[leglug-users] BSD vs. Linux

[Denys (VISP)]

Hi

I will comment some part of mail, and at the end will give my pluses of Linux.

On Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:48:16 +0200, Hisham Mardam Bey wrote
> I decided to run FreeBSD on my laptop because around 18 months ago
> when I bought it, getting the wireless adapter to work on Linux 
> proved cumbersome, between kernel crap, firmware, etc... A quick 
> look at FreeBSD showed me that all the hardware was fully supported 
> "out of the box". 
My new computer, with I965 chipset is not supported well on FreeBSD, ATAPI on 
Marvell PATA chip (embedded to Mb, only one PATA bus by the way) not working 
well. System just hangs on atapicam. 
FreeBSD missing 64-bit drivers for Nvidia. No monitoring mode for Intel 
wireless (2200). There is no option for Hibernate/Software suspend (very 
useful to restore fast laptop and to save when battery is almost out). No 
graphical installer (sometimes required for beginners and just to impress 
people). While on Linux, let's say debian, you can find more than 20000 
packages, for FreeBSD

Linux on old kernels even working well, if kernel dont have even support for 
Marvell PATA chipset, there is a flag (smth like all-generic-ide), usually it 
happen with installation CD's, and then i just upgrade kernel to latest, and 
it works without any workarounds.


> a remote installation option, making it a la apt). So between excellent
> hardware support, a stable and secure system, wonderful package
> installation options, and the largest (i think its the largest)
> package collection on the planet, whats not to love? (=
16500 ports in the end of 2006
Debian + apt-get.org = over 20000

> I have been researching and building this set up for the past year,
> and to tell you the truth, Linux has not been the best pick. I am
> finding myself more and more inclined to go with OpenBSD for
> everything these days. The OpenBSD team has a very high commitment to
> security, making things work well, and their concept of a hackathlon,
> something they do every few months, is wonderful (they all gather in 
> a certain country and decide to completely finish a certain function 
> / subset of the OS that is lacking).
> 

Just things what i DONT like in OpenBSD. FreeBSD since my last tries of 
"stable" brances in 5.x, and it is paniced on some new hardware in 
installation, i just dont take serious. Maybe i will check it soon... but for 
now i dont see reason to do that.

1)Much less than Linux drivers. For example no drivers at all for DVB cards. 
There is no support for modern Atheros chipsets (AR5413 - at Jan 23 b mode 
still was broken)
2)Low performance. Just when you really face real challenge, you will see big 
difference, between Linux and others. Even just look old syntetic benchmarks
http://www.benzedrine.cx/pf-paper.html . iptables much better than pf. And 
right now i am running hardware really close to it's limits. (for example 
300+ req/s on proxies with compression enabled, loaded Gbit/s interfaces with 
Netflow + stateful filtering + QoS and etc).
3)Lack of advanced features. Just example. Now maybe it appears, but on linux 
since long time ago if i have two IP on interface, let's say 1.1.1.1/32 and 
2.2.2.2/24, my default gw 2.2.2.1, and i want when i request let's say 
www.google.com (let's say ip will be ip 3.3.3.3), source address to be 
1.1.1.1. On linux, without NAT (!important) i can do just
ip route add 3.3.3.3/32 via 2.2.2.1 src 1.1.1.1
4)Is there stable journaling filesystem, or still it is in stone age? With 
lebanese electricity problem it is very actual subject.
5)As i know not complete Speedstep support (actual for Core 2 Duo and Pentium 
M laptops).
6)I feel it will be impossible to setup properly Nvidia TwinView in my 
difficult configuration (DVI + Analog VGA - 19' LCD + HDTV LCD 1080i).
7)It is just zoo. If on linux i can have all different features of different 
distro's in one(mainly because kernel is same), on *BSD it is different 
animals, and features from NetBSD cannot be moved to OpenBSD easily. Let's 
say if you like netgraph in FreeBSD and open-sources atheros driver of 
OpenBSD, you cannot have both features in one PC.

For now thats all. Linux sometimes dont have some advanced features of 
*BSD(if it is critical, you can hire developer and implement it), but in 
complete view much more powerful than BSD.

--
Virtual ISP S.A.L.