Debian vs FreeBSD (was Re: Re: [buug] cockroaches and kernel build)

[Patrick Soltani]

>	FreeBSD is a perfectly good choice, and I definately recomend
> trying it on for style. I've had a ton of stability issues 
> under very high
> load on FreeBSD in the past (4.1) that have hopefully been resolved in
> recent kernels (won't know for sure until the christmas 
> rush). Most of the
> claims of FreeBSD's superior stability seem to be quite 
> dated. I've got a
> few Linux boxen that are among the busiest on our network 
> with 400+ day
> uptimes -- hard to beat with any OS.

I have FreeBSD firewalls running longer than that in the public network, Internet at large, and been enduring all kinds of malice, script kiddies, bored crackers, and wanna be hackers.  They are still standing.  I upgrade them over the network, the OS, and all.  I run portupgrade and everything is taken care of, dependencies, etc.
Of course, there will be issues and problems, however, without that most of us will be out of job!
FreeBSD is not for the faint of hearts, check out the 4.6 and the upcoming 5.0.

oh, one more thing.  I really don't believe in number of days the machine been up as the measure of stability. To me there is something wrong if the machine has not been visited/rebooted that many days!

> 
> 	Ports is nice, but man does it ever pale in comparison 
> to apt. The
> cvsup/make world setup is nice and all, but a buildworld on a 
> p3/500 still
> takes over an hour. 

Ports tree is not perfect but remember this is done when no one understood what the simple upgrade over the network means; way in advance of its time.  Likes of M$$ are copying the concept now!  
Needless to say, it is easier to copy than to create/invent!

Installing FreeBSD is definately a good nostalgia trip
> though... your install/config tools and package management 
> are at about
> the same level as Slackware in 1994.

Again, FreeBSD is not for the faint of liver or is it heart, anyway, suffice to say that I wrote up a 2 page document for the junior admins to build and install FreeBSD all from ground up so that they get a better understanding of what goes where and why.  I have yet to hear any ?s about how to install it.  Most of them don't even look at the document any more!  This is a practical experience at work my friend. Show me a good teacher, I'll show you a legions of good students.


> 	On top of that, the Linux user culture is a hell of a 
> lot nicer to
> work with -- the anti-linux/anti-gnu bent of the BSD community is even
> more confusing when you realize just how much GNU software 
> you need to get
> a useable BSD box -- and the fact that the "default" X web browser is
> Netscape running in Linux compat mode... just strange.
> 	Of course, at the end of the day I've still got a stack 
> of FreeBSD
> boxen, a few OpenBSD and a few Solaris just for good measure. Run what
> fits.


I proudly use gnu and any open source software.  Exactly for this reason I chose FreeBSD.  I can run native FreeBSD code AND run Linux binaries better than Linux itself! and have best of the both worlds.  It is the strength of FreeBSD to be able to turn on a dime and support myriads of application written for Linux, or other OSes.  It is not a weakness, in my humble opinion.

Oh btw, MacOS X is based on the FreeBSD if I am not mistaken and it definitely has the prettiest face ever! and is stable. Wonder why?

Best Regards,
Patrick Soltani.