
>>because they both have *nix roots, but once I got over that hurdle things
>>were easier.
>>
>>The best thing about FreeBSD so far has been documentation. Everything from
>>man pages to the FreeBSD handbook has been clear, up to date, and useful. I
>>appreciate that a lot, especially the handbook.
>>
>>On Monday 21 November 2005 7:31 pm, Cy Kurtz wrote:
>>
>>>Here's an essay we might enjoy batting about for a while:
>>>
>>>http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php
>>>
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>Ale mailing list
>>Ale at ale.org
>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>
> 
> 
> 
> --
> James Sumners
> http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
> 
> "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
> pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
> is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
> drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
> 
> Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> CH:D 59
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>