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Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

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Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#41

Post by jimktrains2 »

louwrentius wrote: post #28

For those of us that are more interested in FreeBSD due to the whole Systemd 'controversy', look at the other HN link about the 'FreeBSD: the next 10 years' presentation. They clearly state that FreeBSD is in the same position and it seems that they are not hostile towards the concept of Systemd. Personally I hope that FreeBSD will choose a solution that does not involve QR codes (not mandatory).

There isn't anything wrong with the systemd concept.

However, what many of the people I've discussed this have an issue with are:

* Becoming the default init in stable even though it's fairly new (and untested)

* Strong break from how common tasks are done (e.g. logging)

* Applications are very tied together and cannot easily be replaced or left out.

* NIH syndrome (e.g. their DNS resolver that just had a major caching issue)

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#42

Post by jacquesm »

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #39
near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

What stopped me from using FreeBSD a year ago was lack of automatic tab completion on the shell. I would like to try FreeBSD again. Does anyone know if this works now? edit: clarified the reason I ask is because I want to know.

At a guess you're using sh or csh instead of bash?

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#44

Post by [deleted] »

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #39
near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

What stopped me from using FreeBSD a year ago was lack of automatic tab completion on the shell. I would like to try FreeBSD again. Does anyone know if this works now? edit: clarified the reason I ask is because I want to know.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#45

Post by gnuvince »

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #39
near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

What stopped me from using FreeBSD a year ago was lack of automatic tab completion on the shell. I would like to try FreeBSD again. Does anyone know if this works now? edit: clarified the reason I ask is because I want to know.

That's not a FreeBSD issue, that's a shell issue. Install bash and you'll have tab completion.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#46

Post by jvdh »

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #39
near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

What stopped me from using FreeBSD a year ago was lack of automatic tab completion on the shell. I would like to try FreeBSD again. Does anyone know if this works now? edit: clarified the reason I ask is because I want to know.

I have no idea which shell you used, but this has worked for years in both zsh, and also in bash on FreeBSD.

With zsh you even get tab completion of ports, packages, and other command specific arguments.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#47

Post by byuu »

vertex-four wrote: post #36
nieve wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I may be confused since I'm only now moving some servers to FreeBSD, but it sounds like you're suggesting freebsd-update brings in bleeding age, incompatible version if you want to get security fixes. Is that actually the case? I've got zero interest in running it as a desktop so I'm guessing that'll hit me less, but it's worrisome to hear. As a side note, I'd love to have something like "freebsd-update rollback" for…

Not freebsd-update - Ports, the third-party package tree. There's no attempt made to create a "release branch" of Ports that gets kept up-to-date with security patches.

Correct, I should have clarified that. Since you mentioned server usage, keep in mind that the server software (Apache, PGSQL, PHP, OpenSSL, etc) are ports. Not that they're as unstable as desktop software usually is.

I have my VPS (production) and a local HDD I use for testing (stage), configured exactly the same way. I'll update stage first, and if all looks good, then I'll update production.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#48

Post by mattzito »

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #39
near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

What stopped me from using FreeBSD a year ago was lack of automatic tab completion on the shell. I would like to try FreeBSD again. Does anyone know if this works now? edit: clarified the reason I ask is because I want to know.

The default shell in freebsd is probably still sh, which does not have tab completion. The Linuxes long ago moved to bash, which does.

However, in the FreeBSD ports tree, I guarantee you there is a bash package you can install, and then you can just switch your shell to be bash instead of sh.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#49

Post by jvdh »

oDot wrote: post #43

I think an interesting question in this context is: If you wanted to create Ubuntu today, would you use GNU/Linux or FreeBSD as base?

This is not the right question to ask. Ubuntu is aimed at making Linux available to the masses on the desktop.

FreeBSD has the aim to create a solid Unix environment. IMO FreeBSD is awesome as a server, and okay-ish for the desktop. PC-BSD makes it easier, but still: you need to know what you're doing, but if you do, it's pretty solid.

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