Good PC-BSD Guide Available

Anonymous Coward writes "A very good and worth reading PC-BSD guide for the aspiring newbie is available at from a small site. We definitely need several of these to promote alternate OS. Well done."

Comments

Fails to Impress

[Bios_Hakr]

The problem with using BSD is not that it is hard, it's just that Linux seems better.

If someone can come up with a good reason to use BSD vice Linux, let me know. Otherwise, Linux provides all the anti-MS geekiness I can stand at the moment.

Actuall, the one placxe I would use BSD is in a firewall. IPTABLES is such a pain and the BSD firewall is much cleaner. However, a LinkSys router can do that job better for under $100.

Re:Fails to Impress

[PygmySurfer]

If someone can come up with a good reason to use BSD vice Linux, let me know.

Some of the reasons I prefer FreeBSD to Linux:

- Ports - No Linux package management system can compare with the beauty that is the FreeBSD ports collection
- Clear separation between base system and add-on software
- License - I prefer the BSD license to the GPL
- init scripts - I like the /etc/rc.d system better than the different sets of scripts I've encountered on a Linux system.
- filesystem layout - I've found the layout of the filesystem to be more logical than most Linux distros. This kind of ties in to my "separation of base system and add-on software" point above.
- stable, secure.
- easy updating with cvsup and make *world
- I like the kernel configuration better. Linux' make config, make menuconfig, make xconfig are a pain. I'd rather just edit a text file, and go.

Many of these things are just personal preference. Give FreeBSD a serious look sometime, you may like it better than Linux.

Linux provides all the anti-MS geekiness I can stand at the moment.

That's not a reason to use anything. "Linux users hate Microsoft. FreeBSD users love UNIX" (Shamelessly stolen from someone's .sig here, I believe).

Re:Fails to Impress

[halber_mensch]

And in addition, *BSD provides a Linux binary compatibility layer - and there are even library wrappers for browser plugins and the like, so BSD users can capitalize on all of the advances in Linux binary-only software releases.

I think the major issues Linux users have with FreeBSD are the same issues non-Linux users have with Linux - you have to learn to use the damn thing before it will *just work*.

For some reason, after the Windows Monkey spends a few years learning to get by in a Linux environment and then decides to check out another unix-like system, he's forgotten what his first transition was like and seems to think that the prospect of having to _learn_ the new system is a drawback to its desirability.

FWIW, I've used FreeBSD for years and I had the same pains trying out Linux distros that Linux users have trying out FreeBSD. But Linux users will be sure to remind me that this is no justification for the idea that Linux is inferior to FreeBSD. I think that it's only fair to acknowledge that the reverse is also true.

And I, also, have yet to hear a good reason to use Linux over FreeBSD. But if you really consider the conflict here, it's all about personal preference. There will never be a metric that universally declares any operating system *better* than all the rest. And even if it did, it wouldn't change any person's biases.