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What are the origins, purposes and strayings of Linux and FreeBSD?
Greetings,
I know that both Linux and FreeBSD have changed a lot over the years. I am under the impression that the code base of these Operating Systems keeps growing and growing becoming larger and more extensive with each new version (code base bloatation?). So I was trying to determine what the origins of the main Linux and FreeBSD distros were. For example; I have always wondered what Debian was ORIGINALLY *INTENDED* for (it's intentions, in other words, from the start) and what hardware it was originally designed for and started out on in it's beginning and where it was developed initially. In the same vein, I also had the same wonderings and questions with all the other main "big gun" distros, like: Red Hat, Slackware, FreeBSD, Gentoo and Arch. What was their orinal purpose and what hardware platforms did they originally start out on in the first place? What was the original design goals in the beginning, and also how they have strayed from their roots (if any) over the years? Who has strayed the most and who stuck closest to their original purpose? Thanks |
That's a big question.
Linux originally started as a Unix replacement for the desktop computer. But because Unix was generally used on servers (and started on mainframes), Linux will do for anything. Obviously, each distro has its target audience and many will tell you what that is on their web site. Debian and Fedora both have very detailed "about" pages. I think most have stuck to their goals. SUSE and Red Hat are interesting that they split off their free versions as separate distros and aim them more at home users. Since the kernel is the same for all and most also have the GNU tools, they are all flexible. But wandering away from their intended function will mean more work. In an enterprise environment, you need automated installation: the sys-admin doesn't want to sit down in front of every computer and run the installer again and again! So Debian and CentOS are OK, but not Slackware (although the quality is just as high). I run CentOS on a desktop, but I obviously have to get extra software that an enterprise distro leaves out. |
That is a big question.
Speaking only for Slackware, the oldest surviving Linux distro, it began as bug fixes and modifications to SLS Linux: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slackware |
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I don't follow this line of thinking. Are you implying that Slackware cannot be installed unattended? and further that this is why it is less common in enterprise? Edit: with further consideration, why did you even bring up Enterprise in the first place? The word doesn't even appear in OP. Is it perhaps because BSD is considered more serious and server side? or that ALL Linux distros have strayed from original purposes and intents? Witness the so-called "Init Wars". I contend that the degree of adoption of binary configs and even logs is in direct proportion to "straying". If a basic tenet of BSD is to follow text streams use simple text scripts for configuration, then Slackware is not only the oldest but also the closest adherent to it's roots. It still uses BSD /etc/rc.d scripts. All Linux distros have some systemd creeping in which is anti text streams and configurations, but some distros really jump on the bandwagon with apparently little concern for where the driver is headed. Debian and CentOS are not in a huge hurry (well....CentOS is a little more twitchy, naturally) , but CentOS's lil' brother, Fedora IS! I don't know where OP is headed with this, but if you want a simple answer I don't know how you can qualitatively compare. Some distros are approaching 20 years old, while others are barely 4. Four isn't exactly a lot of legacy to adhere to :P |
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"Intentions," of course, change over time. The kernel that Linus Torvalds originally wrote in his dorm-room bears little if any resemblance to the "Linux" system(s) that we know and use today. They've changed in all sorts of ways -- yes, including installation and administration tools -- and they support over 25 different hardware architectures. ("x86" is only one.) Linux, today, is a very big thing.
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