Why BSD over Linux?

Hello. I am new to the Linux world and know that asking this in a Ubuntu forum might not exactly give me unbiased results but I thought I would do it anyway. I have no plans on switching from Ubuntu at this time but I am just curious about why someone using their computer as a workstation/desktop (not a server) would choose a variety of BSD over Linux. A reason beyond personal preference. It doesn't matter if you agree with the reason or think it matters to you. :) Just some differences and reasons why someone MIGHT want to.

Thanks!

Well it's been my experience with FreeBSD that one aspect is you get to customize more right from the start. For example durring install you can manually select what packages you want this allows you to get a bare bones OS installed faster and allows you to install only what you feel you need as opposed to removing default software you're never going to use. Also it was my experience that FreeBSD handled loads better which makes it more suited to servers with heavy traffic. At one point 5 of the top 10 web service providers were running FreeBSD on their servers I do not know if this is the case anymore or not as I have not used FreeBSD since about version 4.6 ish.

here's a pretty fair in-depth comparison of the two - http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php

seijuro said: Well it's been my experience with FreeBSD that one aspect is you get to customize more right from the start. For example durring install you can manually select what packages you want this allows you to get a bare bones OS installed faster and allows you to install only what you feel you need as opposed to removing default software you're never going to use.

That can be done with just about any linux OS including Ubuntu. Use the AlternateCD and do a server install, now add X, DE & all your apps & stuff you want.

Some people might be attracted for security reasons and might run OpenBSD, others might want stability and use FreeBSD. FreeBSD web servers usually have the longest uptime of all server out there. FreeBSD is also pretty fast, faster than Ubuntu for example.

You can get a good working Desktop out of BSD, it might just be a bit harder/longer to get there. PCBSD & DesktopBSD are quick & easy to install and work just fine..

Suppose it's a matter of personal preference.

fuscia said: here's a pretty fair in-depth comparison of the two - http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php

Thats a very good article.

mips said: Thats a very good article.

Agreed, It has me thinking about trying a BSD again :)

truthfatal said: Agreed, It has me thinking about trying a BSD again :)

I have OpenBSD on my laptop ;)

moving to bsd forum

darweth said: Just some differences and reasons why someone MIGHT want to.

Just to make sure that your choice of running Linux is the correct one - or to make sure that you are not missing out on the fact that BSD rocks your world. :)

How's that for a non-answer? Seriously, I heartily recommend trying one out. I've run all of the BSD's, and many Linux distributions, and from each one I've learned something that was immediately applicable to my next *nix environment.

There's also no shame in being comfortable in both camps - because at the end of the day you are really relying on people, not software. Unless you are a developer of course, and even then ...

One thing I can say about the 3 major BSD's is that any one of them can be made fast, stable, and secure despite their individual buzzword characteristics.

OpenBSD is special to me, not because of the security buzzword, but because of the extremely strong in-your-face leadership. You know where you stand. Some like this raw honesty and some don't.

I think people miss many opportunites if they don't keep an open mind to go along with their open source.

Right now I'm running a net install of Debian Etch on my G5 iMac. Who knows, next year I might be on DragonflyBSD. I'll be sure to take what Ubuntu and Debian has taught with me...

The article I wanted to post already has been posted, but I think its a matter of choice and I don't see why a BSD user can't be a Linux user and the same in reverse. I ran a FreeBSD file server for years and it was great, I'm just an apt junkie these days so I generally stick to debian or its child distros.

stream303 said:

OpenBSD is special to me, not because of the security buzzword, but because of the extremely strong in-your-face leadership. You know where you stand. Some like this raw honesty and some don't.

Amen.

I personally going to stick to linux till BSD gets fleshed out a bit more... its almost there but I have not had it work for me.

That article is very good at telling you the difference between linux and BSD, but, it doesn't tell you what I think most people (myself included) are actually asking: how is the experience different for a desktop user?

Whether or not Linux programs are all independent is pretty irrelevant to me. I want to know how it is different to use?

Mateo said: That article is very good at telling you the difference between linux and BSD, but, it doesn't tell you what I think most people (myself included) are actually asking: how is the experience different for a desktop user?

Whether or not Linux programs are all independent is pretty irrelevant to me. I want to know how it is different to use?

Well KDE is KDE & Gnome is Gnome irrespective of the OS you run. From that view point it is the same.

Things that are different is package installation or compiling from source, you can do both. A few underlying OS things are different or done slighly differently.

The BSDs would be harder to setup than Ubuntu with the exception of the desktop versions like DesktopBSD & PCBSD.

nice article! Thanks

BSD is what you get when a bunch of Unix hackers sit down to try to port a Unix system to the PC. Linux is what you get when a bunch of PC hackers sit down and try to write a Unix system for the PC.

but i don't think so...

I just installed PC-BSD, it would not go on my older machine, a motherboard/BIOS problem I think. The new stable release which I installed is only about 10 days old, so I can forgive it for not being totally sorted yet.

But it went on my main machine like a dream, easier & faster than Ubuntu, the internet worked without any of the tweaking I've come to expect with Ubuntu.

Anyone who decides to try it I would say just download the first CD, the second one is mostly language packs, which if one or two are needed should be able to be accessed from the site.

I think that _*PC-BSD*_ will be my OS of choice for a while. :KS

I've wanted to have a play around with BSD for some time now, and the article posted by Fuscia above really piqued my interest again. :)

I'd already got VMWare Server installed and had a copy of FreeBSD 6.0 on an old cover disk of LinuxFormat from a year or so ago. The installation went fine and I'm currently working my way through the FreeBSD Handbook learning as I go.

As others have stated, just from installing and working through the initial setup I have gained a better understanding of how *nix systems work in general and so it's already been a good learning exercise if nothing else. Of course, the beauty of using VMWare to try it out means that I can get easy access to documentaion and help when required and if it all goes horribly wrong I can just delete the virtual machine and start again with nothing lost.

Some BSD related links:

http://www.pl.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html

http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/bsd4linux1.php

http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2006/01/05/FreeBSD_Basics.html?page=1

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ports.html

http://docs.pcbsd.org/guide/index.html

http://people.freebsd.org/~murray/bsd_flier.html

http://www.bsd.org/