BSD Users? Re:was "Any Gentoo Users on this list?"

[Tyler Aviss]

Actually, one thing I'd be interested in hearing about would be if
there are any desktop BSD users.

In my previous job I maintained about 80-90% Linux servers (with some
BSD, and a few windows), so it's been a switch to about 80-90% BSD at
my current position.
My impressions over the last 15-18 months have been quite positive for
BSD in terms of servers, with the OS itself being very solid. My
primary complaints are in the annoyance of upgrading outdated BSD's
(but then again, Linux is a big PITA too) and that Linux seems to have
support for more drivers.

I haven't played with desktop BSD at all, but if anyone has any
thoughts/contributions it would be quite interesting for myself and
possibly others in the group. The ports tree is in some ways
comparable to Gentoo in that it provides source packages/dependencies
for a huge amount of software.


On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:06 AM, colin davidson
<colinpdavidson-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have run Gentoo for a year or two on my home box, until the
> motherboard fried. I have a new MoBo and am setting it up - installing
> Gentoo right now, but it's a slow process (not per se - the problem is
> finding time to do it). However, you're welcome to consult with me,
> for what it's worth.
>
> There really isn't much difference in the "user experience". You use
> "emerge" rather than "apt-get" or whatever. There seem to be a lot
> more "supported" packages - but "supported" just means that there's a
> ebuild script, Gentoo does very little if anything in the way of
> patching.
>
> You will likely find yourself updating fairly frequently (I did) and
> that will mean updating your configuration which becomes a pain in the
> **** chore.
>
> The big difference is in the "USE" flags. Here is where Gentoo really
> comes into it's own. Forget about any benefits that come from
> compiling for your hardware - they are neglibable if they even exist.
> But with the "USE" flags you can disable conditional compilation to
> support packages that you will never use, and here there can be a real
> difference.
>
> With Gentoo you are bound to learn a lot (you may with other Distros,
> but with Gentoo you WILL, like it or not).
>
> I wouldn't recommend Gentoo for newbies (I've seen some who do, and
> shudder when I see it), nor would I recommend it for a corporate
> standard, but if you want to learn and particularly if you want to be
> able to look at the code, Gentoo is a great choice.
>
> My gmail is colinpdavidson, feel free to ask questions there if you
> don't want to bother the tlug list (though I can't see why not, any
> question will most likely have interesting technical content).
>
> Cheers, Colin
>
> On 2/19/09, Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> I asked this awhile ago and there weren't many out there. If I find
>>  some more free time in my future I may look at poking around with
>>  Gentoo a bit myself though.
>>
>>  If you do decide to switch over, would you care to keep a log of
>>  important differences to note, etc? It would be nice to create a
>>  knowledge-base of sorts for this.
>>
>>
>>  - TJA
>>
>>
>>  On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 2:48 AM, I. Khider <contact-uc+NVM1kvX9BDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>  > Greetings all,
>>  >
>>  > I am a refugee from Ubuntu who wishes to learn Gentoo Linux. I was hoping I
>>  > could meet with a fellow Gentoo user in Toronto and work out a tutoring
>>  > arrangment. All I want is help with some basics of Gentoo so I can take it
>>  > from there. Please e-mail me off list and hopeully we can work something
>>  > out.
>>  >
>>  > Thanks,
>>  >
>>  > Ib Khider
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>  Tyler Aviss
>>  Systems Support
>>  LPIC/LPIC-2
>>  (647) 302-0942
>>
>> --
>>  The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
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> --
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-- 
Tyler Aviss
Systems Support
LPIC/LPIC-2
(647) 302-0942
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists