phoronix is only an opinion site that I never cared much for.

FreeBSD is a very good OS and those that choose to use it, they tend to be technical users. They know the value of it and how to gain it's advantages.

With all honesty, I've been interested in learning *BSDs since the day I started using Slackware regularly, however every time I place my eye on some informative *BSD thread in any *BSD forum, it always, without fail, contains some pretty weird anti-Linux statements like
'Linux sucks because BSD doesn't', 'This is not Linux you n00b, RTFM', 'Go keep using Linux because BSD is not for you', 'Look at the man pages of Linux, they stink', 'LVM sucks', 'Linux screwed the UNIX way of working, it's complex' etc.
And it doesn't really feel nice always.

I don't mean to be a troll here, I'm too busy for that, but these type of posts especially from some senior and technical members(not all) of the *BSD communities around kinda hamper the *nix spirit and demotivate a learning newbie.

No wonder, Steve Jobs did give a r@t'$ a$$ to *BSD community's ideology while using (parts of)BSD as the base, simply closing the source.

Regards.

@PrinceCruise: I also find various incomprehensible or unjustified anti-Linux comments that crop up from time to time to be pointless and off putting. However, you do find similar types of anti-Windows and anti-Mac comments on various Linux forums as well (including LQ).

I wish the Linux and FreeBSD communities would avoid the childish, mocking put downs of rival OSes and focus only on their own unique strengths, but I realise that humans natural tribalism means that this will never fully happen. My advice to your would therefore be to go ahead try one of the BSDs anyway, if they interest you. Just ignore this comments you don't like.

Here a few quick things that appeal to me about FreeBSD (and the same probably holds true for the other BSDs but I have no real experience). I will compare to a three Linux distributions that people here have mentioned as being similar but try to give more concrete examples of differences that you might like.

• They provide and maintain versioned releases, unlike ArchLinux and Gentoo which are rolling
• They have a massive selection of binary packages and ports, unlike the relatively small Slackware repository (even taking into account SBo, which is still pretty small in comparison)
• They have very thorough documentation in a consistent format that is available even when you don't have an internet connection (sometimes the case during install). The Arch and Gentoo Wikis are great if you have an internet connection. Slackware's Slackbook is currently not as well maintained.
• They have a simple and easy to understand init system, unlike Gentoo

3 members found this post helpful.

@ruario - Thanks for a good write up. I totally understand the niche of *BSDs and more than willing to start learning some or more.
I've in fact learnt to ignore(the hard way) the unnecessary and irrelevant comments about personal preferences on any forum. To each his own.

Regards.

I think learning a BSD is an excellent way to stretch yourself and gain new perspectives. You're a Slacker so learning a BSD will be a cake walk for you. I would recommend installing FreeBSD into a VM (maybe use virtualbox). It is an enjoyable experience.

1 members found this post helpful.

Just take it all with a pinch of salt. I think overall the *nix community has a common goal but the various branches take their own path so differences, between those taking the various routes, will happen. Of course there will be the purists who likes one BSD derivative or Linux distro and good for them - they tend to defend their patch, just like you would if you're a petrol head and you like Fords or GM etc...

I think that trying FreeBSD may be a nice learning experience and I still have to try it (in a serious way), but I would rather ask here for help if I try it than in their forum with that ridiculous moderator that seems to have nothing more to do than to sit in front of the computer searching for spelling/grammar errors in the posts the whole day. I couldn't stand that more than a few minutes. People are posting in those forums to get help with FreeBSD, not with the English language. Worse, if he thinks the people asking are to dumb for FreeBSD he points them to PC-BSD and closes their threads.
That is exactly not the way I want to be treated by a community and they really should consider if it is a good idea to push people away from their OS. It is not that they have a vast amount of users (or may be potential developers), so IMHO such a behavior from a forum moderator is one thing that shouldn't be tolerated.
Many people think that Slackware users behave elitist. They should have a look at FreeBSD.

2 members found this post helpful.

Yeah....without naming names I do know which moderator that you are talking about. There are also some very knowledgeable people on that forum as well. It will be my pleasure to help you with FreeBSD if I can. The FreeBSD Hand Book is an exceptional document, much like the Slackbook. The newest version of FreeBSD has a revamped installer and is quite straight forward.

I think you meant, "too dumb". :P

You don't need to name names. Anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes reading their forums knows exactly who he means! :P

Oh, you don't mean that Dutch person by any chance

I go to that forum I would rather not say.

There is always DaemonForums, which covers all BSD's, if you don't like FreeBSD Forums. I actually think FreeBSD Forums are great as there are some very knowledgeable dudes on there. True, the moderator(s) on that forum don't take any sh*t but thats why it's so highly rated by it's users.

No argument from me. The FreeBSD Forums are first rate; I go there every day. I was thrilled when we got an official FreeBSD forum in 2008, I've been running FreeBSD since 5.x. I like 99.999 % of that forum. There is a bit of over moderation happening.

This is most certainly not true of the NetBSD mailing lists.

@TobiSGD So you are saying that you think this is excessive or that a quick Google search shows me that this moderator has edited tens of thousands of posts?