Why not Linux?

[Alex_133]

I've checked on some Unix webhosting providers, and it surely comes to my surprise to discover almost all the providers' choice of OS is actually FreeBSD not Linux. I thought Linux's popularity outweight FreeBSD all these years? I'm really interested to know why...anybody care to enlighten?

[Jean-Pierre Denis]

Hi,

some people consider FreeBSD more stable & secure then regular linux distro.

There is a great article there:
http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19558.html


Thanks,
JP

[Bill Douglass]

I haven't used BSD in a number of years, but the consensus seems to be that its NFS implementation is far superior to Linux. It apparently has enjoyed a more robust VM system for a number of years, as well. Perhaps most importantly, BSD enjoys a long heritage, dating back to the late 70's*. It has seen many more years of service, certainly, and that rests well in the minds of many an admin.

Many shops, being pragmatic businesses, will try to be agnostic, and supply the most appropriate environment for the customer's needs, or what the customer is comfortable using. I would not recommend FreeBSD as an Oracle server, nor would I be overly happy managing a mixed pool of NFS clients from a Linux server.



* (check out http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/kirkmck.html for some history on early Unix development. Also check out ???A Complete History of Unix??? by Peter H. Salus, Addison-Wesley).

[Christopher Caldwell]

Generally FreeBSD is regarded as a better technical implementation than Linux. The FreeBSD folks have had more time to optimize their implementation. Many of the modern flavors of Unix (HP-UX, SunOS, AIX) have some roots in BSD and FreeBSD.

[ketan_3]

Good and endless to discuss.Linux will be always having upper hand as support structure is superb. There are many good things in Free BSD which is not there in case of Linux and vice versa. Its up to us what level of support/comfort/cost we can afford...here the priotity matrix works and off course advertisement is also a key factor!

[Umapathy S]

*BSD's have a long history that almost run in parallel to System Releases. Over the years it has become robust and scalable. Even now it holds the record of mostly widely tested OS.

Linux is the pet of hacker world and it helps many people in proving their designs/points. Linux came into the picture as an alternative exactly when *BSD was popular among admins/academics, but plagued by the coperate politics.

And I like Linux more than FreeBSD for the people involved and the way its improving.

cheers
Umapathy