The FreeBSD experience. Review on Choosing a FreeBSD Variant

HISTORY: In the late 70s and early 80s UNIX began to evolve from a lab project into a commercial software. UNIX was being developed by AT&T and UCB's CSRG. In course of time UNIX's popularity grew and the lawyers at AT&T(by now UNIX was spun off to USL - UNIX system labs) took over from the geeks. In 1993 there was a bitter court case, but Novell bought the rights from USL midway and wasn't interested in suing UCB. In an out-of-court settlement, CSRG(Computer science research group) agreed to purge out AT&T code and thus the 4.4 BSD lite emerged. Today all UNIX variants are system V release 4 based(made by AT&T originally), but the BSD based unixes(note the lower case) are pretty much alive.

Today UNIX(in caps) is not just an OS, but a copyright(owned by the Open Group, the source code is owned by SCO) and a standard. So in principle, Windows XP could also be a UNIX if it passes certain compliance tests. Originally there was NetBSD from 4.4BSD lite.(BSD= Berkely software distribution). FreeBSD resulted because the BSD project split.

FreeBSD focuses on intel and alpha platforms. FreeBSD is not as popular as linux. However, FreeBSD is much simpler to configure, maintain and more robust and reliable. FreeBSD is ideal for web hosting. If you are looking for a windows replacement, you can still use FreeBSD if you have a boradband internet connection. FreeBSD used to come in a set of 4 CDs. But that was as of version 4.7. Right now, you get FreeBSD in 2 CDs. One install CD and one rescue CD. If you are new to FreeBSD, you have a fairly steep learning curve before you can effectively use it. Fortunately, FreeBSD has a knowledgeble user group and most of you questions should be answered by reading mail archives at docs.freeBSD.org. Unfortunately, FreeBSD is not very popular(linux groups across India seem to like to view BSDs with disdain) in India. You can download CDs from ftp.freebsd.org. Installation may be tricky for people coming from Windows, but, take heart, you may most likely succeed after 2-3 failures(as was my case). Unlike Mandrake and redhat linux, freeBSD creates ONE primary partition for itself and manages all other partitions(or C:, D:. in windows-speak) within this slice(as it is called). Installing and living with FreeBSD(using CDs alone) is quite different from say Mandrake linux where all packages are provided. The installation using the CD alone gives you KDE, GNOME and some server software like apache in addition to several unix programs lik emacs and vim. You don't get Open Office, XMMS, XINE etc. You'll have to download it from the internet. FreeBSD is popular among sysadmins because it uses BSD style configuration which is easier than SysV-style scripts. FreeBSD is great if you want an OS that serves you reliably. Almost everything on freeBSD from enabling sound to connecting to the internet has to be learnt, but once you do that it works like no other. For eg, managing an internet connection using BSD is a dream. Although, it is not as cool as using a GUi(U need to type ppp -ddial &), it is nice in its own way because it manages and reconnects automatically. Imagine having to do this using GUi where you need to click frequently. Using FreeBSD and refering to the community for answers will make you quite competent to administer, manage and use it. All you need is patience. FreeBSD comes with the BSD license which for practical purposes is like the GPL(more flexible actually). It is great for students who want to study the source code(I doubt if any of the CS students in India do that) or get to know unix and for sysadmins. if you want to know unix in a simple way do not go to linux. FreeBSD is not for people who do not have the time to spend to learn how to use the OS, but who want to use it and be productive right away. You are welcome to mail me for any clarifications - thick_guy_9@yahoo.com