[rescue] Re: G5 case

[Peter Corlett]

Jonathan C. Patschke <jp at celestrion.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Jun 2003, Eric Dittman wrote:
>> Linux isn't UNIX, but in name only. There's really not much difference
>> between Linux and a real UNIX.

> There's a huge one. Linux is just a kernel; the userland comes from a few
> hundred different sources, and it shows. BSD, just like SunOS, IRIX, and
> the other "real Unixes" is a single, coherent product with a much more
> polished feel.

That's funny, because whenever I look at a Solaris system, the admin has
usually given up with the base tools, and installed half of the GNU
utilities which are altogether rather less sucky.

BSD even comes with several GNU utilities in the base system, with more in
ports. And of course the really nasty crufty stuff such as KDE or GNOME that
seems to hang around in Linux circles is also avaiable for BSD if you wish
to install it.

But I don't install KDE on my Debian box either. If I want Windows, I know
where I can get it. And it'll be real Windows, not a poor-quality copy. A
plain window manager, some xterms, an emacs and a Mozilla, and I'm away.

> I'm not going to use any distribution based around RPM, and both Slackware
> and Debian lag too far behind the cutting edge for me to use the official
> channels to stay current.

*shrug*

I happen to like the unchangingness of Debian stable, because I don't get
any nasty surprises. If I want bleeding-edge, I can track unstable or
testing. If I want stable *and* a certain bleeding-edge tool, I'll backport
the tool.

I maintain a small cache of bleeding-edge backports of useful tools on my
website for friends who CBA to do it for themselves.

> With *BSD, I do a cvs update, a make world, and reboot.

# apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade

Wait a moment, and it'll download and install all the security patches.
Reboot, what's that? Recompile world? Sod that, the machine isn't fast
enough.

You might want to check out Gentoo Linux if you're attached to building
world. It's not my cup of tea, but it seems to appeal to a certain class of
Linux weenies that think they're hardcore because they managed to stick
-mcpu=athlon in a configuration file somewhere, and delude themselves that
their system is so much faster afterwards.

My take on Gentoo is that if I want BSD, I'll have BSD's kernel as well,
thanks :)

>> As for VMware and *BSD, that's really not surprising.
> No, not really.

Since the source code for VMware's kernel patch for Linux is published, I
had assumed that somebody would had ported it to *BSD by now. I've certainly
heard people claim they're running it just fine.

-- 
Australia FAQ #5
Q: It is imperative that I find the names and addresses of places to contact
  for a stuffed porpoise. (Italy)
A: Let's not touch this one.