Re: *BSD

[j.e.drews@att.net]

> You keep telling us how wonderful *BSD is. Now that I know Linux, what's my
> incentive for going through the pain and hassle of learning *BSD?  

OK Harold:

 Here are my reasons for using FreeBSD (as a desktop):

1) FreeBSD has more recent software than Linux. Example: I have Gnumeric 1.2.6 (soon to be 1.2.7), and the latest version of OpenOffice, Gnome, Xfce as well.
2) FreeBSD seems to load gui apps quicker than Linux.
3) It's easy to update and install FreeBSD ports. I can upgrade all of Kde by simply typing the command:
# ./run.cvsup.ports; portsdb -Uu; pourtupgrade -arR; 

before I go to bed. In the morning, Kde will be updated from 3.2.0 to 3.2.1. It's this "fire and forget" nature of FreeBSD ports that make it wonderful.

4) FreeBSD has enormous load carrying capacity. In an effort to stress test the then new 4.9 RC, I ran 6 instances of Scilab inverting 2000X2000 matrices of random floating point numbers. At the same same time I did a HDD indexing command, had kde running and loaded a large html document in Konqueror. All this was done on a 366 MHz 600E ThinkPad with 160 MB ram. FreeBSD ran even though the swap and memory were filled. It just killed any apps that were started, after the swap was filled. 

5) FreeBSD seems to have good hardware support. On my 600E ThinkPad I have this is what works:
a) APM partially (it will hibernate once after closing the lid). 
b) Mplayer -- which also plays Windows *.wmv format well.
c) Sound works
d) WiFi works
e) USB mass storage works.
f) USB scanning works
g) USB printing works
h) The winmodem works
i) Java works
l) of course X works

6) The documentation for FreeBSD and NetBSD is very good.

7) The FreeBSD community is pretty good. It's easy to find an open source project and work on it. Right now I am testing the next version of the Ted Word Processor (ver 2.15a5). Of course Ted is of benefit to Linux people too. The point is, it seems easier to get involved with contributing/volunteering in FreeBSD. Contributing back to the Open Source community is a high priority for me so I need to find a comfortable way to do that. The ports system makes that easy. I just ask to maintain a port. If I can do the work and the patches I submit fix things then the commiters give me maintainership.




> Ok, let's rephrase that question one more time. Hey, JD. I'm not a programmer,
> not a sysadmin, not an IT specialist. I'm an environmental engineer who lives or
> dies by the word processor and a couple of specialized spreadsheets that I've
> made for myself over the last decade.  I now have Debian, Kernel 2.6.4 and XFce4
> running on my computer.  With one exception, I've located and installed the
> Linux equivalents of all the applications I want to use.  It took from late '99
> to late '02 to get to this point.  It was a nice intellectual challenge, but it
> was frustrating at times. 
> 
> You keep telling us how wonderful *BSD is. Now that I know Linux, what's my
> incentive for going through the pain and hassle of learning *BSD?  What can *BSD
> do for me that Linux can't do? What's in it for me?
> 
> *That,* Robert, is a loaded question!
> 
> RC> There is an old saying that goes something like "if you want to
> RC> know what the future of computing looks like, look at today's Mac."  
> 
> The reason behind that saying is that Apple programmers have *rigidly* adhered
> for two decades to a well-thought-out set of human interface guidelines (HIGs).
>  It is, to use another saying, a condition of their employment.  Microsoft, KDE,
> GNOME and other interface programmers are not, have never been, and will not be
> for the foreseeable future required to conform to guidelines of equal quality. 
> OSS programmers will conform when peer pressure is applied.  Microsoft will
> continue to define their own interface, and the objective will be patentability
> rather than usability.
> 
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