Linux Programs work on FreeBSD, right?

Travis86 · 07-29-2003, 02:59 PM

I'm thinking I might like to ditch my Red Hat disto for something else. Someone I know was extolling the virtures of FreeBSD, so I thought I might 'd give it a try. However, I was wondering if my Linux programs would work on FreeBSD. They will, right? And the device names are the same and so on, right?

avantman42 · 07-29-2003, 03:03 PM

From the FreeBSD handbook:

In a nutshell, the compatibility allows FreeBSD users to run about 90% of all Linux applications without modification. This includes applications such as Star Office, the Linux version of Netscape, Adobe Acrobat, RealPlayer 5 and 7, VMWare, Oracle, WordPerfect, Doom, Quake, and more. It is also reported that in some situations, Linux binaries perform better on FreeBSD than they do under Linux.

Full details at:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO.../linuxemu.html

jvds · 07-29-2003, 03:05 PM

You need to install linux_base from the ports tree but generally yes. Even if the binary won't run normally the program can be compiled from source

Rus

Travis86 · 07-29-2003, 04:08 PM

Perhaps I should have read the handbook. Thanks for that link.

I assume that even with this slight incompatability BSD is still better, right? (I can't imagine what the answer to that will be.)

avantman42 · 07-30-2003, 04:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Travis86
Perhaps I should have read the handbook. Thanks for that link.

I assume that even with this slight incompatability BSD is still better, right? (I can't imagine what the answer to that will be.)

Better? I don't know, but that's the sort of question that can start a holy war

For what it's worth, I use a Linux box (SuSE 8.1) for my desktop, and I run FreeBSD on an old Cyrix P200, which I use as a file server. The only reason I use FreeBSD on the Cyrix is that I couldn't get SuSE to install on it. When I get around to it, I'm going to try some other Linux distro's on it, because I'd like to standardise on Linux.

Russ

Manadien · 07-31-2003, 06:48 PM

Really its a personal perference but I do like FreeBSD better than SuSE myself.

FirebirdV0273 · 08-06-2003, 09:01 PM

i've never used a bsd but i'm gonna install freebsd on one of my machines soon. i use slackware every day and i love it. it's really a good one, i think the best distro (and i'm not the only one, a lot of sysadmins use slack because it's easy to administrate, no nonsense, and it just works). i've read that a lot of slack users, just when they thought they couldn't get it much better, switched to freebsd and never turned back. so i'd say slackware or freebsd.

Marble · 08-06-2003, 11:46 PM

Check out the ports tree. Majority of the programs you use and know of are ported for FreeBSD, including wine and linux emulators.