[nycbug-talk] New to BSD (dont know which one to get)

[Isaac Levy]

On Apr 4, 2004, at 2:03 PM, Dan Langille wrote:

> FreeBSD - use this one if you're new.
>
> NetBSD - use this one if you have several different architectures
> which are not covered by FreeBSD
>
> OpenBSD - use this if you want to do some specialized networking
> which the other two won't do.
>

On Apr 4, 2004, at 3:22 PM, G. Rosamond wrote:

> I think Jan has a very valid point. . .NetBSD is often dismissed as
> being *only* about portability. . .and I, for one, admit to falling 
> into
> this notion.

I'm a pretty mac-heavy UNIX user and developer, but I'd throw in that 
consistency is excellent between ALL the BSD's; in use, in userland, 
and in a sort of 'standardizing' idealogy- much is common among ALL 
unixes which are BSD, coming from a deep legacy in UNIX.  This 
contrasts a lot of Linux distros, where there is more extreme diversity 
in the design and use of the system- (i.e. Mandrake compared to 
Gentoo), which often tailors the OS to a more focused idea or 
community.

A fine article about the BSD's,
http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=31573,00.asp

which can be summed up by this excerpt from it:

"What is BSD? If you ask a typical computer "expert," he or she is 
likely to reply (incorrectly!) that it is "an operating system." The 
correct answer, however, is more complex than that. BSD is -- among 
other things -- a culture, a philosophy, and a growing collection of 
software, most (though not all) of which is available for free and with 
source code."

That's my .02

Rocket,
.ike