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Executor for FreeBSD?
I know this has been asked before, but I thought I'd mention it one more
time. I've been a loyal Linux user for a few years and Executor is one
program I always show people who are interested in Linux. However, I'm
not a Linux "fanatic" as so many are, and if I see something better, I
weigh the advantages and switch if it's worth it. That's why I switched
from Linux to FreeBSD and am loving every minute of it. Briefly, here
are the major advantages of FreeBSD:
1) FreeBSD kernel has significantly better networking performance (whether
PPP or Ethernet) and doesn't slow to a crawl when swapping to disk (unlike
Linux). Also you can boot off of any kernel in the root partition, you
don't have to run LILO to change the boot sector like Linux requires.
2) Very similar to SunOS; nicer if you prefer the BSD "look & feel".
3) XFree86 is IDENTICAL between Linux and FreeBSD, programs based on X
port VERY easily.
4) Programs written for FreeBSD will run on BSDI (a very popular COMMERCIAL
Unix) and NetBSD, and vice versa. This is not in emulation mode, all three
OS's have the same native executable and shared library format.
At any rate, I don't want to turn this into a flamewar, but suffice it to
say that both OS's have advantages and disadvantages. I've used Linux for
years (as well as SunOS, Solaris, etc.) and FreeBSD was enough of an
improvement, and the a.out->ELF transition / ELF bugs under Linux enough
of a pain in the butt, to justify that I switch over. Since my guess is
that Executor/X will run under FreeBSD with VERY minor changes to the
source code, I would strongly encourage the executor team to consider
this, maybe not immediately, but at least after 2.0 comes out. BTW, when
it comes time to add sound support, FreeBSD has IDENTICAL sound drivers to
Linux; I was able to port programs like XBoing and XAnim simply by changing
"#include <linux/soundcard.h>" to "#include <machine/soundcard.h>"!
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Jake Hamby | E-Mail: hamby@aris.jpl.nasa.gov
Student, Cal Poly University, Pomona | System Administrator, JPL
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