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Migrating from Linux to FreeBSD
Eugenia writes: "OSNews published a guide that could help users migrate from Linux to FreeBSD by spotting the main differences between the two popular systems. Interesting read & relevant to the recent FreeBSD 4.5 release a few days ago."
The article spends waaaay to much time talking about the licensing differences. When we want to migrate from one OS to another, reading the licesnsing is probably near the bottom of our lists. We want to know what the OS does, and if it'll perform well in our situation.
/. is not the intended audience.
No mention of the different CPU types that BSD runs on, how many drivers are available (just that the authors look down their noses at the "flashy new features" that new hardware offers, migrating user accounts, does CRON or anything have to be dealt with, etc. A little bit of information on the different directory structure.
His main bitch seems to be that the default install of FreeBSD is small, and the default install of SuSE isn't.
This thing reads like it was written by a C.S. major for a 200 level English course.
Also they fail to mention why you want your system up to date
:)
Security and stability fixes, primarily.
Do you really want the latest kernel if it is untested on a production system?
Ahhh, solved. FreeBSD has branches, -STABLE for code that has been tested, and -CURRENT for code that hasn't. By updating along the -STABLE track you can be sure of no nasty surprises. (5.0-CURRENT is having lots of nasty surprises, right now).
They fail to mention any real advanatges of why should one want to go from Linux, which they clasify as the 'kernel', to FreeBSD,
FreeBSD is distributed as an entire OS - there is no "distribution" concept, it arrives and works. The advantage is in the reduced amount of fragmentation, and ultimately a reduction in the time it takes to get anything working.
While the mention the linux compatiblity layer, they fail to point out a list of all the programs that run just on Linux and which ones ARE compatible
It'd be a big list! But, yes, some highlights would've been good. A good example would be Oracle, which aparrently can be made to run under Linux emulation, but it's a bit of a fight. Probably easier to just use Linux
rpm is also a open source program that if one wanted they could probably install it under FreeBSD and get it to work.
You certainly could, and in fact the Linux emulation layer does include a bunch of symlinks to make the FreeBSD file system look distinctly like a Linux one. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with the ports and packages systems.
Does FreeBSD have a journaling file system?
Kind of, it has a system called soft updates. To cut a long story short it runs the advantages of a journaling file system without the journal. There is only one of them.
(Video is done mostly through XFree so both are about equal in that respect).
Yes and no. It's only recently that FreeBSD has started to ship with XFree4.x.x (due to deeply conservative release engineering). Also FreeBSD does not have access to closed source video drivers, i.e. closed source nVidia drivers. Linux is ahead in video, but then so is Windows.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
I think a couple points need to be made. I'm a avid linux user, OpenBSD user and FreeBSD user. I also have a win98 box laying around. But I think when migrating to BSD most linux users don't realize that the GNU utils arn't there anymore. This is a big thing, same with the bash shell. Another point to be made is that for webserving FreeBSD is about as fast as you can get. If you want high loads and need to serve up lots of info FreeBSD is the answer.
Nate Tobik
ahh, the egg in the basket..
First up, I'm not a purist -- not by any stretch of the imagination -- i tend to migrate to a "best fit solution"
;)
I develop FreeBSD based embedded server apps for clients -- but until recently I had to use Linux in order to get support for my commercialware programmers editor (slickedit) -- took over two years of sending "nastygrams" or rather good natured pokes to get them to make an honest port instead of trying to get it work under the emulator.
Oracle would be great on freebsd, but that seems unlikely for awhile.
Coldfusion would be awesome on freebsd -- but considering Macromedias arcane licensing policy even when it comes to the Solaris version (jeezus I spent less money on my SparcEngine ATX motherboard then I did on my last Intel supermonster -- do they care? no they think their server is worth $5000 for the privilege to run on sparc -vs- the reasonable windows/linux server pricing they have)
The fact is, unless you can live with all the portable "free" stuff, get used to either being a cheerleader or a jeerleader when dealing with commercialware vendors.
Yeah, like its that friggn difficult for them to recompile on freebsd
Old age and treachery almost always overcome youth and skill.