Which is better: Linux or FreeBSD?

I think you can find a lot of debates around this topic if you do a search in google. But I will try to tell from my own experience.

I started using linux as a way to learn about UNIX, and partly because I need to use it to do my homework. I tried Vine linux at first, then Red hat, then Fedora, Plamo, Slackware, Mandrake, etc and I found out one thing: you never get all that you want in a single distro. After installing, you will have to do some research to make something work on a specific distro. Of course this is just my personal experience. Maybe some of you find it work great out of the box. Well, I dun mind this coz I did have fun making things work But the fact is I couldn't actually find one distro that best fit my needs. I like Slackware, though, coz of its simplicity but the fact that it doesnt support other languages like Chinese, Japanese turned me away... but it is really the best distro I have ever tried

Then, I met FreeBSD. It is used in another lab of my uni so I tried to install it into my home computer. Well, it works well and has whatever programs I need but I didnt find it exciting at first. I just use it for school work. Day after day my frustration grows towards settling down with(or choosing) one and only one distro that I would like to spend the rest of my life with, I came to think of why not give FreeBSD a chance?(the fact is FreeBSD gave me a chance :P) So I tried to learn about using ports, tweaking its kernel, using make.conf, etc and now I really love it!!!

Dont misunderstand me, though. I have never give up with Linux, although I will stick with FreeBSD for a while I think. One day I will come back to challenge taming Linux again, perhaps building everything from scratch through LFS.

As a(MY OWN) conclusion, FreeBSD is easy to handle and work with since everything is maintained under one roof. But Linux gives you fun and variety(and frustration, too )

Have fun.

Something really different in FreeBSD is that everything is well integrated; and works well together(well tested), it's like a comple Operating Environment.
The cost is, of course, slow releases, but of real quality.

they're both better.

Linux is more liberate.
BSD is more conservative.

They are both very nice. (This answer is given with a similar amount of detail to the question).

If you want meaningful answers, ask meaningful questions. You may as well ask which is better Oxygen or Water.

huh!
luck this thread didn't become a flame thread!

So um last year we saw the release of 5.1,5.0,4.8 and 4.9... That is a slow release cycle?

oxygen or water, well I'll choose water because it has everything oxygen has plus lots of hydrogen

quote:
Which is better: Linux or FreeBSD?

I don't know, I kinda like linux, but I kinda like Freebsd

quote:
You may as well ask which is better Oxygen or Water.

I like oxygen better, water is too fattening

koyi: maybe you should try gentoo, after you get used to it it becomes very nice, and portage (the thingy that isntalls stuff) is suposed to be a little based on ports ... altho the problem with it is the install scripts expect everyhting to be the same on all the systems (so you cant edit certain files or a install might fail) , once you get used to doing things its way it becomes nice (like using windows, but with more choices (its like using windows cause not everything is your way, one you learn the utils for it tho it becomes relativly easy and good to use)

twilli227: water is to fatening?, :faints: :gets scared and ponders if he should stop eating water: ok!, ill just stick with drinking tea, and no more eating fattening water! (ahh, lovely water i shall miss you!)

i say.... waters better, as oxygen will kill you, and water makes oxygen (at least if you turn water into air)

Yes, but compared to the rate of releases of Linux(kernel), and the rate at which new hardware is supported, FreeBSD *IS* slow, whatever you may say.


To come back to the subject, it depends on your interests, it's like asking "which distro is best?";it's a matter of opinion.
If you must know, I prefer FreeBSD and Gentoo, can't decide....

Kee cool

I totally agree. I really like slackware, I just can't work with SuSE... Never tried FreeBSD although I am a network administrator and there *should* be a FreeBSD server somewhere around here Never touched it tho... Just like the other servers wich are slackware and suse machines being a network administrator in a linux / freebsd enviroment is such an easy task Both Linux (slack & suse) servers and the FreeBSD server are just going on with their tasks, so wich is better? Don't know...

Greetz,
.-=~ iluvatar ~=-.

Yeah because linux had WIFI and SATA support first right?

Ps: Just because they release a new kernel version everytime they need to fix the swiss cheese that is the linux kernel doesnt mean it is a "release".