Why bother? Unlike most (all?) Linux distributions, installing FreeBSD is an exercise in simplicity.
Download the boot floppies and rawrite/dd them.
Boot them up
Answer enough questions for the system to find your network card or modem (ie: IP addresses or PPP phone#/username/password)
Choose your installation packages
Wait, time dependant on internet connection
That's it -- you're done. Reboot, and you're up and running!
As a side note, IMO FreeBSD is more open-source-friendly than most current Linux distributions in one very important way: you can download the source (one of the packages) to the entire OS (not just the kernel) and rebuild it.
We tried making a source-only distribution of Linux a while back. What I found out surprised me. Many of the system utilities had source that was hard to find -- the distribution packages often wouldn't build under those same distributions. We never were able to get a complete system that could rebuild itself from source -- it ended up quite flaky. FreeBSD gives you this for free -- a real developers system.
First, the story does not come from Sun, but rather from "sources close to Sun Microsystems". This is an immediate red-flag. Admittedly, Inprise's CTO seems to be convinced, but Sun's done some interesting things in the past.
The current 1.2 JVMs for linux aren't really all that good. There are speed problems, functionality problems... a lot of problems. They're certainly not ready for a real deployment in anywhere near a mission critical situation. Fun to play with, but not business ready yet.
Remember that many of the difficulties encountered when porting this around are due to the very SolarisThreading-centric 'reference' implementation provided by Sun -- unless they're willing to do something about that, they're in the same mess that Blackdown/IBM/HP/etc are.
You need a three-way mirror for this to work safely, but what we've done in some sites is set up just that (through RAID controllers). When you want a backup, just bring one of the mirrors offline, freeze the data, and archive it off using OS tools. Reconnect it and it syncs back up.
Doesn't anyone check their sources anymore? I know this is/. but geez, folks. From the HackPC website:
For this security test we are testing not only the web servers or operating systems, but instead we are looking at entire programming models. By taking this approach we can pinpoint direct areas that need improvement, and report back to our readers how to build better application no matter what software they choose.
Why aren't those among us who consider OpenSource the panacea to solve world hunger cheering? This was not set up as an OS vs. OS test, but as a platform-stressing security test. The verdict? Closed source CGI scripts can contain security holes. Isn't this a good thing for PC Week to be talking about?
Of course, if you insist on declaring this to be an OS vs. OS test, they'll probably take you up on the idea. This also looks like it will be kept up for a while, with that particular bug fixed of course.
Well... that almost looks as if Sun didn't want a possible contender in Forte and bought them defensively. Remember, while the millions that Sun used to buy Forte were good news for FRTE holders (stock was in the single digets, Sun bought for.3 shares of SUNW) it didn't represent that large an invenstment from Sun's standpoint.
Slashdot Mirror
Be fare. I don't see how "free" ( + media charge ) can be considered as overpriced.
Why bother? Unlike most (all?) Linux distributions, installing FreeBSD is an exercise in simplicity.
That's it -- you're done. Reboot, and you're up and running!
As a side note, IMO FreeBSD is more open-source-friendly than most current Linux distributions in one very important way: you can download the source (one of the packages) to the entire OS (not just the kernel) and rebuild it.
We tried making a source-only distribution of Linux a while back. What I found out surprised me. Many of the system utilities had source that was hard to find -- the distribution packages often wouldn't build under those same distributions. We never were able to get a complete system that could rebuild itself from source -- it ended up quite flaky. FreeBSD gives you this for free -- a real developers system.
The current 1.2 JVMs for linux aren't really all that good. There are speed problems, functionality problems... a lot of problems. They're certainly not ready for a real deployment in anywhere near a mission critical situation. Fun to play with, but not business ready yet.
Remember that many of the difficulties encountered when porting this around are due to the very SolarisThreading-centric 'reference' implementation provided by Sun -- unless they're willing to do something about that, they're in the same mess that Blackdown/IBM/HP/etc are.
You need a three-way mirror for this to work safely, but what we've done in some sites is set up just that (through RAID controllers). When you want a backup, just bring one of the mirrors offline, freeze the data, and archive it off using OS tools. Reconnect it and it syncs back up.
You do realize that that would be just about the smallest possible leap to make don't you? At least at an atomic level...
Doesn't anyone check their sources anymore? I know this is /. but geez, folks. From the HackPC website:
Why aren't those among us who consider OpenSource the panacea to solve world hunger cheering? This was not set up as an OS vs. OS test, but as a platform-stressing security test. The verdict? Closed source CGI scripts can contain security holes. Isn't this a good thing for PC Week to be talking about?
Of course, if you insist on declaring this to be an OS vs. OS test, they'll probably take you up on the idea. This also looks like it will be kept up for a while, with that particular bug fixed of course.
Well... that almost looks as if Sun didn't want a possible contender in Forte and bought them defensively. Remember, while the millions that Sun used to buy Forte were good news for FRTE holders (stock was in the single digets, Sun bought for .3 shares of SUNW) it didn't represent that large an invenstment from Sun's standpoint.