Why I prefer FreeBSD over Linux

People sometimes ask me why I prefer FreeBSD over Linux these days. Well, there's no single answer to that, but quite a few reasons why it suits me better.

The Ports System

This method of updating applications is probably one of the best I have seen and worked with. For most applications, you have the option of installing pre-built binaries, or if you want to get the maximum performance you can build from sources. This latter method is also good for the paranoid, as they can investigate the sources before they install.

Based on BSD Unix

There are two main flavours of Unix, and I prefer the BSD style, because it's what I learned with. Sure, I can adapt between the two, but I prefer to do most of my work in the BSD style.

Much less Advocacy

One of the things that puts me off Linux is all the advocacy that goes on. What I mean by this is all the "Red Hat is better than Debian", "Mandrake sucks", "If you weren't using Linux with a 1.0 kernel, you are a newbie" sort of comments.

Sure, we have some zealots in the *BSD camps too, but generally it is much calmer, from what I have seen. People running NetBSD seem to talk to the OpenBSD people, and also to the FreeBSDers. Of course, some of them "slag off" Linux users, but the people who do that are just morons.

Page last modified on April 01 2005 12:28:32 by Andy Fawcett.

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