Daemon News: What Can Linux Learn From FreeBSD?

[ Thanks to Chris
Coleman for this link. ]

“Whereas Linux development is fragmented, FreeBSD development is
centralized. Linux systems tend to use tools which are maintained
by different people (as well as many GNU tools). FreeBSD has a
central CVS repository where developers work on the entire system.
There are advantages to both styles of development. With FreeBSD
you can easily sync your source code to the latest version using
the CVSup tool, and then rebuild the full operating system with a
single command. In fact, this is the standard method of upgrading a
FreeBSD installation.”

“A lot of the charm of FreeBSD is in its classic feel. A lot of
people ( excluding myself) prefer the simple BSD-style
initialization scripts to the more complex System V init. FreeBSD’s
installer is quick and easy, yet powerful. The base install is
small. It doesn’t clutter your hard drive with unneeded software.
The userland programs are true to the original Unix versions,
whereas Linux usually includes radically different versions (for
example, Red Hat Linux comes with the vim editor instead of the
standard vi). Linux also uses the GNU utilities, which often have
many different options than the classic Unix versions. The
differences between Linux and FreeBSD are all about freedom of
choice.”

Complete
story.