[plug] What are the real differences between Linux and FreeBSD?

[Bret Busby]

Neil Gerace wrote:
> 
> From: John Summerfield <summer at os2.ami.com.au>
> To: <plug at linux.org.au>
> 
> > Not sure hw helpful this is, but.
> >
> > FreeBSD is based on Unix from University of California, Berkeley & (I
> > presume) San Diego whereas Linux was written from scratch (but does
> > include code frm other sources including BSD).
> 
> BSD = Berkeley Standard Distribution.
> 

Actually, it appears that BSD = Berkeley Software Distribution ( "An
Introduction to Operating Systems" 2 Ed, Harvey Deitel, and, "UNIX Unleashed",
SAMS Development Team, 1994).

If you type "bsd" in the URL box, it will likely take you to BSDI, which is
Berkeley Software Design Incorporated, which has the licence for BSD (Berkeley
Software Distribution) UNIX, as according to the UNIX Unleashed book. 

Also, on that web site, is a link to a comparison of BSD and Linux, as published
by Ziff Davis (who state 
"A direct descendant of the Unix operating system, BSD (which stands for
Berkeley
Software Design)",
and who also, in their ZDNet Smart Reseller on 8 November 1999, in the online
article, in comparing low cost SQL RDBMS development systems, used only the
Windows NT operating system platform, and did not bother with Linux, and
therefore, with
PostsgreSQL, this making the ZDNet articles somewhat dubious in their
credibility.

Their article about the SQL database systems, states 
"We eliminated PostgreSQL - a popular open-source database-management system -
from our testing, because it doesn't support NT as a server platform." 

In reading the comments about the article, it appears that they are also wrong
in
that; in that PostgreSQL apparently does run on Windows NT).

The article, dated 8 November 1999, is entitled "SQL On the Cheap", and is
supposed to be about the cheapest SQL database systems.

The article shows that Ziff Davis do not regard Linux as a credible server
operating system platform, and do not regard free as cheap enough. They probably
regard Windows 2000 as the best UNIX version, and believe that the world ended
on 31 December 1999.

Thus, do I not have much faith in the credibility of Ziff Davis, and I certainly
have more faith in Deitel, in stating what BSD stands for.

-- 

Bret Busby

Phone/Fax:    +61 8 9399 3820 ( 08 9399 3820 within Australia)

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