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FreeBSD 5.0 Developer Preview #2

noackjr writes "'The FreeBSD Project is proud to announce the availability of the second Developer Preview snapshot of FreeBSD 5.0 (5.0-DP2). This snapshot, intended for widespread testing purposes, is the latest milestone towards the eventual release of FreeBSD 5.0-RELEASE, currently scheduled for mid-December 2002.' See the announcement, early adopter's guide, and the release notes."

327 comments

  1. Smp by dcstimm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    SMP support in this new version should rock, Freebsd never had good SMP support until now, If you are a SMP user check this update out! I know its beta but its well worth it..HUGE speed increases.

    1. Re:Smp by BrookHarty · · Score: 2

      GCC 3.2.1 should will make it faster with new optimizations for P4 and AMD-XP cpus.

      I'm glad to see Sun Blade 100's supported, currently only linux(suse) would work on my blades. (with kde/gnome support even) I wonder if some tested these ports on sparc64 machines.

    2. Re:Smp by Moridineas · · Score: 3, Informative

      NetBSD I've read has the best sparc port out there (and the most well tested).

    3. Re:Smp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. FreeBSD's porting efforts are based on no small part of NetBSD/sparc64.

    4. Re:Smp by Stonent1 · · Score: 4, Informative

      For the sake of clarity to all... Sparc64 and UltraSparc are 2 different but instruction compatable cpu series. Sparc64 is a Fujitsu product and UltraSparc is a Sun product. They are both SPARC V9 instruction set compliant but have some different innards that make them not the same thing. (Athlon XP vs Pentium 4 basically) The Sparc64 runs at lower clock rates than the UltraSparc series CPU but can achieve similar performance by using more advanced branch prediction and out of order execution techniques. Just mentioning this because many people use Sparc64 and UltraSparc interchangably but keep in mind that just because something is in the "Sparc64" FreeBSD port doesn't necessarily mean it will run on a real Fujitsu Sparc64 system which may have different hardware entirely than Sun. ;)

    5. Re:Smp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah. HUGE speed decrease :(
      Read the FreeBSD related lists. For example the networking will bu MUCH slower than on 4-STABLE...

      But hopefully that will change with time.

    6. Re:Smp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SMP has always worked great on FreeBSD 4-stable.

    7. Re:Smp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually..it has lot's of debbuging stuff slowing it down. They will turn off the proper plugs for 5.0-Release.

    8. Re:Smp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, my testing has indicated that Solaris is the best sparc-based OS at the moment.

    9. Re:Smp by someonehasmyname · · Score: 1

      He did say "port."

      --
      Common sense is not so common.
    10. Re:Smp by flashz · · Score: 1

      I've tested the DP2 on one of our dual boxes and the increase in performance is so good, it feels like we're having four processors now ;-)

  2. Yaaay team! by CoolVibe · · Score: 5, Interesting
    CURRENT has come a long way. Heck, I've stopped trying to keep a machine CURRENT because problems started with me when they changed ABI's and compilers (from gcc 2.9x to gcc3), so I went back to STABLE land for a while.

    Now that DP2 is here, I might as well jump in the CURRENT water again and give it a go again. The time that CURRENT _did_ work for me, it worked great and I considered it stable. I have been following/lurking the current@ mailinglist for quite a while, and it's been fun seeing al these cool new things appear.

    Great work. I'm definately going to give this a spin.

    1. Re:Yaaay team! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As an addition, for anyone who wants to see a small group of very good programmers discuss worthwhile items, subscribe to freebsd-hackers@ and freebsd-current@. Very, very interesting.

  3. Supported Applications by tyrelb · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have been running FreeBSD for a number of years now (ever since the 2.x days), and find it great. One thing I've noticed, is that there are no mentions of any graphical displays and applications included in the default install/release notes (i.e. KDE/GNOME support, office applications, etc.). Does anyone know why this is?

    1. Re:Supported Applications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think the release notes are supposed to deal with changes. FreeBSD has always been able to run KDE and GNOME, som them not being mentioned should mean that they still work.

    2. Re:Supported Applications by jandrese · · Score: 3, Informative

      Because the FreeBSD core team is really building the OS, KDE and Gnome are userland applications are are out of the scope of the core team. KDE and Gnome is left as a port that the user can optionally install later (cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome; make install clean or cd to /usr/ports/x11/kde3; make install clean). In fact the FreeBSD team has been moving to streamline their installer recently be removing as many third party applications (perl) from the base system as possible and instead making them ports.

      --

      I read the internet for the articles.
    3. Re:Supported Applications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, you stating that the FreeBSD team moving to streamline their installer brings one question to my mind: has their been any debate and/or decision made in regards to the, er, "desktop position" of the FreeBSD project?

      I mean, have they decided to concentrate on making the best server OS, period, they can make -- or have they decided to create a "one size fits all" OS that can be a pretty darn desktop *and* a pretty darn server OS?

      Have they decided to make it a goal to make the project's output more "desktop friendly", like what has happened generally with Linux?

      This is not a troll. I was using FreeBSD way back when as my "desktop" *nix until I needed something that was just available for Linux at the time and switched horses (around RH 5.0). At the time, the installers of the various Linux distros were not that different from 'BSD (ok, maybe except Debian, IIRC) and Linux was as much "desktop friendly" as 'BSD was. But things have changed (Caldera Open Linux 2.2 in '99, etc.) since. Even though I had a bit louch touch/contact with FreeBSD since my switch, I still had a soft spot for it. I've been wondering recently how they were considering The Desktop these days and if they made (substantial (sp?)) changes to their installer.

      Anyone care to light up my lantern? Thanks.

    4. Re:Supported Applications by CoolVibe · · Score: 2
      FreeBSD/KDE at least has it's own website here.

      Lots of information there, and access to pre-built KDE-CVS snapshots (that is, if they built correctly). They have a handy script that gets the latest built snapshot and installs it for you. Bless pkg_add(1)'s little heart. :)

    5. Re:Supported Applications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sysinstall allows you to install XFree86 plus your choice of desktop directly from the menus. Pretty easy to spot.

    6. Re:Supported Applications by Arandir · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because KDE and GNOME are not a part of the operating system. In fact, they aren't a part of any Linux based OS either!

      KDE and GNOME are third party software. You can find them in the ports system, along with 7000+ more third party packages. I would hate to see the size of the release notes if they had to document every change to every port and package!

      p.s. Microsoft, GNU, and the Linux distributions have done an admirable job in obfuscating the definition of "operating system". Just because it comes with the OS does not make it a part of the OS.

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    7. Re:Supported Applications by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      KDE, GNOME, Office Applications... A jedi craves not these things.

      Seriously, They are ports or packages. Stuff like that should not be part of the base operating system.

    8. Re:Supported Applications by RPoet · · Score: 2

      FreeBSD/GNOME also has it's own website, here.

      --
      "Oppression and harassment is a small price to pay to live in the land of the free." -- Montgomery Burns.
    9. Re:Supported Applications by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Because VERY unlike FreeBSD, KDE & Gnome suck.

    10. Re:Supported Applications by bmah · · Score: 2, Insightful

      We had to draw the line somewhere. :-)

      Seriously, one person (me) writes most of the release notes, and the base system is more than enough to: 1) Keep that person busy and 2) Make for a really long document.

      GNOME, KDE, and OpenOffice all have their own Web pages that can be found without too much effort, and they do a far better job describing the most recent progress with these packages than could a couple of lines in the release notes.

    11. Re:Supported Applications by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 2

      You mean the GUI isn't part of the OS? Next, you'll try to tell me the web browser is a seperate program!

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  4. Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Someone take BSD and do a Mandrake version of it while at the same time keeping it all opensource and free. Ie make it really user friendly(Gui installer, admin tools etc). I'm surprised there has been no effort to do so. I mean beyond what Apple did I don't even hear any rumors of anyone even trying to do that.

    I know BSD is a more thought of as a server OS, but I've heard plently of BSD users claim its makes a fine desktop as well. If that's every going to happen they definitely need to start working on making it more user friendly.

    1. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by CoolVibe · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Like FreeBSD's text-based install is hard. NOT.

      It's an installer that doesn't get in your way. The partitioning/labelling is pretty easy (and has reasonable auto-defaults). And finishing up after (enabling ssh, nfs et al) is a doddle.

      I don't see why FreeBSD needs graphical cruft in it's installer. The simple ncurses based one lets me install a fully working FreeBSD base system + ports tree in under 30 minutes. If I want something extra after that, pkg_add -r isn't far away.

      I mean, come on... It's an installation, not something you have to work in for more than 8 hours. Yeah sure, GUI installers look nice, but what's the USE?

    2. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by MsGeek · · Score: 2
      You'll see it. It's in the works. http://www.kawaiiproject.org/ . It won't be huge and more-than-complete like Mandrake, but it will be desktop-oriented and friendly. Think Lycoris or Xandros. Also think Knoppix...you can slip it into your CD-ROM and boot off that, or you can take the installer and install onto a hard drive, or even a suitably large CF for diskless operations.

      FreeBSD is too good to keep away from the desktop. Heck, the MacPPC folks have OS X...why deny x86 computers this BSD-driven goodness? A FreeBSD-based graphical desktop will run acceptably on older machines (think walk, not crawl) and is a true speed daemon on fast machines. This has been a long time coming, but it is going to happen.

      --
      Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
    3. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, the license gives you even more leeway than GNU, so you're most welcome to try it. But talk is cheap.

    4. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Hello welcome to the year 2002. In this century ease of use and friendly graphical user interfaces are the norm. Text mode was fine in the 80 and early 90's but the rest of us have moved on to GUI's. Its called progress and makes computers more accessible to the rest of us who just want to sit down and get our work done, not become computer experts.

      Its fine if you want to stick to text only, but don't act like your too fucking stupid to realize why 99% of the world doesn't want to deal with ncurses and text menus and tools.

    5. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by high · · Score: 1

      That webpage wasn't very informative. Does it exist anything to download yet?

      It would be great if worked in a similar way lika knoppix.

    6. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Arandir · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know BSD is a more thought of as a server OS, but I've heard plently of BSD users claim its makes a fine desktop as well. If that's every going to happen they definitely need to start working on making it more user friendly.

      What do you mean, "if that's ever going to happen"? It already has! It's my desktop system right now! It may not be the desktop system for your grandma, but then again, I'm not your grandma.

      And FreeBSD *IS* user friendly. Do not mistake pretty pictures for usability. The FreeBSD installer is straight forward and sensible. The documentation is complete and thorough. Configuration is simple. The only drawback is that it expects you to educate yourself on system administration. But actually, that's a Good Thing(tm).

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    7. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with this 110%.. In fact I've put some serious thought into designing such a system. Alas lack of time always bites me.

    8. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by b0r1s · · Score: 2, Informative

      Oddly enough, the installer isn't ncurses, it's a program called 'dialog'. It's a kludge that someone jkh beat into the system a while back, and everyone would like to see changed, although efforts have stalled at the moment.

      The history is here, for further reading.

      --
      Mooniacs for iOS and Android
    9. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by CoolVibe · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Hello, please let's keep what works well. Graphical user interfaces for system installation? Come on! Have you ever tried to set up a FreeBSD box?

      What's this animosity against text-mode installs? They work. What makes you think that the FreeBSD sysinstall scares away "lusers"? Because it hasn't got a crash-prone fluffy GUI which is a pain in the butt to recover from when it falls on it's ass?

      FreeBSD's text mode installation is perfectly okay for that odd half an hour (depending on hardware and network speeds of course) of installing the base system.

    10. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ever installed Windows NT4 or Windows 2000 (don't know for XP) from scratch while booting form the CD?
      The first part is text-based my dear AC. I don't know how you made it to +2, Insightfull but an installation should be a one-time activity and whatever you say: GUI doesn't cut it, because frankly, if you give a Windows 2000 CD to your little sister she won't figure it out either.
      Because for installing a computer correctly you need at least some basic computer knowledge. The other 99% you talk about get their computers installed by "us" (meaning, people who know what they do). It's normal... I don't start drilling in my teeth when I've got toothache, I go to a dentist: a specialist. There is no difference with computers.

    11. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by d^2b · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Its fine if you want to stick to text only, but don't act like your too fucking stupid to realize why 99% of the world doesn't want to deal with ncurses and text menus and tools.

      Well, somebody got up on the wrong side of bed this morning. If we can't act stupid on Slashdot, where can we :-)

      I see this attitude a great deal on slashdot (and more elsewhere I suppose) that something cannot possibly be "user friendly" without being graphical.

      Unless "user friendly" is defined as "conforms to the expectations of Windows users" I don't see this statement as being at all obvious. Being "Windows-like" is a possible design goal, but maybe not the top priority.

      One can look at this debate from two sides:

      1. Yes, if you want to sell Debian/FreeBSD/UnixALikes-in-General to people whose only background is Windows (or Mac), then a spiffy graphical installer might help.
      2. On the other hand, if the FreeBSD (Debian, etc..) install process turns you off, the probably using the actual system won't be that much fun either.
      This is different than the "Linux is not ready for gramma" discussion. None of these systems is that difficult to use, but roughly speaking, the install process is a preview of the user experience.
    12. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Metrol · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Like FreeBSD's text-based install is hard. NOT.

      No, it's not hard. It's not exactly intuitive either.

      A decision was made to use sysinstall as both the installer, and post installation utility. In short, it's not really adequate for either.

      It's not whether it's text based or GUI. The real problem is that it doesn't follow a linear path to complete the installation. Even after a number of installations it's not entirely obvious what step happens in which order. For a first timer at it, it is quite confusing.

      What should happen is to have a step by step process that walks a user through the process without allowing for deviations. Aside from the GUI, this is what makes the Linux installers so much easier for someone who hasn't seen them before.

      The one advantage to a GUI installer is to provide a little more screen space to describe exactly what is going on. Full descriptions of packages that can be installed, things like that.

      Lastly, a GUI would provide a bit more professionalism to what the user perceives. Text based installers are just too closely associated with the 80's. It's harmful to FreeBSD's image essentially.

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    13. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Metrol · · Score: 2

      The history is here [freebsd.org], for further reading.

      Thank you for this post. This clears up a LOT of confusion on my part as to why things were done the way they were.

      Being that this thing was dated over 2 years ago, I don't suppose there's much point in holding our breath for libh's completion. *sigh*.

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    14. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by duncangough · · Score: 0

      /stand/sysintall is a pretty nice installer, and it's a GUI. Sure it doesn't have lots of penguins stamped on it, but it does the trick.

    15. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Lastly, a GUI would provide a bit more professionalism to what the user perceives. Text based installers are just too closely associated with the 80's. It's harmful to FreeBSD's image essentially.

      It's not. FreeBSD is for computer geeks and IT professionals, not the ordinary fool that would fall for BillG's latest marketing troll. User friendly means the user gets to do what the user want in the way the user expects, and a GUI does not really help, since it might behave in unexpected ways on unexpected hardware.

      I must admit I haven't done many installations by the latest and greatest GUI installers, but I tried both SuSE 6.3 and Progeny some time ago, and none of them worked on the specific hardware, so I had to use text mode installers. My point isn't that GUI's are inherently wrong for installing, but that an installer has to be robust.

      The FreeBSD installer isn't very good, but it's not because it's text mode. Cramming the same thing into a GUI would suck even worse - the user wouldn't know where to click.
    16. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    17. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by bogie · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Why is this modded up? Someone who stands against progress is modded as Insightful? Umm O.K., lets all go back to terminals since this fancy GUI stuff was just for newbies anyways. There's nothing you can do in Mozilla that can't be done from Lynx right?

      "Yeah sure, GUI installers look nice, but what's the USE? "

      That is a plainly stupid question.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    18. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Ded+Bob · · Score: 1

      I believe libh to still be alive: libh. In fact, it looks like it will have mulitple GUI's to choose from.

    19. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh, he said someone named jkh...how the FreeBSD world has changed. I miss 1.1.5.1.

      -Rob

    20. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by swb · · Score: 2

      The partitioning/labelling is pretty easy (and has reasonable auto-defaults).

      FreeBSD's partitioning and labeling system blows chunks. If you accept the defaults and you don't do anything interesting with the box, you'll get by. The default sizes for / and /var are ridiculous, expecially considering mail is stored in /var/mail.

      And then there's the whole confusing issue of partitioning, labeling and which means what relative to a lot of other OS environments.

      And while I'm on it, there's the crummy sysinstall tool for doing it to new disks added to a system, if you're not brave enough to deal with fdisk and disklabel from the command line (I figured 'em out once, as a forced exercise, and I was happy to be done with it).

      I have no grip with sysinstall for getting a base system installed, but it'd be great if someone re-examined the disk partitioning schemes and tools.

    21. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by DuBois · · Score: 2
      FreeBSD is for computer geeks and IT professionals, not the ordinary fool that would fall for BillG's latest marketing troll.

      Reminds me of what a Sun marketdroid once told me when I asked him why Sun didn't make some sort of system administration helper like smitty or sam. He said, "Well, Sun SA's can ask for more money, so you should be happy."

      Might Sun's current stock price reflect this attitude??

      --
      The IPCC has purposely engineered a massive scientific fraud.
    22. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I originally typed "someone (I think jkh)".

      I took the 2 minutes to look it up, and then tried to edit in 2 seconds. I got the "I think" out, but left "someone". My mistake.

    23. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by evil_pb · · Score: 1
      Ie make it really user friendly(Gui installer, admin tools etc). I'm surprised there has been no effort to do so. I mean beyond what Apple did I don't even hear any rumors of anyone even trying to do that.

      You're right. Because there is no reason to do so. There is nothing wrong with the userfriendliness of FreeBSD; I've been using it since the wee early 2.x days (I even made an attempt at a late 1.x release back in the day but had to abandon that at the time), and "cut my UNIX teeth" on it so to speak. The interface hasn't changed much since then but has been cleaned up, and IMO doesn't need anything new.

      What you're saying sounds like a typical Windows or Mac user comment (no bashing, this is a real observation from a system engineer/admin of many years), i.e. if there isn't a pretty picture that says the exact same thing as the writing on the screen, it just doesn't gel up in the cranium. However, this is not Windows or Mac land. Personally I gave up on Linux because all of that GUI-everything cluttered the box up so much that the install became huge, and it took me longer to accomplish the same tasks.

      The learning curve is really about the same either way, it's just learning to use the Tab and Enter keys on BSD vs a mouse in Linux (aka Mandrake). Now, Mandrake was my favorite Linux distro, however their compatibility issues (probably linked to the rest of Linux's issues) were enough to make me have to stop using it - I simply cannot rely on a system, either for desktop use or servers, where I wonder about critical system failures in every patch I install. I've also had issues on multiple systems with the "pretty Mandrake install" and had to go back to text mode anyway - and let me tell you this, the Mandrake text mode interface is not anywhere near as polished as BSD's.

      FreeBSD or any other BSD do not need any graphical anything to make them "more user friendly". To do so would ultimately be a detriment to the system as a whole IMO. If you want to get GUI's running, install Xfree86 when you install BSD. The config there is still a bit touchy (i.e. 4.2 configs through the install are not quite right) however with a bit of tweaking you can get it running in about 5 minutes. I have, several times. And the GUI is my choice to use, not something that's forced on me by the OS. Want to see an ultra-slim text install? Go get OpenBSD. Aside from the most secure OS you will ever see, the installation is just 10 minutes of answering some questions. Brilliance in simplicity!

      Not flaming those who like the GUI's - I'm sure they have their place. I just don't feel that place is here.

    24. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How is it a GUI? Graphical User Interface, remember??

      Sure it's fine. It's not a GUI though.

    25. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by CoolVibe · · Score: 2
      You clearly don't get it. One only gets to deal with FreeBSD's installation routines very few times. Sysinstall is handy to get a basic system up and running. No fuss, it works, it might not behave the way you expect it to, but at least it's not as horrible as debian's dselect.

      For installation of an operating system, GUI installers have indeed NO use AT ALL, other than have people say to themselves "gee, that looks nice" and having the microserf kid next door drool over your keyboard. In the case of freebsd, sysinstall needs to guide someone through partitioning, labelling, unpack a tarball or two onto the root fs, and generate a /etc/rc.conf so stuff like hostnames are known. All the added fluff in sysinstall is just to facilitate things like installing from a FTP, NFS or HTTP host. Oh, there's the configuration stuff afterwards, but guess what? You already have a fully working system om that dist. Installation is already practically over. As freebsd unpacked that last distribution tarball, your system is already bootable and useadble (to a degree). Yes, you can already reboot and wake up to a working system. Sure, it has no hostname (so it defaults to Amnesiac), and no networking set up, but hey, you can always attach the rc.conf in /etc with vi.

      To install FreeBSD you actually don't even need an installer like sysinstall, just a system that can partition disks, create FFS slices onto BSD partitions and unpack stuff on top of the root and install a boot sector that can boot FreeBSD kernels. The FreeBSD base install does NO complicated stuff like dependancy checking, post-install scripts or other stuff.

      It's very simple and straightforward. Once someone knows more about the system, it's possible to just script sysinstall or just blast a FreeBSD install onto the disk across a LAN (which is what I do). Chroot in and finish up, reboot, done.

      I'd say, let the FreeBSD developers put their efforts in creating a better BSD system instead of a "better" installation. A GUI doesn't constitute "user-friendlyness". FreeBSD's install doesn't NEED a friggin fluffy marketroid-feel-good GUI.

      Yes I know people think that a graphical installer is somehow more aesthetically pleasing and "looks" easy, but I rather have function over pretty looks. Sysinstall might have a few quirks that might snag you the first time, but you'll figure it out.

    26. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by CoolVibe · · Score: 2
      For a desktop box, the default setup is probably okay. Note that I use the word "probably". Since everyone and their brother has different needs w.r.t. the partitioning of disks, it's impossible to anticipate what _you_ need. If you're an expert user, don't use the defaults. The FreeBSD people can't please everyone at the same time.

      Yes, using fdisk and disklabel to partition new disks is difficult for a newcomer, but actually, across all the BSD's that's pretty much "standard". You did it once on FreeBSD, well, you won't have to relearn much for Net and OpenBSD. Great huh?

      I agree that such things must become somewhat less contused. But the BSD's use a wholly different systems than the intel partition map cruft that e.g. Linux uses. There are actually quite a few benefits in making one big slice and partitioning that up. You can get lots more partitions on a disk that way. Sysinstall is a step in the right direction for making this easier, but it's not perfect.

    27. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by TheLink · · Score: 2

      Why don't they do what Microsoft does and put everything in "C:" as a default. It'll still work.

      The dummies won't notice or complain (esp if softupdates turned on - they won't know how to repair stuff if it gets really screwed up either, nor do they backup). The nondummies will pick their own sizes.

      --
    28. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by swb · · Score: 2

      Yes, using fdisk and disklabel to partition new disks is difficult for a newcomer, but actually, across all the BSD's that's pretty much "standard". You did it once on FreeBSD, well, you won't have to relearn much for Net and OpenBSD. Great huh?

      God I hate that rationale. "It's broken and braindead across other platforms, too, so you should be able to deal with it there, too".

      I agree that such things must become somewhat less contused. But the BSD's use a wholly different systems than the intel partition map cruft that e.g. Linux uses.

      What's specifically wrong with it, besides the fact that its the same way MS does it? I'd wager that its simpler and solves the same problem just as well.

      There are actually quite a few benefits in making one big slice and partitioning that up. You can get lots more partitions on a disk that way. Sysinstall is a step in the right direction for making this easier, but it's not perfect.

      I have a hard time seeing the need for a zillion partitions. Maybe 6, tops -- there's no performance increases, and its certainly an inflexible way of allocating disk space.

      I just wish there was a linux-style fdisk application (simpler, easier) that did everything that the disk manipulation portion of sysinstall did, but simpler.

    29. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by arkane1234 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Its called progress and makes computers more accessible to the rest of us who just want to sit down and get our work done, not become computer experts.

      When you say "us", please say what you really mean.. you. Just because it's in a GUI doesn't mean it's easier, it's just prettier. Let's try to keep things in perspective, please.

      FreeBSD's installer is very intuitive. (Well, except for the first screen, which needs to be read first to be understood) It's ncurses, but it's menu-based. It also leads to not requiring 64 megs of ram just to run the installer.

      It would be different if we were talking about something that Joe Blow is going to install, but this is *BSD we're talking about. You have to have at least an ounce of common sense to use it.. and I consider the installer to be a litmus test of that, in a way.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    30. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Or just use Logical Volume Management...
      I consider it alot simpler.. one physical partition to boot from, one physical partition your going to split up, and your done with "partitioning". The rest is as easy as creating whatever logical drives you want inside of LVM.

      Wonder, does *BSD have that, yet?

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    31. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by bogie · · Score: 2

      " You clearly don't get it."

      But I do. Don't get hung up on my gui installer point, its not my only issue. like the original post said admin and all configuration tools need to be user friendly as well.

      Also like the original post said until someone "Mandrakes" BSD beyond what Apple did, it will never get any market penetration.

      Like I've said before the goal of all config tools and OS's is to be as simple to use as a light swight. Hide the complexity from the user and make smart choices behind the scences. That is where we are heading, and if you doubt that, your in denial about the future of computing.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    32. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by phoenix_rizzen · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's precisely what BSD has. One partition table entry for the BSD slice. Inside that slice, you can partition to your heart's content. All other OS's see only a single BSD partition, which makes things very nice, neat, and tidy.

      I can't stand the DOS/Linux method of using a separate partition table entry for each partition. You end up with a partition table 17 miles long just for a standard Linux install. Try adding multiple disks and multiple OSs and you end up with something that resembles the original Dead Sea Scrolls.

      1 OS per partition table entry. Makes it so much simpler.

    33. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FreeBSD's fdisk gui is much easier/nicer than OpenBSD/NetBSD. Those two don't even set standards. You've just heard about how these systems are alike and never really tried em did ya.

    34. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by danoaks15 · · Score: 1

      Great Idea. I use FBSD as a desktop nad I love it.

    35. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Inside that slice, you can partition to your heart's content. All other OS's see only a single BSD partition, which makes things very nice, neat, and tidy.

      I meant on-the-fly like LVM does.. not just the methodology.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    36. Re:Know what I'd love to see? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That is a plainly stupid question

      No its not. If it doesn't add something feature wise or make it easier then a GUI installer could be even worse than ncurses.

      And I'm a newbie!

      I've only used FreeBSD for about 2 months. It is the greatest operating system I have ever used, better than any flavour of Linux I have tried.

  5. A Parable that applies... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    This whole issue with BSD and the ammount of fervor behind it reminds me of a parable I'd like to share, not meaning to cause offense or shove doctrines on anyone.

    Once in the land of Karjakistan, there was a great sultan who had no heir, his wisemen dispaired and decreed that the queen should be put to death that the king might marry another. In her desperation she called on the wisest guru of the land, Bobi-Son-Denobi (BSD), telling him he was her only hope. So BSD arrived at the palace and met Queen Needs-a-Leia and she told him of the problem:

    "Oh BSD, you must help me, for my husband has not produced an heir for he will not take me into his bed!"

    BSD was confused, what man would refuse a woman with such a large set of erm... kernals? So he searched for the answer high and low until he came to the master handler, Linux. Linux told him of a dark secret, how King Mesa Sofi (King MS) would sneak down into the animals cages and have wild escapades with the camels. BSD was shocked, the world knew MS was cursed but not so defiled, but still an heir needed to be produced, so he went back to the Queen and asked her to disrobe (hey, she did it for Jaba, right?). He gazed at her nubile figure, which seemed as if it were petrified, like Natalie Portman.

    The answer was as obvious as steaming hot grits, of course he thought! I HAS THE SOLUTION!

    And so BSD appeared before King MS, with Linux and the two approached the throne. "Your monopoliness," BSD began, "If you will view the naked body of your wife."

    Need-a-Leia disrobed again her nude form shining forth, "You will notice her... um TCP/IP socket... looks a bit like the toe of a beast of burdan, a camel's toe if you will."

    The King looked on and was pleased, and so the Queen bore him a son and was spared, BSD and Linux had saved the day.

    The moral of the story is, Microsoft is a bunch of sick bastards who need to listen to open source and stop fucking livestock.

    1. Re:A Parable that applies... by The+Original+Yama · · Score: 2

      Stop it! All that talk of camels is making Perl look bad!

    2. Re:A Parable that applies... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Jennifer Lopez = "JLo" (pron: "Jay-Low"). Bill Gates = "BGa" (pron: "Be-Gay")

      Am I the only person who misread the first part of that as "pr0n", then shuddered at the second part?

    3. Re:A Parable that applies... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope.. everytime I read that I shudder at the thought of Bill Gates having anything to do with pr0n.

  6. BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    /B-S-D/ n. [abbreviation for `Berkeley Software
    Distribution'] a family of Unix versions for the DEC VAX and
    PDP-11 developed by Bill Joy and others at Berkeley starting
    around 1980, incorporating paged virtual memory, TCP/IP networking
    enhancements, and many other features. The BSD versions (4.1, 4.2,
    and 4.3) and the commercial versions derived from them (SunOS,
    ULTRIX, and Mt. Xinu) held the technical lead in the Unix world
    until AT&T's successful standardization efforts after about 1986;
    descendants are still widely popular. Note that BSD versions going
    back to 2.9 are often referred to by their version numbers, without
    the BSD prefix.
  7. Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Blaede · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At present I use Windows, cause that's what 98% of the apps I use are written only for. But I do like learning about other OSes.

    So on to my question (with a possible coda). I read in a BSD guide that "most" apps written for Linux will run under any of the BSDs. Is this true, or was this dude just plain misinformed? Only reason is I ask this is that most of the info I've seen regarding the Unix variants is that BSD is superior over Linux. If that's the case, why use Linux? Anyway, if anyone can answer this 2 part question in a quick, general way, it would be appreciated.

    1. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Moridineas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, the BSD's have a binary compatibility mode so you can take a linux compiled program and run it most of the time flawlessly. You can ALSO just recompile any opensource program and it will again 99% of the time run fine.

      As for which is superior, that's certaintly a matter of taste. My first Linux experience was with Slackware way back, and then RedHat starting with version 4 and then 5. Then I gave FreeBSD a try. I actually find it easier to get setup and in many ways more consistent in terms of design and organization (given at least beginner level *nix knowledge). It's really a matter of personal taste though.

    2. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Markus+Landgren · · Score: 5, Informative

      If the application you want to run is one of the 5000 applications in the "FreeBSD ports collection", then a simple "make install" in the proper directory will download the sources, patch them for FreeBSD, compile and install. If you need to run something that is distributed as binaries only, then FreeBSD has support for the Linux ABI. I run Linux versions of Mathematica and Unreal Tournament 2003 with no problems at all.

      I'm a FreeBSD user since three months, and I think FreeBSD is an excellent beginner's unix.

      My unix adventures started with downloading Redhat and installing it. It took 30 minutes and I learned nothing. Then I sat there with a system that I had no idea how to configure to my taste. I disliked it and went back to Windows.

      My next try was FreeBSD. Installing it took a couple of tries and it took at least a day or two before I was satisfied. But I learned a lot, mainly because of the excellent online documentation. Now I run FreeBSD on all my computers and I am not going back.

      That being said, expect Linux to have better support for the latest and greatest hardware. (And expect Windows to have even better hardware support than Linux!) But I'm happy since the recent release of FreeBSD drivers for my NVidia card.

    3. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by TheLinuxWarrior · · Score: 5, Informative
      One of the reasons I choose Linux over BSD is the rate at which Linux development takes place.

      Linux is beginning to hit so big in corporate America that the software development effort to develop new applications and port existing applications to Linux is amazing.

      This of course is just my opinion, but I would have to say that the development effort for Linux is outpacing that of the FreeBSD community.

      I suppose the bottom line though is what works best for you? I would recommend that you take a look at both and decide for yourself which one works best for you.

    4. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by The+Original+Yama · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Earlier this year, I was trying to decide which OS/distro I should try next. I narrrowed the list down to two choices: Debian (because apt makes things easy to administer) and FreeBSD (because the ports system makes compiling my own apps easy). Then I discovered Gentoo. It has an excellent ports-like system (Portage) which also takes care of dependencies. I don't know much about FreeBSD's ports system but I hear that Portage is better.

      Sorry if I sound like a troll (I'm just adding my two cents), but Gentoo seems to have the best of both the FreeBSD and GNU/Linux worlds. I get the increased app compatibility of GNU/Linux with a great ports system.

    5. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by dokebi · · Score: 5, Informative

      Besides some small (and not so small) technical differences, the most significant divergence between BSD and Linux is the license model (and the underlying philosophy). Linux is a GPL kernel, with GNU tools providing rest of the system (thus GNU/Linux). The GPL license has a clause that says if one wants to distribute a modified version of a GPL'ed software, one must also include the modified source code. BSD however says you can do whatever you want with the program and its code, including selling your modified version without source code. All you have to do is include the BSD/UC Berkeley copyright notice. If you ever read the MS Windows copyrigth page, it includes the BSD Copyright. Yes, MS Windows has some BSD code.

      A lot of other Open Source software are BSD styled. Others are GPL.

      It's a matter of which philosophy you subscribe to.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
    6. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As of about a week ago, the Linux versions of many games run with full 3D acceleration on NVIDIA cards, for example Quake3 and Unreal Tournament 2003 (out of the box, although it's a pain to get installed).

      99% of Linux executables can be run after a simple 'brandelf -t Linux executable', although I have found a couple of very sloppily coded sh scripts that ran on Linux and didn't work as-is on FreeBSD (most notibly the UT2003 install script mentioned above).

      As someone who switched from Slackware to FreeBSD, I don't forsee ever moving to anything else. Not to disrespect Linux, but it is relatively a mess.

      Someone else here described FreeBSD kernel as being a "borg cube", and that it is - in a structured and nicely organised way. And this philosophy extends to the entire distro.

      If you're happy with Linux, fine - enjoy. You're only going to be able to run mostly the same software anyway. But I would recommend checking out FreeBSD if you're stuck with anything else.

    7. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by UU7 · · Score: 1

      Yup, I went from linux to BSD. I started with slackware and debian. I found BSD cleaner and I found that the liscense made more sense.

    8. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by CoolVibe · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I'm using Gentoo right now, and I have to admit that portage is pretty good, but still, *BSD's ports are still better. Gentoo's package masking system and USE variable cruft is just inconvenient and gets in the way sometimes, and that's one of the major gripes I got with it. But otherwise, portage is pretty spiffy.

      The only thing Gentoo's portage has over *BSD's ports is the better updating mechanism. Portupgrade under freebsd just blows chunks, and not just because yet another script interpreter (ruby) needs to be installed. It croaks a lot when dependancies somehow shift (because you compiled new versions of something). Which lieves you with the dreaded pkgdb -F which sometimes leaves you guessing. I think the FreeBSD ports system could learn something from the NetBSD port system which has a make update target.

      But that's just my personal opinion on both systems. They are both nice, but the FreeBSD ports system comes out on top wrt flexibility.

    9. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by rsidd · · Score: 5, Informative
      They are both nice, but the FreeBSD ports system comes out on top wrt flexibility.

      Funny, I have quite the opposite judgement. I'm a huge FreeBSD fan, am typing this on my FreeBSD laptop in fact, but it now dual-boots Gentoo. One of the big selling points of FreeBSD, for me, was the ports system -- RPM is just so much of a headache -- but that was until I met gentoo. It has really gotten rid of many of the headaches associated with FreeBSD's ports: in particular, if you have a port A installed, and then port B pulls in a newer version of port A, the old version can be uninstalled automatically and safely in Gentoo without touching any of the new files. (In fact Gentoo now does it automatically.) And that's just one aspect: I like the fact that gentoo portage supports multiple versions of ports, that it generates the CONTENTS file automatically, and if your favourite port hasn't been updated to the latest version, you can often trivially do it yourself (you can also do that in FreeBSD but it's more complicated to get the CONTENTS right, and if you don't it won't uninstall cleanly). Now that I've used Gentoo for some time, FreeBSD's ports system is clearly showing its rough edges and deficiencies.

      So why am I sticking with FreeBSD? Because it performs better (especially under load), and a lot of things just work better -- eg, I occasionally have problems with ppp or dhcp/cable modem in linux, never in FreeBSD. But gentoo has huge potential, in fact it's already a pretty spiffy system, I think. If I had multiple machines, I'd install FreeBSD on the "mission critical" ones and gentoo on the "play" ones (bleeding-edge software, multimedia, etc).

    10. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by runderwo · · Score: 5, Insightful
      This of course is just my opinion, but I would have to say that the development effort for Linux is outpacing that of the FreeBSD community.
      Remember that software being ported to any Unix-like system is a win for all Unix-like systems. FreeBSD can run many Linux binaries through its emulated execution layer, and many apps ported to Linux can be recompiled on BSD with relative ease.

      Just because Linux is gaining share doesn't necessarily mean that BSD is losing. It does mean that UNIX is gaining though. :)

    11. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Moridineas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You do raise a good point in some ways--Linux has a lot of corporate backing and is very "loud" and attention grabbing. In the meanwhile, the server room is running bsd ;)

      Don't forget that when you say development for linux is outpacing bsd what does that mean? The servers apps most people run has nothing to do with the OS. Samba, Bind, Netatalk, Squid, Apache, IP NAT+firewall etc, ssh, ftp, sendmail and variants of these programs--these are what most people run, and these have absolutely no connection to linux.

    12. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Baki · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I have tried Gentoo, but I'm back to Slackware. I used to use FreeBSD (for 5 years) but had to switch to Linux because of vmware (current versions alas do not run under FreeBSD).

      For me as an old FreeBSD user, Slackware feels much much more "at home". Yes, Gentoo has ports (I prefer FreeBSD's though) but a big drawback is that, in contrast to FreeBSD, the whole base system is also made up of ports.

      In FreeBSD the 'core' system is the same everywhere, not maintained by ports but having all source code in /usr/src, to be installed/updated by syncing the source and then execute 'make world' in /usr/src.

      Gentoo, with its web of port dependencies and infinite number of configurations, is unstable because of this. Also a small change often requires recompilation and reinstallation of 'everything'. Just read the Gentoo boards/mailing lists to see how often some configuration (combination of ports) breaks.

      FreeBSD ports also break occasionally, but at least the don't affect the base system.

      Apart from that, Slackware is like FreeBSD w.r.t. simplicity for file layouts, rc startup files etc. Gentoo feels more like other Linuces. This is a matter of taste and of what you're used to. I am convinced that most FreeBSD users prefer Slackware if they have to use a Linux distribution.

    13. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by aussersterne · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1. It's true, most applications for Linux can be run under FreeBSD.

      2. It's a matter of personal choice to run one or the other on a desktop workstation. I run Linux because it's just more fun. Better 3D games support, newer drivers for everything and much more rapid development full of new ideas, little bits of GNU humor or cleverness all over the place and a lot of variety. It feels right. Of course, a lot of FreeBSD users would say that 3D gaming is for gamer weenies, newer drivers equal more unstable drivers, GNU humor and cleverness are really just lack of professionalism and variety is really the same thing as inconsistency. It's all a matter of personal taste if it's your personal system.

      For non-personal systems, I'd say it's more a matter of whatever your vendor is pushing. In more and more cases these days, that will be Linux, but there are still some large firms that are outfitting people with *BSD.

      --
      STOP . AMERICA . NOW
    14. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      As the others mentioned, portupgrade can help quite a bit. It has its problems though.

      1) It's confusing. Upgrading ports and packages should *not* be this difficult. The documentation is terrible which only adds to the confusion.

      2) portupgrade belongs in the base system. It needs to be rewritten in C so as to remove Ruby dependency (they did remove Perl from 5.0 for this reason, after all).

      I guess it's too late for 5.0, but I wish something would be done about the complex nature of upgrading FreeBSD, both the base system and ports.

      I recently started using Redhat 7.3 on a server of ours and I have to say that running 'up2date' is MUCH simpler than trying to upgrade PHP and all of its dependencies on FreeBSD whenever a security fix was released. All of the repeated warnings in portupgrade about backing up /var/db/pkg and how it could render the system useless didn't give me enough (read: any) confidence to use it in a server situation.

      The one issue I have about RH's 'up2date' tool is that it doesn't seem to make any distinction between the base system (OS) and add-on RPMs. Even if it did, I would prefer having two separate tools for that.

    15. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      If the application you want to run is one of the 5000 applications in the "FreeBSD ports collection",

      Minor nit, but its closer to 8,000 ports :)

      That being said, expect Linux to have better support for the latest and greatest hardware. (And expect Windows to have even better hardware support than Linux!) But I'm happy since the recent release of FreeBSD drivers for my NVidia card.

      I've had the exact opposite experience with FreeBSD. Linux's USB stack is still an infant, as is its FireWire an bluetooth stack. Heck its IP and VM is still infantile too. The problem with linux is that nothing ever seems to get finished. EXT2 still has huge performance problems and they throw EXT3 on top of that, and do EXT3 in such a cheap way (basically implimenting a bawrite() as a syncronous bwrite() to a sequential file) that it just makes all of EXT2s problems that much worse. FreeBSD may not work with 100% of the things that linux does, but what it works on (and it works on 99% of it), it works 100%. I cannout count how many linux users are always having hardware issues or whatever and a FreeBSD install instantly fixes those hardware issues. Or how about the I just got this card, but the driver isn't in linux yet, but this guy has a patch... but the patch is to 2 versions ago. but this other guy has this patch that updates it to the new version, but its incompatible with my network card... but this guy has a patch.... please, this is support?

    16. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Linux is beginning to hit so big in corporate America that the software development effort to develop new applications and port existing applications to Linux is amazing.

      This is largely true, and largely an illusion. Linux is taking a huge lead in some places. *BSD also has a huge installed base. See the netcraft studies lately (netcraft uses FreeBSD BTW). FedEx is a FreeBSD customer. So is MicroSoft. Many companies that say they are switching to linux are meaning they are switching to an OpenSource OS.. that OS is many times FreeBSD. When you go to the store to buy Kleenex(TM), are you really buying KimberlyClark, or are you getting Puffs, the store brand, etc?

      As for the development.. there is Userland (gnome/KDE,etc) and kernel. Lets break this down into 2 categories.

      1) Userland. KDE and GNOME are both simultaneously developed on FreeBSD... in fact RedHat (GNOME) said that FreeBSD is a supported OS. Other apps are done likewise. In fact such things like DHCP, Apache, BIND, are developed on FreeBSD primarily.

      2) Kernel. For many reasons there isn't a lot of shared work here (there is some). FreeBSD has crashdump support (linux doesn't). FreeBSD has softupdates(linux doesn't). FreeBSD has realtime kerneldebugging/tracing (linux doesn't). ... wait, who was supposed to be falling behind here... I got confused ;)

    17. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by crucini · · Score: 2, Troll
      Linux has a lot of corporate backing and is very "loud" and attention grabbing. In the meanwhile, the server room is running bsd ;)

      Maybe at some ISPs. From of what I've seen at corporate environments, BSD is only used unwittingly in appliances. Linux is making some inroads against commercial Unix and Windows.
      The servers apps most people run has nothing to do with the OS. Samba, Bind, Netatalk, Squid, Apache, IP NAT+firewall etc, ssh, ftp, sendmail and variants of these programs...

      That's certainly the kind of view that would validate BSD. If you asked an IT director what important apps are running on his servers, he wouldn't mention any of those. He might mention PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle, Oracle Financials, Microsoft Exchange, ClearCase, Siebel CRM. The programs you mentioned are more like minor supporting utilities - you choose a platform for SAP, and just assume that ftp is available for it.

      A lot of this key software is becoming available for Linux. You might be able to get it to run on FreeBSD. But would you want to? Would you seriously put Oracle on a platform Oracle doesn't support? In fact, most companies are scared to move these key apps to Linux, even when the vendor supports it 100%.

      So it's not accurate to say the server room is running bsd. Maybe at a few pure-internet companies, or running a little utility DNS/cache/whatever box, but not running the key apps in the corporate world.
    18. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous+MadCoe · · Score: 1

      Both FreeBSD and Linux have their pros and cons. Both are "open source" but the licences do differ. Both are good and do the job. Pick whichever suits you (technically, image wise, etc...). For some reason there are quite a few people out there who seem to see this as a holy war, arguing over and over again which is technically better, which licence is better, which culture is better... I feel is not all that different, except for the preachers who are fighting this holy war about nothing.

    19. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Sorry if I sound like a troll (I'm just adding my two cents), but Gentoo seems to have the best of both the FreeBSD and GNU/Linux worlds. I get the increased app compatibility of GNU/Linux with a great ports system.

      Nah, you don't sound like a troll, just uninformed.

      Portage isn't better. Its different. Its also smaller (2,000 ports as listed on gentoo.org vs 8,000 as listed on freebsd.org and not as up to date and other such things.

      As for App compatibility; gentoo doesn't use redhat, redhat libraries/versions of libraries, or RPM that 99% of "commercial" linux apps use. FreeBSD does, FreeBSD includes RedHat 7.mumble for its linux binary compatibilty. Loki Games, before they went under, testified to this fact by saying that it was easier to support Linux running on FreeBSD than it was to support straigh Linux. Why? Because of issues like you are runing gentoo that uses X, and someone else is running Debian, etc. If you want ports, and linux compatibility, and speed, and stability.. well its called FreeBSD and its here, come and drink the kool-aid!

    20. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Moridineas · · Score: 5, Interesting

      From my own experience my company uses FreeBSD. Yahoo uses FreeBSD. pair.com one of the bigger hosting providers uses FreeBSD. mp3.com uses FreeBSD. Hotmail used to use FreeBSD, I'm not sure if they still do. (after it was bought by MS that is). ftp.cdrom.com uses FreeBSD. I'm sure there are more, and this isn't even getting into the internal server rooms of companies, hard to say there. FreeBSD is definitely a proven platform, it's not fair to lump it as "ISP's only".

      If you had to look at all the linux servers running on the internet today (and discounting personal boxes) I would bet you the VAST majority are running none of those applications you mention. That's one of the reasons that MS and the commercial unixes still hold a sway--running those apps. You do raise a good point--oracle on FreeBSD (for example) is not a viable solution. But I'm not at all convinced that Linux is beating out the BSD's the way you think.

      I would be REALLY curious to see how many linux and bsd boxes are running what you call a little "utility" box (and I'll throw in fileservers too). I would bet that that is the big domain of linux and bsd alike.

    21. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Its funny to watch all the genttoo people oohh and awwwwh over all the things portage does... When FreeBSD has been there for >8 years. Its old hat.

      Yes, ports is older, and has some rough spots. Its also mature and has a good deal of stability. gentoo is infantile, and they are already having trouble keeping up with changes; Look at the massive number of updates each day in freebsd, via freshports. Gentoo doesn't even come close, and they want to scale this up to something the size of the FreeBSD ports system with 4-5 times the number of applications? As for the rough spots, FreeBSD is adressing each of them, and in truely creative and powerful ways. They already checksum each file as it is installed (autogenerating the CONTENTS file), and refuse in the future to modify, delete, etc files that have been modified, therefore protecting you from customizations or packages that overwrote files). In my experience gentoo only handles A overwrites B in the specific case where it is told ahead of time by the port maintainer that this is true, and how to handle it. That's nice when you're at the size you are now; and FreeBSD could certainly do the same but it doesn't scale at the level FreeBSD operates on, and therefore they are coming up with new ways, automatic ways of handling it. I've also seen the gentoo system screw up royally and delete files its not supposed to because it didn't understand that something else had installed a package (or a different version of a package), and wind up trashing all the custom work the user did. This is very unlikely given the way the FreeBSD ports system works... by assuming if key files are there (regardless if the user chose to use package management) that the requirements are fulfilled. Then if the prereqs were installed through package management it will register the dependancies. This gives users and administrators the best of both worlds. Using ports when it gives them what they need, and letting the admin/user do it themselves when it doesn't. Give gentoo's limitations they really need this.

    22. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by sheriff_p · · Score: 2

      Seems lots of people answered the non-existant "Why use FreeBSD" question, and not the "Why use Linux" one ... I should state now that I run FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Mac OS X. So why use Linux?

      I can think of three reasons:
      a) Linux hardware support is often better, and drivers appear more quickly
      b) You may prefer a specific Linux package-management system, like apt, or gentoo's thingy
      c) There are some applications that don't run, or need a lot of massaging to run under FreeBSD - used to be the case with CrossOver (might still be), and last time I checked Ximian didn't work

      --
      Score:-1, Funny
    23. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my network card is supported in: linux, windows, netbsd, openbsd, beos, and others. guess which OS it isn't supported in? Yep that's right - FreeBSD. further more my sound card is only supported in linux and windows.

    24. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by micheas · · Score: 1
      The servers apps most people run has nothing to do with the OS. Samba, Bind, Netatalk, Squid, Apache, IP NAT+firewall etc, ssh, ftp, sendmail and variants of these programs--these are what most people run, and these have absolutely no connection to linux.
      Mostly, But from a users perspective, I want to point out some things that seem to be OS/kernel/Distribution specific.
      • The current SAMBA ACL's are not compatible with FreeBSD 4.x, You need Linux or FreeBSD Current.
      • IP NAT+firewall tend to be very OS specific pf only available for OpenBSD at the moment (AFAIK) and ip tables are only available for Linux (AFAIK). so if you have tools or expertise in one of those firewalls your OS choise is pretty easy.
      • FreeBSD has it's own version of Sendmail that is carefully tuned and fully integrated into the OS. If you are going to use sendmail instead of postfix qmail or exim this my be important.
      • Gnome is much easier to upgrade with Debian. Many people resort to uninstall all of Gnome and all of it's libraries in order to do an upgrade of Gnome on FreeBSD.
      • As a bastion host in a DMZ, FreeBSD is amazingly straight forward to lockdown, but if you need MACL you have to use Linux (or eros, etc.)
      I use Linux (Debian/Sid) for my workstation because it's trival to keep a huge amout of programs updated and current. I use FreeBSD as a LAN server and as a gateway host because FreeBSD is mostly configured, mostly work, doesn't have many programs to upkeep, and it would be a huge pain to set up new os.
    25. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by sql*kitten · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One of the reasons I choose Linux over BSD is the rate at which Linux development takes place.

      Well, a new kernel every couple of weeks is fine if you're running Linux on a PC in your bedroom, but in the real world, it takes time to deploy software. It has to be tested, downtime scheduled, documentation updated, staff trained, etc. The big advantage of FreeBSD (and Debian for that matter) is that it gets much more thoroughly tested before it's declared "STABLE". Although it may lag behind the cutting edge a little, that's a far, far happier place to be if you are relying on your systems to run your business. Not only that, but there is one FreeBSD, maintained in a consistent way by a single organization. If you are writing or deploying software that requires certain versions of certain things to be in certain places, then you have to only support a subset of the possible Linux distributions, or choose something like FreeBSD which is far more consistent. FreeBSD does not need to make compromises for portability to other platforms (like NetBSD and Linux), it is wholly developed for x86.

      In short, my position is that Linux is better if you want to experiment, FreeBSD is better if you want to run crucial applications or infrastructure.

    26. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Moridineas · · Score: 2

      It seems like a number of your complaints are answered in FreeBSD 5.0?

      AFAIK, IPfilter is available for all the BSD and also Linux.

      I'm not sure about sendmail..I'm certaintly not a sendmail expert, but what's special about the FreeBSD version of sendmail? I thought it was in synch with the real version (config file differences only imho). There is also a sendmail port.

      Dunno about gnome, I'm all about KDE myself :)

      I personally am looking forward to when I can upgrade to FreeBSD 5.0 for ACL support, though to be be honest it hasn't mattered for our company at all. (small company)

    27. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by jonbelson · · Score: 3, Informative

      >Portupgrade under freebsd just blows chunks, and not just because yet another script interpreter (ruby) needs to be installed. It croaks a lot when dependancies somehow shift (because you compiled new versions of something). Which lieves you with the dreaded pkgdb -F which sometimes leaves you guessing.

      I suggest you lok into the '-r' and '-R' options of portupgrade, it automatically handles the dependencies for you.

      --Jon

      http://www.witchspace.com

    28. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by The+Original+Yama · · Score: 2
      They already checksum each file as it is installed (autogenerating the CONTENTS file), and refuse in the future to modify, delete, etc files that have been modified, therefore protecting you from customizations or packages that overwrote files).
      Gentoo does these. Checksumming is an integral part of the install process, and a package isn't installed if the checksum fails. If you read the Gentoo Portage manual, you will see that it has config file protection, which is fully configurable. New config files are stored with a different filename, and you can use the etc-update tool to interactively merge the old and new config files.
      I've also seen the gentoo system screw up royally and delete files its not supposed to because it didn't understand that something else had installed a package (or a different version of a package), and wind up trashing all the custom work the user did.
      If you upgrade a package, you are supposed to clean the old version away. If you don't, both the old and the new package will be listed in the Portage database as being installed. The problem you described sounds like the user uninstalled the package instead of cleaning it. A clean will remove files that are in the old version but aren't in the new, leaving the new version intact. An uninstall, on the other hand, will remove everything that was part of the old package, including files that may be part of the new version. Of course, this may break the new version.
    29. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by platypus · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      From my own experience my company uses FreeBSD. Yahoo uses FreeBSD. pair.com one of the bigger hosting providers uses FreeBSD. mp3.com uses FreeBSD. Hotmail used to use FreeBSD, I'm not sure if they still do. (after it was bought by MS that is). ftp.cdrom.com uses FreeBSD.

      I don't want to argue about the merits of FreeBSD, because I don't much about it.
      But your argument is probably quite weak, because these companies decided to go with FreeBSD years ago.
      In the worst case (for FreeBSD) it just shows that at the time when they made their decision for FreeBSD it was superior, and today it's just "good enough" for not making the switch to linux.
      I'm not too convinced that FreeBSD _today_ is a better OS for servers which a lot of CPU power for application servers and such stuff. The scalability work done on linux 2.4/2.5 seems to imply that it would be a better choice for such workloads.

    30. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Huge+Pi+Removal · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As I understand it, one of the reasons Linux took off so fast in the early 90s was that people were frightened of the whole IP/patents thing surrounding 4.4BSD Lite. Later on, the copyright (whatever) issues were resolved, but by then the damage had been done and Linux had gained a lot of recognition/popularity. *

      So I reckon that early adopters of FreeBSD would have had to struggle to persuade management that it was worth using, and that it wasn't a dead-end platform.

      BTW, I use FreeBSD in all my servers at our small place of work (except where I have to use OS X server). Personally, I love it. But maybe that's because we *do* use all of the ftp/sendmail/apache stuff the above poster mentioned, and none of the crap the next one mentioned :)

      * Someone correct me if I'm spouting BS.

      --
      - Oliver

      The right to bear arms is only slightly less stupid than the right to arm bears...
    31. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Metrol · · Score: 2

      The current SAMBA ACL's are not compatible with FreeBSD 4.x, You need Linux or FreeBSD Current.

      Never had a problem configuring lists under STABLE. Exactly what functionality can't you get?

      IP NAT+firewall tend to be very OS specific pf only available for OpenBSD at the moment (AFAIK) and ip tables are only available for Linux

      Yeah, that's kinda like saying IPFW isn't available for Linux. It's a different methodology to a similar end.

      FreeBSD has it's own version of Sendmail that is carefully tuned and fully integrated into the OS. If you are going to use sendmail instead of postfix qmail or exim this my be important.

      I recently configured Postfix on a FreeBSD box. Took about 10 minutes following the compile to disable Sendmail entirely. There are dozens of tutorials that cover replacing Sendmail with either Postfix or QMail. In short, this is by no means a deciding factor as to which OS to use.

      Gnome is much easier to upgrade with Debian. Many people resort to uninstall all of Gnome and all of it's libraries in order to do an upgrade of Gnome on FreeBSD.

      That's just plain silly. Gnome is installed as a "meta" port. In other words, it calls out to the variety of other ports that make up the over all system. One can just as easily upgrade only those libraries that need it, while leaving the rest intact. The very same thing is true of KDE.

      but if you need MACL you have to use Linux

      Sorry, not familiar with the term MACL. What exactly are you referring to here?

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    32. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by micheas · · Score: 1

      IPfilter (and ipfw) is is available for all the BSD and also Linux. pf is the OpenBSD packet filter. There are different strengths and weaknesses with ipfilter, ipfw, pf, ip tables, and ip chains. Use the one that meets your needs (all of them might)

      The sendmail in the base FreeBSD is a fork that is a little behind the main branch but has been reviewed and patched so that it is probably close to as secure as any of the other MTAs except qmail.

      And yes a lot of the wants will be addressed in FreeBSD 5.0 :-) (Linus 2.6/3.0 will also be a must. :-)

      Unfortunately the fact that I can't cd /usr/ports; make upgrade (or something similar) and have everything upgraded is why I don't use it on my workstation.

    33. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But maybe that's because we *do* use all of the ftp/sendmail/apache stuff the above poster mentioned, and none of the crap the next one mentioned :)

      Same here. We've got HP-UX for the big database servers, and everything else is Linux/FreeBSD. No one really gives a shit whether their email is on a Linux or FreeBSD server. We're not a huge company but about a billion in annual revenue isn't that small either.

    34. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude I'ld rather run 100% Linux software on FreeBSD on that piece of crap wannebe toy OS called Linux. BWAHAHA, fucking JOKER!

    35. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You make great points - and they are (IMO) the reason why Oracle has moved so much of its infrustructure to Linux servers. Its hosting has two choices Solaris or Linux - and pushes Linux. If the big boys move and make it work for the mission critical systems (Oracle Apps, etc) the other customer will be more likely to move

    36. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Jeff+Kelly · · Score: 1
      "Unfortunately the fact that I can't cd /usr/ports; make upgrade (or something similar) and have everything upgraded is why I don't use it on my workstation"


      A "portupgrade -a" (if you have installed portupgrade) might do the trick.
    37. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft tried to replace FreeBSD with Windows NT for propaganda purposes, but at the last report, they couldn't get rid of FreeBSD without breaking the website.

    38. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... I have to say that running 'up2date' is MUCH simpler ...

      And Debian apt is even better about dependancies.

    39. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow dude, that's like so totally radical. You are so totally 31337.

    40. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My main problem with FreeBSD has been lack of nVidia accelerated 3D support and VMware 3.x support. The nVidia problem should now be gone with them releasing the FreeBSD driver (I haven't tried it yet) but the VMware issue remains (correct me if I'm wrong; VMware 3.x is what I need).

      I use VMware a _lot_ under Linux and Windows. I wouldn't mind running FreeBSD but it always seems to have 1 or 2 killer problems.

      I find all the *BSD's much easier to install than the Linux distros. They are more basic, it does the base install, then you add whatever you need versus the Linux distros that try to install everything at once (maybe not Gentoo, but compiling the whole system is stupid IMO; I prefer Debian).

    41. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But unfortunately not VMware 3.x :(

      Someone should just port it... What? Kernel modules are a problem? Hehe, so much for portability... haha

    42. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except I still can't run VMware 3.x on FreeBSD. It's been how many years???

    43. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BTW - to fix the "sh" script problem, change the first line to point to where you have bash installed, as sh on linux is really bash.

      That'll fix you right up!

    44. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Ded+Bob · · Score: 2

      Although simpler, I prefer portsupgrade. It is a nice little Perl script that does the job of replacing a port.

    45. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by scrytch · · Score: 2

      > I don't know much about FreeBSD's ports system but I hear that Portage is better.

      It's certainly more featureful out of the box, but Portage requires its own toolchain to manage, which defeats the purpose of ports in a few ways. Ports uses make, a familiar well-worn tool to most system administrators. That said, if I install Linux again, it'd probably be Gentoo.

      Besides, BSD will run any linux app that doesn't have kernel dependencies (though most of /proc is supported). It's just too bad that the distro in /compat is redhat, as I would have preferred debian. I can see the reasoning though, since it's generally there to run commercial linux software that's not available on bsd.

      --
      I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
    46. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by sirket · · Score: 2

      Not to disrespect Linux, but faster development does not necessarily mean better or desirable. For example, Linux vrrpd was a terribly piece of software in comparison to freevrrpd. They are both standalone VRRP implementations but one works and one does not. Unfortunately this has been my experience with a lot of Linux software.

      Don't get me wrong, I have seen some truly bizarre stuff happen on FreeBSD systems, just never as often as I see it on my Linux boxes.

      -sirket

    47. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by chainedtothemoon · · Score: 1

      FreeBSD does not need to make compromises for portability to other platforms (like NetBSD and Linux), it is wholly developed for x86.

      No. FreeBSD has pretty much always run on Alpha and i386. There are ports of FreeBSD-current (aka 5.0) for Sparc, PPC, mips and ia64. I think I'm right in saying that the Sparc port will be released alongside Alpha and i386 for 5.0.

      See here for details.

    48. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by insomaniac · · Score: 2, Informative

      I can't see what's so hard about typing

      pkgdb -F
      (fix some deps)
      portupgrade -ra
      (compile compile compile)
      go away (to sleep or something)

      and when you come back everything is on the newest version and even better.... everything is compiled from source =)

      And what's so hard about upgrading FreeBSD's base system? just type

      cvsup -g -L 2 supfile
      make buildworld
      make buildkernel
      mergemaster -P
      make installkernel
      make installworld
      mergemaster
      reboot

      and thats all, you now should have a freshly upgraded freebsd box, OK I admit, if you come from redhat/mandrake land all those commands might be a bit scary but I'm a console kiddie anyway...

      Greetz

      --
      The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
    49. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Strog · · Score: 1

      Just curious, what NIC and sound card you running??

    50. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Strog · · Score: 1

      The final build of 2.x is 18 months old.

      How many years is that?

      This doesn't personally affect me because I either run FreeBSD outright or actually use a different host OS depending on the situation. I can see how it might be a HUGE pain to those who do need it.

    51. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by micheas · · Score: 1
      Never had a problem configuring lists under STABLE. Exactly what functionality can't you get?

      Um, the fact that they don't exist? ACL (Access Control Lists) are a file system feature. FreeBSD 5.0 will have them FreeBSD 4.X doesn't. This is one of the big NEW features. VreeBSD 4.X doesn't, unless you have found a third party file system that I don't know about :-) In fairness almost no linux distros ship with ACL support by default.

      That's just plain silly. Gnome is installed as a "meta" port. In other words, it calls out to the variety of other ports that make up the over all system. One can just as easily upgrade only those libraries that need it, while leaving the rest intact. The very same thing is true of KDE.

      Gnome installs fine. If you run portupgrade you have (from mailing list evidence.) a pretty good chance that you will have a non functioning gnome. (I was 0 for 3 with portupgrade Silly or not most gnome ports have spent most of the last two years as mostly non upgradable. ) and will need to uninstall all the apps and most of the libraries before you can get a make install (The FreeBSD Gnome group may have fixed this. but it left a very bad taste.

      Sorry, not familiar with the term MACL. What exactly are you referring to here?

      Mandatory Acesss Control Lists, as oppossed to the more common and less secure Discressionary Access Control Lists. (US DOD Class B security requires MACL) this is one of the big features of SE linux.
    52. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by TheLink · · Score: 2

      Could you point me to where ipfilter or ipfw is available for Linux?

      Coz netfilter in Linux is not what I'm looking for.

      --
    53. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We don't use ACLs so can't comment on the Samba complain.

      Packet filtering *can* be very OS specific (or in the case of Linux, kernel specific), but that's not always the case. For instance, IP Filter is available for Open/Net/FreeBSD, Solaris, and a few others, including, I believe, Linux.

      Having an MTA integrated into the OS is not a deciding factor in choosing an OS. You can use any MTA on any OS so long as it is supported. And it is very easy to turn off the sendmail built into FreeBSD.

      GNOME is *very* easy to upgrade in FreeBSD. All it takes is a little understanding of how the ports tree works. That's why there are man pages. And, there are several different ports that provide utilities to make it even easier, such as portupgrade and porteasy. I'm willing to bet that the first few times you tried to use apt you were just as confused. portupgrade -rRa will update every single port that you have installed on your system to the latest version. Add -P in there to use pre-compiled packages instead. All you have to do is cvsup your ports tree to the latest and away you go. Same as with apt: update the db, then the packages.

      If you need ACLs, then yes, you need to upgrade to -CURRENT or wait until 5.0. Or, you could have a look at TrustedBSD, which is what is providing the ACL support in 5.0.

      Sounds to me like you just haven't bothered to take the time to learn to use FreeBSD. Coming from Linux, where man pages are evil, out-of-date, and often wrong, I can understand this. Try reading the man pages in FreeBSD. They are actually useful. :)

    54. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by mosch · · Score: 2

      not to nitpick, but it's easier than that... if you set the SUP variables in /etc/make.conf you can just type make update, instead of cvsup -blah -the -fuck -blah.

    55. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, unlike you! But thanks anyway!

    56. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by crucini · · Score: 2
      I wrote:
      So it's not accurate to say the server room is running bsd. Maybe at a few pure-internet companies, or running a little utility DNS/cache/whatever box, but not running the key apps in the corporate world.

      And Moridineas responded by listing six pure-internet companies that might be using BSD. Even though these pure-internet companies are not relevant to the issue, let's have a look:
      mp3.com uses FreeBSD.
      According to netcraft, The site www.mp3.com is running Apache/1.3.12m1 (Unix) yasl/2.25
      sw/1.7 mod_rdbcookie/1.2 mod_oas/4.65m mod_mp3idver/0.12 rwh/1.1 bw/3.37 rewrite/3.3 include/3.6 on Linux.
      Hotmail used to use FreeBSD, I'm not sure if they still do. (after it was bought by MS that is).
      According to netcraft, The site www.hotmail.com is running Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on Windows 2000..
      ftp.cdrom.com uses FreeBSD.
      According to netcraft, The site ftp.cdrom.com is running Apache on Solaris 9..
      Of course, this oversimplifies things - Hotmail, for instance, has more than one tier to its architecture. Just because the internet-facing boxes run a particular OS doesn't tell you anything about the inner boxes.

      Anyhow, the difference in our perspectives is that Moridineas is focusing on internet-connected boxes, where FreeBSD is much better represented than in the corporate data center. To return to the main point, there is a myth that Linux gets all the press while FreeBSD quietly does all the work. If it was ever true, it's not any more. Here's what I mean:
      I'm sure there are more, and this isn't even getting into the internal server rooms of companies, hard to say there.

      This implies that FreeBSD would be more present in the internal server rooms of companies. It's not. As I pointed out, the apps that take up most of the floor space in those rooms are usually not supported on FreeBSD. The corporate data center is generally ruled by Win2k and Solaris, with HP, IBM, etc if the company leans that way.
    57. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by TheLinuxWarrior · · Score: 2
      Various people have made some excellent points on here. Points which I am aware of, but which I did not mention due to the fact that I don't have time to write a novel.

      You're absolutely correct about scheduling downtime, documentation, etc, etc.

      The applications I was referring to are things like Oracle, iPlanet, Notes, NetBackup, BMC Patrol, and a host of other enterprise class products. These items show me that Linux has gained very serious backing at the highest levels.

      I believe some folks are being a bit overzealous about Linux and it's capabilities, or lack of capabilities for any given application. Linux is a tool. A hammer is a wonderful tool as well, so long as what you are hitting happens to be a nail. That's why I mentioned in my original post that the person should evaluate each before making a choice. That's the only sound way to determine which tool will do the particular job the best in your environment.

      However, at times I do have to remind myself that I work in the research segment of a large pharma, so we can afford to be a little more bleeding edge in some cases.

      We're considering deployment of a large farm of Linux machines for scientific calculations.

      When it comes to tried and true stability including corporate support plans in a production data center environment such as the one many of you mentioned, we turn to Sun Solaris or HP/UX.

      But again, I have to say, no one thing can be everything everyone needs it to be. Bill Gates tried that model and it didn't work.

    58. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      If you think that CPU utilization is the only criteria on which to base an OS choice, you're doomed to use terrible operating systems all your life. FreeBSD does have the advantage that solid, sensible design and rigorous review have prevented FreeBSD from experiencing things like the VM fiascos that Linux has had in 2.4 and 2.5, but even that's not the strong selling point.

      The strong selling point is the combination of a mature OS, that has predictable performance and easy administration.

    59. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by mosch · · Score: 2

      read the portupgrade man page, you can upgrade all ports in one fell swoop, if you want.

    60. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by PFAK · · Score: 0

      On the exact otherhand I use FreeBSD. Id rather have a system that is stable, and mature. Rather then a always-devel system like Linux, remember those nice FS destroying bugs?

      --

      Free means no restrictions, ironic the FSF's GPL forces restrictions, isn't it? What's your definition of free?
    61. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by micheas · · Score: 1

      read the bug reports. It doesn't work reliably portupgrade -a is a good way to have an unusable system :-(

    62. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by QuietRiot · · Score: 2

      ...Which lieves you with the dreaded pkgdb -F which sometimes leaves you guessing. ...

      Has anyone written any kind of HOWTO on how to sanely run "pkgdb -F"? It's quite confusing to me. A step-by-step on how to query your system (either automatically or manually) regarding dependencies would be beneficial to all. Portupgrade is nice, but hints embedded into the port system that could talk to portupgrade binaries would be better.

    63. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by QuietRiot · · Score: 2
      I can't see what's so hard about typing

      pkgdb -F
      (fix some deps)
      ...
      Just "fix some deps" eh?
      Teach me how to use pkgdb -F. For each of the different prompts that comes up, how do I choose which option/package to reply with? What are the prompts asking exactly, or figuratively? What means are needed to sanely rebuild the package database to a "consistent" state? I've found no howto's on how to do this, other than a limited-in-scope ONLamp article and one on freebsddiary.org about the wonders of portupgrade. Is rebuilding via pkgdb -F an art or a science? People seem to say often "just run pkgdb -F", but make no attempt to communicate how confusing that can be or how to correct the inconsistencies in the db? Is there another switch that can do all the guessing for you - just run it and go, perhaps even being conservative?

      Insight portupgraders?

      What's the secret to keeping your packages in order and up to date?

    64. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Bishop · · Score: 2

      Portage isn't better. Its different.

      Agreed. The Portage package management system is nicer then FreeBSD's ports. However the Gentoo packages themselves need some work. I have had a few problems with the Gentoo packages. All the core packages have worked well. Some of the extra packages, not as well tested packages, have not installed cleanly. Fortunately it is incredibly easy to modify the 'ebuild' files. FreeBSD is more mature then Gentoo and it shows. I have not had any difficulty with FreeBSD ports.

    65. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by someonehasmyname · · Score: 1

      I've yet to find a NIC that isn't supported by the GENERIC kernel config. Maybe you should consider upgrading to a PCI NIC because you apparently can't figure out how to configure an ISA one.

      --
      Common sense is not so common.
    66. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The next generation of the ports system supposedly will be cross-platform for all BSD's. The website for the effort is www.openports.org

      The ports infrastructure is copied back and forth between the BSD's and the idea is to standardize so that actual ports can be easily moved from one BSD to another. portupgrade is based on NetBSD's pkgtools I believe.

      Another aspect of the opemports idea is to even unify the ports trees of all BSD platforms. Besides mergeing the existing platforms they plan to expand to MacOS X and there is also sometimes talk of bringing openports to Linux while they're at it.

    67. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Daytona955i · · Score: 1

      Plus the information netcraft gets can be spoofed, while I don't think mp3.com or ftp.cdrom.com would have a reason to spoof them (other than misleading hackers to think that they are trying to hack something different than what they are running) I think Hotmail would have a good reason. I remember back when M$ bought hotmail, they tried to switch and had lots of problems. I think I remember a slashdot article that stated that they use freebsd/apache and make it look like 2000/IIS.

      I can't really say much about what the corporate world uses at large but my school (the mcs department at least) uses a mix of solaris/linux with a few windows boxes for good measure. (The linux boxes are the NFS servers for the solaris machines).

      IBM is starting to support Linux and ship server with linux installed, not FreeBSD. FreeBSD is great but until it gets more exposure it's not going to grow as large as linux. Right now linux is a buzzword and that means if I go to my boss and say let's use linux, he'll say yeah, I heard of it let's give it a shot but if I say lets use FreeBSD, unless he has an open mind, he's not going to allow it because he hasn't heard anything about it before. Personally I think getting hung up on specifics is silly, Linux and FreeBSD are both UNIX and I think an install of either over a non-UNIX os is a great victory. I've gotten to love UNIX no matter what version.
      -Chris

    68. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by crucini · · Score: 2
      Personally I think getting hung up on specifics is silly, Linux and FreeBSD are both UNIX and I think an install of either over a non-UNIX os is a great victory. I've gotten to love UNIX no matter what version.

      Me too. It just bothers me when people advocate FreeBSD over Linux to prove how elite they are. Of course I think I understand where they're coming from. I just installed Redhat 7.3 and was annoyed that vi is colorizing, warping inside the file, and other weird behaviors. One more "Linuxism" I have to shut off. The BSD's are very "pure" and retro - I'm sure some BSD maintainer took care that vi would act exactly like it should. So it's tempting to bash "Linux" (which means kernel + popular distros) for rushing madly into the future.

      But the other thing: if Microsoft buries us, it will be mostly because we couldn't see the issues clearly. We made better and better mail servers, and the corporate world moved to Exchange. Some admins are still baffled by that, pointing out that Exchange is a poor mail server. But to management, that wasn't the issue - Exchange has the groupware functions they want. I think Microsoft is pointing the same artillery at Apache - they can't make a better web server, but they might redefine the playing field so our current idea of a web server is obsolete. Anyhow, to defeat them at this game requires wading into the sewage, ala Samba and Mono.
      And yes, Samba runs on *BSD. But this narrowness of thinking "we have everything we need - web/mail/dns..." worries me.
    69. Re:Someone explain this about BSD/Linux to me. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you should consider taking english classes?

  8. Re:Anyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I am the devil, and I'm here to do the devil's work

  9. Re:dead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, so dead, that they continue to release new versions!

    (note to troll: the story about FreeBSD's latest release is hardly the place to try the ol' 'BSD is dying' ploy)

  10. Re:Why not Linux? by Kurt+Russell · · Score: 5, Funny
    "Why use FreeBSD when Linux seems to work better, and have greater support at the same time? "

    1.Ports
    2.Packages
    3.easy update (make buildworld etc..)
    4.The Devil not that fat fucking penguin

  11. MySQL on FreeBSD by mcroydon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jeremy Zawodny, who works at Yahoo, wrote an interesting article in his weblog a few months ago. It chronicles his experience with MySQL under FreeBSD and MySQL's problems with threading under FreeBSD. It will be interesting to see if 5.0 improves these things significantly.

    --
    6.02x10^23, baby!
    1. Re:MySQL on FreeBSD by tomRakewell · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      I guess that's one more reason to run PostgreSQL, the superior opensource relational database. It certainly runs stable and fast under FreeBSD.

    2. Re:MySQL on FreeBSD by schnurble · · Score: 2

      The problem wasn't really MySQL at all, it was FreeBSD's threading support in 4.x. It's crap, to say the least, at least as far as a DBMS is concerned.

      As the previous poster said, hopefully 5.0 will help.

      --
      "To err is human, to forgive is simply not my policy." --root
    3. Re:MySQL on FreeBSD by rplacd · · Score: 2, Informative

      I read some more blog articles on that site, and it seems that he did find a solution to the FreeBSD/LinuxThreads problem; see this link.

  12. Gentoo gentoo gentoo by cculianu · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    "Why use FreeBSD when Linux seems to work better, and have greater support at the same time? "


    1.Ports

    2.Packages

    3.easy update (make buildworld etc..)

    4.The Devil not that fat fucking penguin



    Gentoo linux takes care of 1-3. Yeah the penguin is a fag.. I agree.

    1. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by DemiKnute · · Score: 1


      4.The Devil not that fat fucking penguin

      Gentoo linux takes care of 1-3. Yeah the penguin is a fag.. I agree


      Dude, Gentoo even takes care of the fat ugly penguin. Gentoos are the fastest species of penguin and are really kind of sexy. Check it out yourself.

      --
      .
    2. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by gomerbud · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Maybe i'll do gentoo again in the future, but definitely not now. Yes, it does do ports, but the ports tools are far from complete and almost useless. You can install a port using the portage tool 'emerge', but once it is installed there is no way to manage your installed ports. FreeBSD has a good variety of package management frontends. The pkg_* tools let you manipulate binary packages. The ports tree is based off of make files which makes versioning a bit of a pain, but there are tools that exist like 'portupgrade' which allow you to keep a current package/ports database _WITH_ version info. For some strange reason, there are changes appended to the changelogs of each port in gentoo without bumping the patch level of the port. This is insane! Thus it is not impossible, but a royal pain in the ass to keep two machines synced when it comes to package versions.

      On to easy updates... A whole bunch of tarballs with patchfiles works for a ports system, but not the base system. FreeBSD keeps the entire base system in CVS. FreeBSD actually has a base system. FreeBSD has multiple branches of development. Maybe gentoo will mature to the point where they make a real base system and do real release engineering, but it currently isnt the OS of choice for me.

      Also, because the development cycle of FreeBSD is significantly more sane than that of the Linux kernel and the base system/toolchain which never has and never will exist in one master repository, nVidia's drivers work on the -CURRENT development branch of FreeBSD from which this developers preview was taken. Change one line in one file, and they build flawlessly (or at least they can, hopefully on this developer's preview too). The drivers even register properly with devfs.

      Do yourself a favor and try FreeBSD, then you can check the FreeBSD mailling list archive if something is broken, instead of searching for a fix with google. It'll save you hours.

      --
      Kan jeg få en pils, vær så snill?
    3. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by evilviper · · Score: 1

      Shall we add a few?

      Performance

      Security

      Stability

      Simplicity

      Elegance

      Flexibility

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    4. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by Arandir · · Score: 1

      You mean 1 and 3, not 1-3. Unless things have recently changed, Gentoo does not have [binary] packages. I'd change my second OS from Slackware to Gentoo if they had that...

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    5. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by be-fan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Um, exactly how much experience do you have with Gentoo? I've been using it as my only OS for several months now, and ports has served me not only in installing ports and whatnot, but allowing me to edit my ebuilds to test alpha-pre-rc software like I have a tendency to. Specifically, what don't you like about Portage? Do you realize there are extension tools (in gentoolkit) that add package management on top of emerge?

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    6. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by kingkade · · Score: 1

      Gentoos are the fastest species of penguin and are really kind of sexy.

      Ehrm...hmmm...yikes.

    7. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by gomerbud · · Score: 1

      Versioning is completely worthless when you dont update the patchlevel of your port when changes are made to the ebuild!

      --
      Kan jeg få en pils, vær så snill?
    8. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by gomerbud · · Score: 1

      I started using gentoo about a month ago because FreeBSD didnt have GLX drivers for nVidia cards. I changed back to FreeBSD as soon as this happened.

      I find it kind of bothersome that 'gentoolkit' is not mentioned in the Portage User Guide, but there are about sixty words that discuss it at the end of the Portage Manual which is over 6000 words. I would think that there should be a good argument that this should be in the base system, if gentoo had one. And why has 'etc-update' been moved out of the 'base system' and into portage?

      Maybe im just too used to the way that FreeBSD does stuff. I would hate it if FreeBSD used the ports tree for the base system. But that would be impossible because there is a lot of code that wouldnt exist if it wasnt in the FreeBSD CVS tree.

      Everything that I ever wanted to know is either in the FreeBSD Handbook or the mailing list archives.

      --
      Kan jeg få en pils, vær så snill?
    9. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by be-fan · · Score: 2

      Ebuild versioning is supposed to reflect changes that will affect an existing installation. If a modification to an ebuild is made just to correct a tiny problem that 0.1% of users encounter because of a particular software configuration, it's a bad idea to change the revision number of the ebuild, since it will force a recompile of that package the next time the user runs 'emerge world'. Sure you could add a patch level to each ebuild, so you had ebuild with a software version, ebuild revision, and patch-level, then allow emerge to skip patch-levels of the same revision when considering a package for update, but that would add another level of complication to an already (necessarily) complex versioning scheme, and wouldn't gain you anything significant.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    10. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      I would think that there should be a good argument that this should be in the base system, if gentoo had one. And why has 'etc-update' been moved out of the 'base system' and into portage?

      If it was in the base system, you'd wonder why it isn't in portage.. when it's in portge, you'd wonder why it's not in the base system.

      There is no "base system" with Gentoo, that's the thing. Everything is in portage, including portage. There's even "baselayout" in portage which are the config files and such. Besides, how would you update gentoolkit if it wasn't in portage? (it changes due to updates from time to time.. running "emerge rsync" once in a while will show you that)

      Maybe im just too used to the way that FreeBSD does stuff. I would hate it if FreeBSD used the ports tree for the base system. But that would be impossible because there is a lot of code that wouldnt exist if it wasnt in the FreeBSD CVS tree.


      BSD uses a CVS backend... Gentoo's portage uses an rsync back-end. As it stands (as I have seen FreeBSD), it just has a bunch of directories with makefiles in them. You cd to the directory, run make ; make install and everything is installed. How is this different than "emerge apache"? (or if you want to make changes to the files before you build it, "ebuild /usr/portage/net-www/apache/apache-1.3.27-r1.ebuil d fetch" then the same line with unpack in it, place of fetch. cd to /var/tmp/portage/apache-1.3.27-r1/work directory and change the things you need. Then, run "ebuild /usr/portage/net-www/apache/apache-1.3.27-r1.ebuil d compile".. then the same line, with compile changed to install.

      It's all broken down for you in the portage user manuals, and so forth. It's a very nice system that (In my usage) far surpasses BSD's ports system. ports was a great start, but it has to go further.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    11. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Gentoo being a source compiled distribution is what is stopping you?!

      good god.. compile it once, dump it to a CD... now you have something to work from in case something happens. I've done that.. of course I've only used the CD on other systems to bring them up to speed quicker to Gentoo.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
    12. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by Arandir · · Score: 2

      No, that's not what's stopping me. A package is not a backup. A package is a means to install the software. What I want is to be able to install Gentoo in fifteen minutes, then rebuild all the parts in the background while I'm surfing slashdork.

      It does me no good to build it on my harddrive, dump it to a CD, then copy the CD back to my harddrive. What's the sense in that?

      --
      A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
    13. Re:Gentoo gentoo gentoo by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      No, that's not what's stopping me. A package is not a backup. A package is a means to install the software. What I want is to be able to install Gentoo in fifteen minutes, then rebuild all the parts in the background while I'm surfing slashdork.

      Well, technically that can't be done, but you can always install another distribution and use that to compile gentoo. Then, you can surf while you compile. I know it's a pain, but hey... that's how Gentoo is.. a compiled-on-your-system distro.


      It does me no good to build it on my harddrive, dump it to a CD, then copy the CD back to my harddrive. What's the sense in that?


      It saves you the trouble of doing it again, when you want to format/reinstall for some reason. (or hardware failures, etc.)
      Or if you just want to retouch your system completely because of a break-in.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  13. Wait a second... by bsharitt · · Score: 1

    Isn't BSD supposed to be dead?

    Just kidding. :)

    I actually like the BSDs. I use FreeBSD's cousin, Mac OS X every day. I just wish they would port FreeBSD to PowerPC.

    1. Re:Wait a second... by bsharitt · · Score: 1

      I meant hurry up with the the PowerPC port, I know there is one in progress.

    2. Re:Wait a second... by eht · · Score: 1

      i know it's not freebsd, but netbsd runs on pretty much any mac you can throw at it, and almost any sparc, alot of sgi's... your grandmother's toaster, a couple of cell phones, some lightswitches, a phonebook, a horse collar, you get the idea

      tho i prefer freebsd myself

    3. Re:Wait a second... by CoolVibe · · Score: 2

      NetBSD currently does not even boot on older NuBUS PowerPC macs. Just so you know. They are working to recify that situation though.

    4. Re:Wait a second... by bsharitt · · Score: 1

      I've really thought about NetBSD, but the 77mb ISO seemed to indicate that it was may just enough to boot it to install from FTP, which I don't like.

    5. Re:Wait a second... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    6. Re:Wait a second... by bsharitt · · Score: 1

      I'm aware the port is started, but almost booting into single user mode doesn't do much good.

    7. Re:Wait a second... by LizardKing · · Score: 3, Informative

      The "standard" NetBSD iso image contains everything you need to install for a basic desktop machine. It includes compilers, X Window system, etc. What it doesn't include is third party stuff like KDE, GNOME or Apache. That can be installed from the packages collection (akin to the FreeBSD ports collection, only a port is a different architecture in NetBSD terminology). If you can't or wont install packages from the FTP sites, then there are supplemental iso images for the i386 architecture that contain a massive amount of precompiled packages.

      Chris

    8. Re:Wait a second... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or just put in a Linux cd, and pull over your Linux crap to run under BSD.

  14. Exactly how stable is this release? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    To anyone who actually played with this release, how stable is it? Is gcc3.2 really solid enough to be incorporated into a bsd release?

  15. Native jdk 1.4 hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love FreeBSD's ports and out of the box secure installation.

    I love Linux b/c it has native jdk 1.4 support.

    Hopefully FreeBSD will release a native jdk 1.4 soon..... The announcment was made almost one year ago that they got some legal agreement from Sun to do this..

    1. Re:Native jdk 1.4 hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The linux emulation port of sun's jdk 1.4 on 4.7-release runs good enough for me to run phex.

    2. Re:Native jdk 1.4 hopefully by Kwikymart · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, the native patchset for 1.4 for developers is available. There are no legal troubles afaik, but it just takes time to port.

      --

      Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
    3. Re:Native jdk 1.4 hopefully by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I love your sig!!!! As I hate dell

  16. Re:Oh please by Hugh+G.+Rekshunne · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Soon as I saw the story on the front page I knew what awaited inside. Hundreds of posts from zitty geeks trying to be punker-than-thou by coming up with ever-more-obscure namedropping to make up for their lack of real style (or to pretend that they are actually old enough to have been involved).

    Yet here you are, sampling the koolaid like the sap you are, putting the kidies in their place like some kind of venerable rutting stag who is pissed that the younger ones get all the young females and you're left with the withered old ones that can't escape your feeble approach.

    Maybe you should hang out on some windows support board where you can talk about how every worthwhile program ever made can be run under DOS ??

  17. No obligation to use the fat penguin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    there are plenty of cool penguins out there:

    http://art.gnome.org/images/icons/large/Elysium. pn g

    Plus, watch a friggin' national geographic special on penguins onece in a while and you may be impressed by a bird that can swim a extremely high speed spends all winter on an egg in Antartica cooperates with its fellows and escapes predation by seals sharks and killer whales .... penguins are robust ... and tougher than cutesy smiling "daemons" --- sheesh now where'd they get the idea for **totally* obvious mascot .... a cute little daemon with a "fork" ... haw haw ...

    Stick a fork() init() it's done ....

    1. Re:No obligation to use the fat penguin by falzer · · Score: 2

      "They" need to get a new penguin logo done by brute propaganda.

    2. Re:No obligation to use the fat penguin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have one...

      here.

    3. Re:No obligation to use the fat penguin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...and here. (that's supposed to be bill gates on the ground.)

    4. Re:No obligation to use the fat penguin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yea, I know. Why else would I suggest brute propoganda? :-) I actually meant that it should be only the penguin for the logo.

  18. Re:Supported Applications -- oops, typo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oops, I meant "Even though I had a bit lost TOUCH/contact with FreeBSD..." not "...a bit louch touch...". Quite a finger slip on the keyboard. Sorry.

  19. 5000 ports?!? by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Try somewhere far in the 7000's. You, sir, are several YEARS behind ;)

  20. Installer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would it kill the *BSD people to create some sort of easy to use installer like RedHat's? I've downloaded and sort of got installed (could never get X to work right) FreeBSD 4.6, but it took three times longer than my Redhat or Mandrake installes.

    1. Re:Installer by Quill_28 · · Score: 2

      I find this funny, because i switched to FreeBSD from RedHat because it was so much easier to install. Two floppies a cable modem and off I went.

    2. Re:Installer by DuBois · · Score: 2
      Two floppies a cable modem and off I went.

      Well, it might be that easy for you, but many don't have any kind of broadband.

      The FreeBSD CDROM installation screens are unreliable, confusing, ugly, and lots of other adjectives that would just piss off religious *BSDers. I use FreeBSD for one of my webservers (currently down because of a Qwest DSL line problem), but scratched my head a great deal during installation.

      Can't anybody come up with something like the Red Hat or YAST2 installer? Is there no BSD licensed installer with an API that *BSDers could use??? If not, why not?

      --
      The IPCC has purposely engineered a massive scientific fraud.
    3. Re:Installer by geniusj · · Score: 1

      I personally love sysinstall, as well as the open/netbsd installers. Simply just because you can get a full, secure system up in a matter of minutes without resorting to things such as jumpstart (solaris) or kickstart (redhat). This is more of a philosophy though, rather than a feature of the installer itself. But anyway, the current work going on for FreeBSD's new installer is at:

      http://rtp1.slowblink.com/~libh/sysinstall2/
      or
      http://www.freebsd.org/projects/libh.html

      I don't know how much progress has been made on it. I definitely don't think it'll be in 5.0 and I think progress has slowed on it. However, if it's that important to you, and it interests you. I'm sure they wouldn't mind some donations of time and effort ;).. There's a mailing list as well, freebsd-libh@freebsd.org. You can probably find the archives at docs.freebsd.org.

      Cheers,
      -JD-

    4. Re:Installer by cenobita · · Score: 1

      if it took you that long to figure out a non-graphical installer, you probably shouldn't be running linux *or* bsd.

      christ, do you require books with pictures, too, because looking at the pictures is faster than actually reading?

    5. Re:Installer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I switched from FreeBSD to Gentoo Linux.

      - Rock solid( never had stability problems with FreeBSD either, but I had some with NetBSD)

      - Fast(faster to load Mozilla for example)

      - No annoying KDE for BSD only bugs

      FreeBSD is a very nice OS, that if 5.2 comes out I may try again but the lack of threading, SMP, Java support is a problem.

      Gentoo is the best I used so far ;)

  21. will OS X be updated with this? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Anyone know if Apple plans on updating their FreeBSD-based bits with this anytime soon?

    Probably too soon for 10.3 to be based on this, but maybe 10.4?

    1. Re:will OS X be updated with this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OS X uses Darwin not FreeBSD. But Darwin is derived from FreeBSD... so maybe.

    2. Re:will OS X be updated with this? by zapfie · · Score: 1

      I dunno about you, but I don't want anyone messing with my bits.. they work just fine as is.

      --
      slashdot!=valid HTML
    3. Re:will OS X be updated with this? by Moridineas · · Score: 4, Informative

      I've read that Apple is working on getting Darwin and FreeBSD a lot more in synch. A lot of the big changes in FreeBSD 5.0 (devfs, SMP stuff, etc) are kernel changes though, and won't matter at all to OSX which has its own kernel and relies on FreeBSD (and NetBSD I believe) for the userland tools and stuff.

    4. Re:will OS X be updated with this? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2

      One wonders why Apple didn't use the stuff from OpenBSD, which, supposedly, has gone through a lot more security reviews than the stuff from FreeBSD. I mean, if they're not needing any of the kernel stuff, then what's left shouldn't be that big a deal.

    5. Re:will OS X be updated with this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OpenBSD isn't scalable, lacks SMP, and isn't as reliable as FreeBSD. FreeBSD is also security-conscious, there's really not much difference there.

  22. FreeBSD Sells Itself by SuperDuG · · Score: 4, Interesting
    BSD IS DEAD!!!

    Just ask ... yahoo ... netcraft ... and slew of other servers that rely on BSD. If you want a server and you want the best bang for the buck, freebsd is the best price out there. (free)

    For all the trolls who say BSD isn't GPL, well duh, BSD is in itself a license. Sometimes you just gotta wonder. If linux was so wonderful then why would apple choose BSD for OS X and not linux? It's more than just the license, BSD is a very nice OS that is wonderfully stable.

    Rule of Thumb, if it works in linux it will more than likely work in freebsd, and vice versa, well that is until you try to compile a kernel not of that OS :-) ... try it before you bash it.

    --
    Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
    1. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by bogie · · Score: 2

      " If linux was so wonderful then why would apple choose BSD for OS X and not linux? "

      Because for the most part, the GPL ensures the code stays truly free and out in the open, something Apple didn't want to have to worry about for parts of their OS. It's not because BSD is somehow more advanced or better than linux. Mach sure as hell doesn't hold a candle to the linux kernel if that's what you were implying. And finally, it MIGHT just have something to do with Next which was based on BSD, which OSX is based on.

      Honestly you troll and then ask people not to bash it, what gives?

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    2. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it couldn't have anything to do with Jobs working for NeXT and implementing the MAch kernel there. That couldn't be it. Probably because linux is an inferior kernel. Oh that makes sence

    3. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by sql*kitten · · Score: 4, Informative

      If linux was so wonderful then why would apple choose BSD for OS X and not linux?

      Umm, they didn't. Choose, that is. The decision was made by NeXT, years before, after Jobs had left Apple and started hanging out with Avi Tenevian (sp?). NeXT chose BSD over Mach, which was state-of-the-art for Unix at the time, and is still very good (I personally am ambivalent on the subject of microkernels, but some people have very strong feelings about them).

      Apple's next-generation OS (Copland, Pink, whatever) was in fairly dire straits, they had been working on it for years and had gotten precisely nowhere. So Apple bought NeXT, but NeXT people wound up in charge, and they made the decision that MacOS X would be the next (no pun intended) iteration of the NeXT OS.

      Even without this, Apple would never have chosen Linux - if they had to release their modifications to it under the GPL, people would just have run it on cheaper PCs, and Apple make almost all their money on hardware. The BSD license allowed them to compromise.

    4. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by LizardKing · · Score: 1

      Even without this, Apple would never have chosen Linux

      Didn't Apple finance one of the Linux distros that runs on older Apple hardware? My memory's a bit hazy on this as I've never owned an m68k or PowerPC machine of any kind, but I'm sure it's true.

      Chris

    5. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by __past__ · · Score: 2
      Because for the most part, the GPL ensures the code stays truly free and out in the open
      Uh, wasn't it that the GPL ensures that new code written by others than the one who chose to use the GPL has to be "truly free and out in the open"? You know, just because Apple used FreeBSD code, this code didn't just go away, it is still as freely available as it was before.

      BTW, Apple (and NeXT before) does use and modify GPL code (GCC, for example), and they don't seem to have a problem with playing after the GPL rules, so maybe the license wasn't the only reason for not choosing Linux after all.

    6. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by sql*kitten · · Score: 2

      Didn't Apple finance one of the Linux distros that runs on older Apple hardware? My memory's a bit hazy on this as I've never owned an m68k or PowerPC machine of any kind, but I'm sure it's true.

      Yes, MkLinux, which was Linux on top of the Mach microkernel. But it was never intended to be a commercial product, more a laboratory for Apple engineers to familiarize themselves with Mach.

    7. Re:FreeBSD Sells Itself by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      You understood what he meant, there's no reason for word symantics.

      Apple was quite intelligent about their choices. They used the code they had, and improvised in the system kernel in order to achieve a more stable codebase while retaining control over their work. GPL would have forced them to release their code back (all of it) into the community. BSD, however, does not..
      They do give code back to the community, however they have a choice as to what they release.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  23. Re:a big step for BSD by pVoid · · Score: 1

    Wow. I can't believe this parent post actually got an 'interesting' mod. If anything I read it as a joke...

    Moft/linux/unix zealotism aside, you think the reason an OS is good is because of the number it has suffixed on its name?

  24. Re:Why not Linux? by MsGeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here's a reason you might not hear from anyone else. FreeBSD is fast. It can make an old 486 seem like a Pentium 233MMX and a 733MHz PIII seem like a 3GHz P4. I'm serious, man. This has been my personal experience. Stop griping and try it. The installer isn't half as bad as the Debian installer and just about anything that can run on Linux can be recompiled for FreeBSD. Give it a shot.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
  25. Re:a big step for BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    SMP is great too, first introduced with winNT 4 in 1996, 8 years later it is finally supported in unix thanks to freebsd 5.0.


    Hah ah ahha hahahah


    Someone please mod this guy up as funny.

  26. Re:Anyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Here is her e-mail address by the way:

    cercen@linuxcare.com

  27. mods are stupid.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this dude is being a smartass

  28. Don't fret about the BSD dying trolls... by CoolVibe · · Score: 3, Interesting
    They probably wouldn't recognise a truly living and actively developed Operating System Environment if it gnawed one of their legs off and slapped them in the face with it.

    I use BSD everywhere. I sneak it into places where I work and impress the locals with it. And then it ends up in the server room. FreeBSD world domination! muhahahaha

    Oh, and I never got fired for installing BSD somewhere :)

  29. 10 things you might want to check out in DP2 by geniusj · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are some big ticket items in -CURRENT that you might want to check out.

    1) Filesystem Snapshots/Background fsck - On filesystems with softupdates enabled, fsck will be performed on the mounted filesystem (well, actually a snapshot) after the disk is mounted. This allows fsck to be run without affecting uptime along with the other obvious benefits of having snapshot support (dump comes to mind).

    2) ACLs - Filesystem ACLs are included with FreeBSD now and can be set using the standard setfacl/getfacl methods

    3) LOMAC - The LOMAC with DP2 is apparently old and seems intrusive. A recommendation from the author was to try the version of LOMAC from trustedbsd CVS. It is said to contain "99% less ASS" ;).. Recommended you use UFS2 for full extended attribute support.

    4) MAC - I personally haven't tried it yet, however I plan to. Recommended you use UFS2 for full extended attribute support. This could/should rock :)

    5) GEOM - A modular framework for disk I/O. This allows modules to be placed along the I/O request path in order to do nifty things such as filesystem encryption easily. There is an encryption module already written for this as well

    6) UFS2 - UFS with extended attributes support and various code cleanup afaik. sysinstall will use UFS1 by default ;(.. UFS2 is not yet bootable on i386 due to space constraints in the boot loader. No word on whether this will be fixed in time.

    7) SMPng - Have at it.. Last I heard, the speed increases weren't as significant as people seem to think they'll be. The groundwork is laid out though for future speed improvements. A lot of code has been moved out from under Giant (Big Giant Lock). That could have definitely changed though, as the last time I heard an SMPng update was at the kernel summit in SF. There are quite a few debugging options enabled in GENERIC, so you might want to take note of that.

    8) sparc64/Itan{ic|ium} - If you have a supported hardware config.. Itanium is under /pub/FreeBSD/development I believe. sparc64 is actually part of the DP release

    9) gcc3 - Nothing more to really put here.

    10) New and improved rc system in /etc/rc.d. This is basically an import from NetBSD. scripts in rc.d, as opposed to the init.d/rc*.d method where the filename determines the dependency order, use a program called rcorder(8) to determine the order in which scripts are executed. rcorder determines the order by special headers in the scripts. e.g.

    # PROVIDE: sshd
    # REQUIRE: LOGIN
    # KEYWORD: FreeBSD NetBSD

    Ports, unfortunately, does not use this dependency system yet. However, last I heard, there will be a cutoff date at which time they should support it.

    Some information may be outdated, but most of it should be correct.

    Enjoy,
    -JD-

    1. Re:10 things you might want to check out in DP2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd like to know how ports is supposed to use the rcNG mechanism for anything, especially as ports runs using Makefiles.

    2. Re:10 things you might want to check out in DP2 by geniusj · · Score: 3, Informative

      The resulting installed ports.. such as mysql, or apache, that use /usr/local/etc/rc.d..

    3. Re:10 things you might want to check out in DP2 by mandolin · · Score: 2
      I'm more impressed by the true zero-copy send(2)s they claim to be able to do in -CURRENT, provided that the data meets certain alignment and size requirements, and that you manipulate the sndbuf properly. (I won't count zero-copy recv since it apparently only works on one card..)

      zero-copy send() is more useful/generic than linux's sendfile() IMHO. To get sendfile(), you can just mmap() a file and send() it. It doesn't work so nicely the other way around.

    4. Re:10 things you might want to check out in DP2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, I am most excited about the improved thread support and the Firewire support. Finally, Firewire support. I have been waiting for 5.0 to go stable, but maybe I might give it a try installing it this weekend on my laptop. It would be cool to be able to plug my video camera into FreeBSD and do my video editing on a real OS. I might even put aside my current projects that I am working on and look at writing a driver to pull video from the camera.

  30. perl out of base system by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Glad to see Perl has been given the axe in the base system. Now I won't have to have two Perl installs all the time (the base + the port).

    Now if they could only do the same for Sendmail, BIND, and other junk.

    Maybe I'm just more comfortable with systems like Red Hat where *everything* is in a package, but it seems silly to have this 3rd-party stuff in the base, especially if many people use the ports version anyway.

    1. Re:perl out of base system by rplacd · · Score: 2, Informative

      Support for not building certain subsystems has been there for a while now. Read /etc/defaults/make.conf, and put the appropriate lines in /etc/make.conf. You won't get BIND or Sendmail or Perl or whatever when you rebuild your system.

    2. Re:perl out of base system by MavEtJu · · Score: 3, Informative

      You already can do that with bind (build with PORT_REPLACES_BASE_BIND8) and openssh (build with OPENSSH_OVERWRITE_BASE).

      --
      bash$ :(){ :|:&};:
    3. Re:perl out of base system by someonehasmyname · · Score: 1

      vi /etc/make.conf

      NO_BIND= true
      NO_SENDMAIL= true

      --
      Common sense is not so common.
  31. The Perl Situation... by CoolVibe · · Score: 4, Informative
    Actually, you can already switch to the port version of perl on STABLE. This will line you up better wrt CURRENT having no perl in the base system, and it might even save you the trouble of compiling/reinstalling all those perl modules again.

    Just after compiling the perl port, do:

    use.perl port <enter>

    and you STABLE system will always use the perl from the ports. This will probably save you a headache or two when upgrading to CURRENT

    1. Re:The Perl Situation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just tried this in FreeBSD 4.7, Install the port of perl 5.8 and when I type use.perl port it says command not found...any thoughts?

  32. Re:Why not Linux? by Scott+Lockwood · · Score: 1

    No wonder WIPO targeted you. You'll bite on anything.

    --
    But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
  33. Re:Why not Linux? by BitHive · · Score: 2

    Indeed, FreeBSD is fast--similarly configured Linux and OpenBSD installations take two to three times longer to boot. Of course, since FreeBSD is so stable, chances are you won't need to boot it very often.

  34. FreeBSD vs Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    When my company was just starting out in late 1998, we deployed Linux for our custom S.E.D.D solution. It worked reasonably, aside from the occassional ext2 filesystem crash or kernel panic, which wasn't a big deal then since we had redundancy and weren't under heavy load. Unfortunately, when the load started increasing, so did the crashes and panics. The systems needed to be reinstalled every week. After messing around trying to get the 2.3.x series of kernels to work, I eventually had a cutting edge test server to see if the latest Linux offering could match up. It didn't.

    I read about FreeBSD and downloaded the 3.2-RELEASE version. Since then I've tracked both STABLE and CURRENT, and I can say with conviction that any FreeBSD system is more stable, can take higher load, and is far easier to configure for hard-core use than is any Linux dsitribution, in my experience. The FreeBSD servers slowed (but even then, not as much as the Linux servers had), but didn't crash, even when far higher load was placed on them than was placed on the Linux servers we used to run. As a S.E.D.D company, we send millions of secure documents out per day, and also thousands at once. Since this IS Slashdot, and people here are Linux fanatics, I am not logged in with my username or password, since (a) I don't want to lose all of my karma and (b) I don't want childish Linuxbrats sending flames to me.

    Linux may be ok for some, but for people who are trying to run their own companies, still have some sort of life, have other hobbies, like horse riding, and have girlfriends, Linux is not the ideal solution.

    1. Re:FreeBSD vs Linux by 1s44c · · Score: 1

      So don't put development kernels on production machines.

      If you go bleeding edge don't moan when you bleed.

    2. Re:FreeBSD vs Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      actually, as I read it, he only put 2.3 on the boxen after the stock kernel proved that it couldn't handle the load efficiently.

    3. Re:FreeBSD vs Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which is fairly understandable since the 2.2 series of kernel (or so I hear) weren't all that incredible early in their evolution...

      Wonder if there was a reason he couldn't use 2.0. That should have been very stable about then. drivers? smp? a-bigger-version-must-be-better syndrome?

    4. Re:FreeBSD vs Linux by paco+verde · · Score: 2, Informative

      Since the STABLE and CURRENT branches are getting thrown around a lot when talking about FreeBSD's (awesome) stability, anyone thinking of giving it a try should understand that these are *both* development branches.

      Again, STABLE is a development branch, as is CURRENT. If you want a *really* stable production FreeBSD box, track the RELEASE branch.

      From the FreeBSD handbook, 21.2 FreeBSD-CURRENT vs. FreeBSD-STABLE:

      FreeBSD-CURRENT is the latest working sources for FreeBSD. This includes work in progress, experimental changes, and transitional mechanisms that might or might not be present in the next official release of the software. While many FreeBSD developers compile the FreeBSD-CURRENT source code daily, there are periods of time when the sources are not buildable. These problems are resolved as expeditiously as possible, but whether or not FreeBSD-CURRENT brings disaster or greatly desired functionality can be a matter of which exact moment you grabbed the source code in!

      FreeBSD-STABLE is our development branch from which major releases are made. Changes go into this branch at a different pace, and with the general assumption that they have first gone into FreeBSD-CURRENT for testing. This is still a development branch, however, and this means that at any given time, the sources for FreeBSD-STABLE may or may not be suitable for any particular purpose. It is simply another engineering development track, not a resource for end-users.

    5. Re:FreeBSD vs Linux by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 2

      Stability-wise, I saw no difference between Linux (Slackware) and FBSD. Linux hasn't crashed in a long time. And using a 2.3 (or 2.5) kernel is as dumb as using FBSD 5.0!

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
  35. portupgrade and convenience by taion · · Score: 5, Informative

    I was having similar problems with FreeBSD, regarding newer versions of ports, and portupgrade helps a lot in making this easy to handle. It's made managing things just so much easier. It's incredible, really.

    --

    ----------
    Floccinaucinihilipilification - the action or habit of judging something to be worthless
    1. Re:portupgrade and convenience by CoolVibe · · Score: 2

      That's funny... You probably haven't had the fights I had with portupgrade. Portupgrade tends to go haywire if you update from installed packages instead of ports. Also, I don't like/need ruby. I'd _really_ love to have a sane way of upgrading ports without installing a scripting language I'll probably never use.

    2. Re:portupgrade and convenience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i've never ever had a problem with portupgrade. i suggest you read the man pages for portupgrade and make sure you're using the latest revision.

      your comment about ruby is just lame.

  36. Serious question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How long will FreeBSD run? Linux 2.0.x and 2.2.x would crash when the kernel scheduler counter rolled over after 497 days and uptime went back to 0. Does FreeBSD do that too?

    1. Re:Serious question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think that was an old version of Windows NT, not Linux.

  37. Re:Why not Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh BS. The processor can only execute instructions so fast. Especially with the newer processors, instruction execution speed is also depedent on ordering.

    I'm not saying freebsd isn't a fast OS, but it can't do the impossible. Yes I realise you're exaggerating to an extent, but you're over exaggerating here.

    Lets see some benchmarks too.

  38. Re:Why not Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    welcome to world war 3, mr. lockwood.

  39. Re:Why not Linux? by shamilton · · Score: 1

    Of course it won't make a CPU faster. However, better scheduling and memory management results in less time being spent elsewhere.

    sh

    --
    "[A] high IQ is like a Jeep; you will still get stuck, just farther from help!" --Just d' FAQs, c.g.a
  40. Compared to Debian? by LittleLebowskiUrbanA · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I understand every BSD user's complaints about Redhat/Mandrake and the rpm package mess but how does Debian and apt-get compare? I figure that w/ the design philosophy and package system Debian has, it's quite comparable to all of the benefits of BSD. After installing Debian, I'm not ruled by my Linux box, I have time to do other things. Rock solid, secure (enough for me), and easy to update and install packages. Anyway, I'm still a newbie and ask newbie questions.

    1. Re:Compared to Debian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A newbie using Debian ? Poor you.
      apt-get works very nice on my redhat.

    2. Re:Compared to Debian? by Russellkhan · · Score: 1

      >A newbie using Debian ? Poor you.

      From my experience the only hard part with Debian is the install. Since he's using Debian, he must be past that. From here on it's smooth sailing.

      >apt-get works very nice on my redhat.

      Yep, but how many packages are available for it? Last time I checked in over at freshrpms.net I think there were somewhere around 150 packages available for RH8.0. That's not qutie as many as I think you'll find available for Debian.

      --
      Information doesn't want to be anthropomorphized anymore.
    3. Re:Compared to Debian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I've used Debian for some years (I used slink for a while, then tried other distros and came back when Potato was released, and I've been using that since (although it's now updated to sid)), but I'm a newbie to FreeBSD, which runs on my laptop, and is also a part of my multi-boot desktop.

      The usual way to update and keep current on FreeBSD is by cvsup and ports. cvsup keeps you ports current (like apt-get update) and ports let you (de-)install packages (like apt-get install/upgrade), but from source. The Makefiles for the various packages should take care of (build-)dependencies.

      Both cvsup and compiling from source are more time-consuming than apt is, unless you have to wait for the maintainer of the package in Debian, of course.

      Now, over to my experience. I like FreeBSD. It's very stable, and seems faster than Linux for a lot of things (X faster, Mozilla slower). The ports system is very nice, and many people (zealots?) think it's way better than apt-get. I don't agree, but not for any technical reason. Quality depends on both design and implementation. There are ~1000 developers in Debian, and ~10000 packages. There are ~7000 packages in the FreeBSD ports collection, but I doubt there are ~700 developers to take care of it. It doesn't get as much love and care as Debian packages get, and some packages won't build automagically. Like Gnome2. The build stops with:
      atkobject.c:25:24: atkmarshal.h: No such file or directory
      and so on, and that's not really any better than an rpm error message. What package contains atkmarshal.h? The policy and quality of the packages is what makes Debian rule.

      So, to summarize, FreeBSD is a very nice unix, but maybe not quite as good a distribution as Debian. Both of them get out of you way and let you get work done.
    4. Re:Compared to Debian? by __past__ · · Score: 3, Informative
      It's been a while scince I used Debian, but here I go:

      • Even with apt and deb, it's still all binary packages. I like the source-based approach better. (and yes, I know about src-debs. But honestly, what do you use more often?)
      • Building a port yourself is trivial (it's just a Makefile and a list of files that get installed, basically), way easier than building your own debs. I find that on my FreeBSD system, there is way less software installed without being under control of the package management system than on every Linux system I used.
      • FreeBSD doesn't try to be clever unless I tell it to, unlike, for example, Debians "alternatives". If I type "vi", I get vi, and not an end- and useless mess of symlinks pointing to whatever editor. The packages just work like the original authors intended, not like the packagers thought it would be better.
      • Debian has more kinds of dependency. Ports just depend on something, or they don't (of course, what they depend on may depend on some options you choose), but they don't "suggest" anything. I never understood why this fine-grained dependencies are useful, I like the KISS approach better.
      Of course, YMMV. More important than the differences are the similarities, however, especially that both systems "just work". Both Debian and FreeBSD are fine systems, and there really isn't such a great difference between them from a users point of view. Certainly not enough to justify holy wars.
    5. Re:Compared to Debian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      FreeBSD is more up to date than Debian. Debian makes a new release so infrequently that it is practically impossible to use (unless you like being 2 years behind everyone else).

    6. Re:Compared to Debian? by topdown · · Score: 1

      It's all in how up to date you keep it. I personally run a mix of Debian stable/testing/unstable on my webserver. THe /etc/apt/preferences file does wonders for keeping this all in check and I keep the important stuff, like Apache, stable and the kewl stuff like gaim and xchat on unstable. ;-)

    7. Re:Compared to Debian? by Bishop · · Score: 2

      Debian and FreeBSD both have strong and weak points, and quite a few smilarities. In general neither is better then the other.

      I find that it is easier to keep the Debian system files up to date as everything is a package. The command 'apt-get update && apt-get -u upgrade' just works. Debian handles config file changes very well. Debian deffinately has more packages, includeing some really weird ones. Debian is primarily a binary distrobution which is both good and bad. Debian dependacies can get a little silly. Package maintainers tend to enable every option that package might have. For example I would like to see emacs-noX, and exim-noLDAP packages. Debian has a more modern feel. The developers have been willing to try out new ways of organizing and administery the system. However as another poster wrote, some of the fanciness like 'alternatives' can be annoying. FreeBSD is more conservation relying on more tried and true practices. The Debian/Linux system is a little more chaotic, probably due to the 1000+ developers.

      FreeBSD benifits greatly from a smaller core team. The base system is well organized, well tested, and well documented. FreeBSD is a system administrator's OS. (So are OpenBSD and NetBSD) In general these three BSDs don't try to be as fancy as Debian. As a result these systems can be easier for the advanced user to administer. FreeBSD package dependancies are more sane. FreeBSD has binary packages but is primarily a source distrobution. Compiling from source allows for better site configuration.

      FreeBSD and Debian have equally awfull install scripts. Fortunately you only have to do that once! Both Debian and FreeBSD suffer somewhat from trying to be the *nix for "everyone." Both systems have mature packages or ports with few bugs. Both systems have Current, Testing/Stable, and Release branches. Although these are handled a little differently. Almost all software that runs on one, will run on the other. (but not VMware3!) It is very easy to install and maintain software on both systems.

      Both FreeBSD and Debian/Linux are high quality operating systems backed by a team of intelligent, dedicated developers. I can not recommend one over the other.

  41. Liar. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux couldnt run for 497 days even if we defined run as "load bash and futz with ls."

  42. Good god... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's one of the funniest /. posts I've ever read!

  43. Kernel Threads! by PizzaFace · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Kernel threads are going to mean more than any other feature to FreeBSD 5. Benchmark performance may not increase that much because of kernel threads, but they'll allow many applications to be ported to FreeBSD. Now, a lot of programs that run on Linux, Solaris, and Windows, can't be ported to FreeBSD because of its inferior threading. Thread-intensive languages (most notoriously, Java) and database servers should be much more comfortable on FreeBSD 5, after it shakes down.

  44. Close, but... by aussersterne · · Score: 5, Informative

    I concede that FreeBSD *is* more stable than Linux. However, the data you're using is nearly five years old, an eternity in the technology world. FreeBSD is certainly no longer an order of magnitude more stable than Linux, while at the same time both FreeBSD and Linux are several orders of magnitude more stable than Windows on "do-it-yourself" hardware found at small companies or in homes.

    Of course, for controlled quantities like vendor-supplied hardware, all three can be very stable, though I'd still suggest that FreeBSD and Linux are at least an order of magnitude more stable than Windows.

    And just to inject some of my own anecodtal evidence, on a volunteer basis I administrate several SMP x86 file and Web servers for NGO's/NPO's that 1) run Slackware Linux, 2) have uptimes >700 days and 3) have significant load a good percentage of the time with load spikes at times that can reach into the stratosphere.

    --
    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
    1. Re:Close, but... by Dionysus · · Score: 2

      However, the data you're using is nearly five years old, an eternity in the technology world. FreeBSD is certainly no longer an order of magnitude more stable than Linux

      I don't know. Doesn't Linux still have problems with heavy loads? Isn't that one of the reason for the frequent change of the VM?

      --
      Je ne parle pas francais.
    2. Re:Close, but... by be-fan · · Score: 2

      The VM stabilized in the middle of 2.4. Right now, we're in the middle of 2.5. That was a while ago, and the new VM is quite solid.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    3. Re:Close, but... by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      As with everything newer algorithyms were introduced for greater efficiency. The VM was "okay" in 2.4, but it can always be better.

      though, I wouldn't touch anything between 2.4.0 and 2.4.12 with my worst enemies servers. I'm glad we're past those issues.

      I'm just waiting to witness the enhancements in the 2.5 series (once introduced in 2.6 that is) with threading. That ought to be something really nice.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  45. SMP Cooling HLT's by MjDascombe · · Score: 2

    I'm thinking about running new FreeBSD on my (uncooled) Dual Xeon system - I haven't uptil now because of the lack of second CPU HLT instructions - Does anyone know what second CPU Idling is like in 5.0/5.0DP2?

    Thanks

    1. Re:SMP Cooling HLT's by LizardKing · · Score: 1

      I'd suggest asking on the FreeBSD current mailing list - you should get a much more informed reply there.

    2. Re:SMP Cooling HLT's by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why not just slap a heatsink/fan on your chips?!

      All it will take is some heavy CPU usage and those baby's could fry.

  46. Re:Why not Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1.Ports
    2.Packages
    3.easy update (make buildworld etc..)
    4.The Devil not that fat fucking penguin

    5.???
    6.PROFIT!!

  47. Re:Why not Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ceren Ercen has a fat ass. Fucking typical.

  48. Re:You came *this* close to getting it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And spend all your time rebooting and trying to rid your system of viruses? Don't think so!

    Once I got enough unix experience on my resume I stopped applying for any jobs that had anything to do with running windows. Ever since I've been getting paid more to do less. In a way bill gates is my best friend. He created a system so screwed up and broken that I never have to talk to the windows admins because they're always running around trying to 'fix' something while I hide and mumble "I don't do windows, I don't do windows".

  49. It's called OS X by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just give it a few more months, maybe a year, and OS X will sync with FreeBSD 5 when it's stable. Just a joke, but mod me down if you must.

  50. (S)he didn't ask for advice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    but I can give a better one. Buy a HSF.

    1. Re:(S)he didn't ask for advice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nah.. it's much simpler to mold your operating system choice around some stupid choice like not putting heatsinks on your cpus.

      *boggle*

    2. Re:(S)he didn't ask for advice by MjDascombe · · Score: 1

      For anyone who actually cares, the system is being used for penetration testing in a noise-limited enviroment - fans of any kind aren't an option, so we're looking at zal(l)man heatsinks at the moment, but they wont fit the duron.

  51. Re:You came *this* close to getting it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For us, having girlfriends is far more important. Go away, and accept your quite clear homosexuality. We don't care how easy your work is.

  52. You're so right. But there's more by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Let's have a close look at the costs involved when running a Linux system.

    An important factor in Linux' cost is its maintenance. Linux requires a *lot* of maintenance, work doable only by the relatively few high-paid Linux administrators that put themselves - of course willingly - at a great place in the market. Linux seems to be needing maintenance continuously, to keep it from breaking down.

    Add to this the cost of loss of data. Linux' native file system, EXT2FS, is known to lose data like a firehose spouts water when the file system isn't unmounted properly. Other unix file systems are much more tolerant towards unexpected crashes. An example is the FreeBSD file system, which with soft updates enabled, performance-wise blows EXT2FS out of the water, and doesn't have the negative drawback of extreme data loss in case of a system breakdown.

    According to Linux advocates, an alternative to EXT2FS would be ReiserFS. Unfortunately, ReiserFS is still in beta stage. This means it is not intended for production use (although according to many Linux advocates this shouldn't be a problem, which makes me wonder how (little) valuable they find your data).

    The other proposed 'solution', EXT3FS, is nothing more than an ugly hack to put journaling into the file system. All the drawbacks of the ancient EXT2FS file system remain in EXT3FS, for the sake of 'forward- and backward compatibility'. This is interesting, considering that the DOS heritage in the Windows 9x/ME series was considered a very bad thing by the Linux community, even though it provided what could be called one of the best examples of compatibility, ever. When it's about Linux, compatibility constraints don't seem to be that much of a problem for Linux advocates.

    Back to Linux' cost. Factor in also the fact that crashes happen much more often on Linux than on other unices. On other unices, crashes usually are caused by external sources like power outages. Crashes in Linux are a regular thing, and nobody seems to know what causes them, internally. Linux advocates try to hide this fact by denying crashes ever happen. Instead, they have frequent "hardware problems".

    The steep learning curve compared to about any other operating system out there is a major factor in Linux' cost. The system is a mix of features from all kinds of unices, but not one of them is implemented right. A Linux user has to live with badly coded tools which have low performance, mangle data seemingly at random and are not in line with their specification. On top of that a lot of them spit out the most childish and unprofessional messages, indicating that they were created by 14-year olds with too much time, no talent and a bad attitude.

    I could go on and on and on, but the conclusion is clear. Linux is not an option for any one who seeks a professional OS with high performance, scalability, stability, adherence to standards, etc.

  53. Its all about intentions by nurb432 · · Score: 2

    *BSD's are traditionally intended ( and still is from what i understand ) for the server arena, where stability and consistency are much more important then running ' the latest killer app'.

    BSD is more entrenched in the backrooms of corporate America for this reason.

    Now on the DESKTOP i agree, it lagged behind until recently. But now that you can run 99% of proprietary Linux binaries, and there is good desktop hardware support, even that point becomes moot and it becomes more of a matter of preference then 'better'.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----
  54. so very true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's quite common, actually, for people to write bash specific shell scripts and distribute them as borne shell scripts. Jackasses.

  55. Phoebe Cates loves FreeBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FreeBSD is elite! It's already the best free operating system today and all the enhancements being added only make it even better.

  56. Re:In other news. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I feed trolls.

    I get the bsd dying troll, but I dont get the Stephen King dying troll, and I see it everywhere. What the hell does it mean?

  57. HyperThreading on Intel by Palshife · · Score: 1

    Has anyone confirmed that the new SMP support works with Intel's new HT chips? It should, right?

    --
    Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
    1. Re:HyperThreading on Intel by geniusj · · Score: 1

      Last I checked, it just sees 2 processors for every HT processor in the box. So as long as you have SMP enabled, HT should work fine.

    2. Re:HyperThreading on Intel by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

      Hyperthreading is an internal feature of the Intel processors. It's alot like the superscalar pipelining introduced earlier on in the Pentium series. (well, hyperthreading isn't, but the transparency is)

      Pretty much it just.. "works". No OS changes needed.

      --
      -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  58. Re:You came *this* close to getting it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL!

  59. grep -r -e jiffies /usr/src/linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a long int, it rools over after 497 days, uptime returns to 0, and everything goes to hell. For real. Try it some time. It's an issue for industrial control and embedded apps.

  60. Uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It was (and is) on a webserver that's serving up 100k cgi-generated pages a day. It's like the old Windoze95 problem - you remember that - where Win95 would crash after about 30 days of uptime. Except Win95 was out for more than 2 years before they found that bug, it was never stable enough to run a month before. The difference is, Linux runs for 497 days. And I just took a Sparc2 out of service that was up for 9 years. Do that with Windoze.

  61. Re:Why not Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Freebsd boots 3 times faster than linux. Commands are much less bloated. It ovberall feels faster. Yes, I use both FreeBSD and linux.

    And yes, applications are not faster, and the system as a whole is not really faster. It just feels less bloated.

  62. Re:In other news. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1
    It makes fun of people who get their news from the COMMENTS made on slashdot (eg, getting the news about SK's "death" in the comments on a tech site; instead of yahoo![tm] news).

    2
    It's a chestnut that is funny just for its' own sake (ala the gritty beowulf cluster of natalie goatse)

    3
    ???

    4
    PROFIT!

  63. Hey dyke! How's MsGeek These days!?!!?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just LOVE MsGeek's site ! Especially the "fash" section , where I learned to cut the bottom off of an old shirt to use as a hair enhancement! Oh, and the "dance party" photos !

    Of course, don't forget to read MsGeeks's emails ! Here you will discover how truly difficult it is to decide what to do on the weekends... have a pizza party? A fash party? Go to the mall with all of your friends? Have a sleepover and call boys on the phone ?

    In short, if you haven't checked out MsGeek's site , you don't know what you're missing!

  64. You are all backwards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    OS X uses mach which avie tevanian wrote at CMU. Mach has a BSD compatability layer so that programs could be used on it and so the mach people did not need to write servers for their kernel. Apple could never use Linux or a monolithic unix kernel because of how the architecture works. Mach and the BSD layer are running shared in kernel space, classic sits on top in it own server on the Mach kernel running in kernel space for performance reasons, as do the Cocoa and Carbon layers, quartz and aqua of course run on top of this. Say what you will about microkernels but they are flexible and make things much easier.

    Bla, Bla, Bla, linus talks about performance and how he hates microkernels. Apple runs the servers in kernel space not in userspace like hurd, at most it is a 5-10% speed hit but it also allows for greater flexibility and makes it easier to maintain. Also the modularity of it makes updating things like BSD easy because the servers are not heavily connected elsewhere, the os is somewhat abstracted from BSD. Apple could put linux in the place of BSD easily but mach must stay or be replaced by a new MicroKernel.

    Just remember apple does not use message passing servers running in userspace, they run BSD and mach in shared kernel space and the servers run in kernel space. So yes OS X really is not unix but it contains unix. I hope this clears things up.

  65. G E N T O O Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Portage is really nice.

    www.gentoo.org

    ex FreeBSD user

  66. 3 times faster ?? Really ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't think that is correct.
    Let me just say, I ran FreeBSD and Gentoo Linux on the exact same hardware and Gentoo boots in the same time and runs faster.

    Please stop this childish A is better than B.

    Both Gentoo Linux and FreeBSD are excellent OS-es that still needs further work.

  67. Re:Why not Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Could you have exaggerated any more? It's a good thing we don't hear stuff like this from anyone else, because it's false.

    On equal hardware FreeBSD and Linux perform similarly. (FreeBSD has a slight edge on Linux.) I haven't seen the latest stable Linux vs FreeBSD 5, but here is a benchmark of FreeBSD 4.1.1 vs the 2.4 kernel: http://www.loureiro.eng.br/artigos/Linux_Vs_FreeBS D.pdf
    Here's another more recent comparison: http://www.byte.com/documents/s=1794/byt20011107s0 001/
    Makes a 733Mhz p4 feel like a 3Ghz p3? Right.

    Of course, even though the comment is bullshit, it gets modded up because FreeBSD has about .01% of the market, and therefore qualifies as 'l337', which means any pro-BSD comment will automatically be modded up. Nice.

  68. USB 2.0 yet? by nutznboltz · · Score: 2

    Does FreeBSD 5.0-DP2 come with USB 2.0 or just slow USB?

  69. Better check that uptime by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2.4.x hasn't been out for 700 days, and uptime rolls over to 0 after about 500 days on 2.0.x and 2.2.x and I know for a fact that Apache slows to a crawl when that happens.

  70. Re:Why not Linux? by arkane1234 · · Score: 1

    well, you never know what he was comparing FreeBSD to, you know. He might have been talking about FreeBSD in comparison to say.. Windows XP?

    Honestly, he didn't say what he was comparing it to, so it could be just about anything like (insert really slow thing that bogs down memory and procesor usage is 100%.. oh wait..Windows...)

    --
    -- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
  71. Re:You came *this* close to getting it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    JOCK!

  72. Not going to happen. by tlambert · · Score: 2

    That's not going to happen.

    The people who control the trademark will not allow you to replace the default installer, and still call the code FreeBSD, unless you donate the installer back to the project, and it gets accepted into the source tree in place of the default installer. Which makes sense, since the people who control the trademark are primarily there fore the sales of CDROMs which use the trademark.

    When confronted, they give a nice runaround about how you can put your installer on a different CDROM, as long as you distribute their installer on CDROM #1, or add an option in their installer to invoke your installer, after you get part way into their installer, but both those options ignore the fact that what you're trying to do is avoid their installer entirely.

    -- Terry

  73. Um, a few assumptions here. by aussersterne · · Score: 2

    First of all, the servers in question aren't running 2.4.x or the most recent version of Slackware.

    Next, I didn't say they *report* an uptime of >700 days (they do not), only that they have been running without crashes or similar interruption for >700 days. But it is very easy to know power on, power off and unintended interruption dates because such data for these machines is all logged, in pencil, to paper. ;)

    They have been extremely maintenance free and yes, under load. I did not say that they didn't slow down (my god, how they can slow down) but they have not fallen completely over (a.k.a. hung/crashed) and that is all that matters.

    Congratulations, you have very effectively debunked a pile of claims I never made.

    --
    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
  74. Just one assumption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "700 days uptime" implies 700 consecutive days without a reboot. If reboots don't count, I got a Win95 box with years of uptime. About Slackware - it's the only sane distro choice for a Linux server. The installer isn't brainless enough for widespread desktop acceptance, and I hope to hell PV never changes it.

    1. Re:Just one assumption by aussersterne · · Score: 1

      Then let me be very explicit. The group of servers of which I speak were each shut down *once* in the autumn of 2001 to move them all into the next room after a crack formed in the wall of they room they were in (seriously) the day after a freeze; water had begun to seep in to the room. Total downtime was less than 5 minutes each. There have been no reboots, crashes, or restarts for other reasons. I suppose your Windows 95 box has behaved similarly?

      --
      STOP . AMERICA . NOW
    2. Re:Just one assumption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously - watch your uptime and reboot around day 490. It'll save you some grief.

  75. perhaps more accurate to say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    less of a platform slut than NetBSD or Linux. About 1.5 of the architectures work fairly well, others coming along. As opposed to the mid twenties or early thirties for NetBSD; not quite so promiscuious, but not quite a prude.

  76. Did anyone mention...? by TheDanish · · Score: 1

    Sorry if this is redundant, but I scanned through the posts and didn't find this anywhere else, which is interesting because I've always thought people have put some level of importance on this in getting Joe User off Windows. Anyway, I found this in "Kernel Changes"

    PECOFF (Win32 Execution file format) support has been added.

    How long has this been true? To what extent is this true? Does this mean faster-than-WINE emulation, or even emulation at all? Will I be able to install and/or run Win32 programs without thinking? I guess I could summarize like this: how much does this do?

    If this is somewhere else, then if someone could just call me an idiot and point me to the thread, I'd be greatful. Or, if it's old news, then just ignore this. Thanks.

    --
    Danish != nationality
    1. Re:Did anyone mention...? by Ded+Bob · · Score: 2

      It looks like PECOFF support was added for the PEACE project. This will be great once it is more complete.

    2. Re:Did anyone mention...? by Bishop · · Score: 2

      how much does this do?

      Not much. Execuables are packaged with some header information that tells the OS where to load the binary into memory before the executable can be run. This format is the "table of contents" of the executable.

      In order to run Win32, or Linux, executables on FreeBSD you need more then the executable file format. You also need the system libraries for the respective systems. Wine Is Not and Emulator. Wine is a Windows library replacement for i386 *nixes.

    3. Re:Did anyone mention...? by TheDanish · · Score: 1

      Wine Is Not and Emulator

      Right, of course... sorry, all too often I hear about using "Wine to emulate (...)," so "emulator" kind of sticks in my head.

      --
      Danish != nationality
  77. FreeBSD 5.0 Developer Preview #2? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wonder if Lamar Alexander #2 will try it out.

    (Come on, somebody must have seen that SNL sketch.)

  78. MacOS X isn't BSD! by kiwi-matgar · · Score: 1

    How many times does this neeed to be said?

    MacOS X is an OS based on a Mach kernel with a FreeBSD personality. It doesn't mean that it is FreeBSD by any stretch of the imagination. It would be like me saying OpenUnix 8 is Linux because it has a Linux pesonality module.

    Repeat after me, MacOS X is not BSD, it is a Mach based OS with a BSD personality!

  79. Not technically good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    BSD is badly designed!

    That why it dying!

  80. Is Slakware to blame? by Daytona955i · · Score: 1

    It's funny, I see a lot of people saying they switched from slackware to FreeBSD...

    But seriously, many people have a hard time installing Red Had or Mandrake so I really wouldn't recommend them installing FreeBSD.

    I personally prefer Debian, X can be a little troublesome to configure but once you get it configured it is a lot easier to maintain and upgrade and choosing to keep the stable packages gives you quite a stable system.
    -Chris