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

[Salman Ahmed]

I am glad that someone on this list mentioned the BSDs! I have tried and used both Gentoo and FreeBSD a few years back and am of the opinion that if anyone is looking into Gentoo Linux then they also should consider looking into FreeBSD.

Note that FreeBSD compares to Gentoo but OpenBSD or NetBSD do not since the latter two BSDs are generally not meant to be used as Desktop OSes. There's nothing stopping one from trying to run an OpenBSD or NetBSD desktop, but the desktop experience is more pleasant on FreeBSD.

While I was initially impressed with Gentoo a few years back, I think the BSD ports system is more elegant and just works better. On more than one occasion I managed to screw up Gentoo's ebuild-based packages. But rarely have I run into similar problems with the FreeBSD ports tree. My impression has always been that the BSD ports system is more mature and integrates really well with the entire system. And on FreeBSD, the ports tree is really really huge: you have a wealth of package choices available to you.

These days my desktops are running either Debian or CentOS only because I have moved past the "appeal" of maintaining a source-based UNIX but I would use FreeBSD in a heartbeat if I had more time (and perhaps another machine) to experiment some more.

Bottom line: if you are looking into Gentoo Linux I think you should also take a look at FreeBSD if only to get a feel for a similar source-based package management system that's been around longer and in use longer than Gentoo's ebuild/emerge based setup.

My $0.02.



Salman Ahmed


--- On Thu, 2/19/09, Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:

> From: Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
> Subject: BSD Users? Re: [TLUG]: was "Any Gentoo Users on this list?"
> To: tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org
> Date: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 10:26 AM
> 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 outdated BSD's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.
> 



      
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