Linux vs. BSD

[NintendoTogepi]

What IS the difference? Which is better? Why do you use one over the other?

Someone else on a Sims (video game) board that I go had in his signature the following; "BSD: Because Linux just isn't obscure enough for you". Would that be an accurate description? :D

[mips]

This thread is going to go nowhere quickly...

Do we really need threads like this that will just end up in BSD bashing because of all the linux zealots here?

[DMcA]

What? This forum is about as unzealotous as they get. No one's going to mindlessly bash BSD.

I use Ubuntu as my main operating system as it does what I need very well and because it works out of the box (most of the time). I do have a BSD install on an old computer, which I did mainly to see if I could, so for me yes, I guess I have toyed with BSD because it's more obscure. That and because I like experimenting with new things.

In terms of capabilities, they're fairly similar. Both are based on Unix, BSD more directly, both are (more or less) POSIX compliant, and most Linux software will run or compile on BSD. The major differences to an end user are their ease of install (BSD will require a degree of technical knowledge, with Linux it depends on the distribution) and philosophical (most Linux code is GPL whereas most BSD code is under the BSD licence).

[k2t0f12d]

I'll break it down as quickly as possible.

* BSD is actually based on original UNIX code split from AT&T in a court dispute years ago.

* Its licensing was changed after discussion with Richard Stallman so BSD and the GNU project could share code.

* Its development model is based on an ideal coding standard which doesn't harnass community invention as promiscuously as Linux.
----> which is why some speculate it hasn't had the same attention paid to it as Linux has
----> and also why some say BSD code is {better,cleaner,more trustworthy,prettier} then Linux

* Its code base is one of the oldest in the UNIX world and is renown for incredible stability.

[Chokkan]

Let's hope the sensible people get to comment on this before the zealots come out. This is one of the more interesting threads in the Cafe.

[mamamia88]

i thought i heard on unix the source code doesn't necessarily have to be made public.

[chucky chuckaluck]

probably a bit old, but this article describes the differences in a non-prejudicial manner, from a freebsd user's point of view BSD For Linux Users (http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php)

[Thelasko]

"BSD: Because Linux just isn't obscure enough for you". Would that be an accurate description? :D

I consider that accurate.

I like BSD. I want to use it, but there just isn't the user base and usability of Ubuntu yet. Since the user base is so small, development is slow.

If you want to play around with BSD I recommend:


FreeSBIE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeSBIE) - A fun live CD, but it really doesn't reflect how BSD really is. I'm not sure of the status of this anymore, the website appears to be down.
VirtualBSD (http://www.virtualbsd.info/) A pre-prepared BSD virtual machine. It looks fun, but I haven't tried it yet.
PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/) - This is about as simple as a real BSD machine gets. I found it frustrating, but that was a while ago. I think I mostly dislike it because it uses KDE.

[Primefalcon]

I havn't really used FreeBSD but from my understanding it's not completely free as in Linux.

I'm probably going to download it sometime before april and try it myself then when I do a format for the new ext4 filesystem, about time I did a clean install anyhow...I'm also interested in actualy trying solaris and a couple of others as well.

[mips]

I havn't really used FreeBSD but from my understanding it's not completely free as in Linux.


rotflmao. The BSD license is about as 'free' as it gets compared to the gpl.