From Linux to BSD

From: Neil Woods (cnw+usenet_at_pobox.com)
Date: 11/05/05 

Date: Sat, 05 Nov 2005 02:29:15 +0000

I've been running Linux for quite a number of years (actually started
about the time kernel version 0.93 appeared).

A few months ago I installed FreeBSD 5.3 on a spare machine. I'm very
impressed with the system, for many reasons: the clear separation
between base and ports, very good documentation, easy to upgrade and
install software, excellent security, etc. FreeBSD (in fact all the
BSD's AFAIK) have a more logical system design, and seems to encapsulate
a much more "top-down" approach.

Compare this to Linux systems, which (these days at least) give the
impression of a system bolted together from many different parts (which
is indeed the case). This is not necessarily bad, just different (many
people prefer this "anarchic" way of doing things).

It's my impression also that *on* *average* the general BSD community,
certainly on Usenet, has a far better signal to noise ratio than that of
the Linux community, and reminds me very much of the early days of
Linux.

With these points in mind, I'm now seriously considering installing
FreeBSD on my main desktop machine, which currently has Debian Linux
installed (there's a small chance I may convert it to a dual-boot
BSD-Linux system, but FreeBSD will be the primary OS).

As far as compatibility is concerned, I've run FreeSBIE 1.1 on my
desktop without any problems. My main usage will be as a development
platform (mainly in C, some lisp). I don't use or need Gnome or KDE - to
much bloat IMO, I use FVWM2 (and occasionally Window Maker).

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has changed from Linux to
FreeBSD, their reasons for doing so, and anything else you think may be
relevant.

Thanks in advance. 

-- 
Neil.
"The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected..."
                    - Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, June 1972

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