FreeBSD--Are the benefits real?

[Ashcrow]

Ports are kind of like apt-get but work very diffrently. There is a ports tree you enter into (/usr/loca/ports I belive under FreeBSD) and then find the application you want from within the sub catogories and then type make install clean to have it installed. It then processes through makefiles and something else (can't remember what it is off the top of my head...) and it looks for dependencies, downloads source, builds it, creates a package, and then installs the package. Thats the basics of the whole deal, look at the whitepapers and makefiles for more.

[kenshi]

Yeah, the ports aren´t always perfect in freebsd. For example the net monitor in icewm doesn´t work in freebsd. I really like that feature.

You simply need to change it with icepref. By default, it's set to ppp0. If you use dial-up in Linux, that's fine. If you use dial-up in FreeBSD though, you need to change it to tun0. I recently had to do that myself. However the CPU guage is a different story.

As for the difference between the two, I have tried FreeBSD several times and though I've came to like it, I had to come back to Linux every time on my main computer. The first two times were because I wasn't quite ready for it. The last time was because of hardware support. It doesn't support my sound card and possibly not my network card either. Those are two things I can't do without. My conclusion: I recommend Linux for the desktop. It just plain has more hardware and software support. But if you have another computer or a server to try out FreeBSD on, do go ahead. It's fun to use and it runs really well. It also doesn't hurt to get to know different flavors of unix if you want to be an administrator like I do. Use the right tool for the right job and have fun while doing it.

[ursidae]

You simply need to change it with icepref. By default, it's set to ppp0. If you use dial-up in Linux, that's fine. If you use dial-up in FreeBSD though, you need to change it to tun0. I recently had to do that myself. However the CPU guage is a different story.

It works? I saw somewhere that the monitor only works in linux so I never fiddled with it. Guess I should have.

This has nothing to do with this but I got to say that setting up a network connection in FreeBSD is ALOT easier than setting up dial-up. It took me more than a week to figure out how to get dial-up to work, but it only took 10s to set up a net connection.

Having a gateway rocks. Dial-up sucks.

[kenshi]

It works? I saw somewhere that the monitor only works in linux so I never fiddled with it. Guess I should have.

It definately worked for me. It was the CPU guage that I couldn't get to work. Are you sure that's not what you're thinking about?

This has nothing to do with this but I got to say that setting up a network connection in FreeBSD is ALOT easier than setting up dial-up. It took me more than a week to figure out how to get dial-up to work, but it only took 10s to set up a net connection.

Having a gateway rocks. Dial-up sucks.

Amen to that. I almost never got dial-up working. Then I finally figured out I was just using the wrong parameters on the command line. It really tweaked my melon. Now I think I could do it pretty easily though.

[ursidae]

It definately worked for me. It was the CPU guage that I couldn't get to work. Are you sure that's not what you're thinking about?

Could be. It makes more sense that the CPU gauge is more OS specific than the net gauge.

Oh well, I´m back in slack and here everything works (if you put some energy into it).

[kenshi]

I'm back in FreeBSD. Linux pissed me off.

[Coral_Sea]

I'm back in FreeBSD. Linux pissed me off.

They're both good (and a little bad at times) and I run them both. For me, using IPFW for firewalling is much more understandable than ipchains or iptables.

[kenshi]

They're both good (and a little bad at times) and I run them both.

Yeah. Both have given me headache before. But usually with FreeBSD, it ends up being my fault. With Linux, some things I have never figured out and believe that it's flaws in the software. That's my experience.

[Coral_Sea]

Yeah. Both have given me headache before. But usually with FreeBSD, it ends up being my fault. With Linux, some things I have never figured out and believe that it's flaws in the software. That's my experience.

I believe the BSD camps have much more rigorous quality control than Linux does.

I believe the BSD camps have much more rigorous quality control than Linux does.

Of course they do because the BSD guys are intelligent and Linus is the stupidest dude in the universe: he wants to be the only one to commit changes to the kernel. So he is the one who has to check all the code that's being submitted to him. FreeBSD has more than 300 developpers with cvs commit permission, it's easier to get the job done, plus, many people can double-check the code, so there are more chances that a bug will be found.