[NTLUG:Discuss] Linux vs FreeBSD

[steve]

Leroy Tennison wrote:
> Heard good things about FreeBSD today, don't know anything about it. How 
> does it compare/contrast with Linux?  Just looking for a high-level 
> overview.  Thanks.

FreeBSD is a kernel - it's a an OpenSourced UNIX derivitive just like
Linux - so it's similar to - and largely compatible with - Linux.

Since a vast percentage of end user applications are identical under
the two OS's, and if they aren't identical, they are at least mostly
compatible - and because the windowing systems we use under Linux
also run under FreeBSD, a typical FreeBSD distro can tend to look
and feel very similar to a Linux distro - almost to the point of
being indistinguishable to the end user.

However, there are deep issues where Linux and BSD differ - the 
architecture of the two systems are very different internally. They also 
differ in areas of security, system admin and setup.

There are other BSD flavors out there too.  NetBSD being another
reasonably popular one - aimed more at being lean and slimmed-down,
OpenBSD being another whose goals are high security, cryptography,
etc for the ultra-paranoid.

Apple's MacOSX uses the FreeBSD kernel - so the Mac is a FreeBSD
system.  It appears very different from Linux to the end user
because Apple uses their own windowing system and sells their own
line of applications software.

The various BSD flavors can trace a direct line of descent from the
original UNIX kernel - Linux is a from-the-ground-up rewrite.  Linux 
development is administered in a very different way to BSD.

One huge difference (for some people) is the licensing. Linux uses
GPL and LGPL - BSD has it's own licence that basically allows you
utter freedom to do anything with the code - including to redistribute
it without offering source code.

Overall though - if you are just an end user, the differences are
somewhat invisible.  Picking the more popular of the two (undoubtedly
Linux) gets you a wider range of support and available, ported,
applications.

However, if you were a sysadmin of a major website or something, you
might choose BSD for a myriad of other reasons.

If you were someone like Apple - then BSD's simpler licensing might
be attractive.