FreeBSD: The NOS that could.
antigen
antigen@necro.edu
freebsd, unix, linux, operating system, OS, bsd, berkeley software design, minix


As of late, the media has been covering the advance of 
Linux into the NOS (network operating system) "market". 
But it seems that the media has all but ignored the entire 
*BSD genre of NOS's. As kind of a project for myself, I decided 
that I'd install FreeBSD to see what the hype wasn't about.

 
I'd never installed FreeBSD before, but have installed Linux 
on more machines than I have fingers and toes to account for. 
So, I just jumped into the install with a CheapBytes FreeBSD 
CD (so cheap you won't even consider downloading it an option).

 
I went through the install without first reading any of the
documentation, which may or may not have affected my first 
install experience. The CD is bootable, which is wonderful 
if your machine supports it, as mine does. 


Otherwise you have to go through the process of making FreeBSD 
boot disks, which I haven't even looked into. If you have to do 
this, there is ample documentation on the CD to be read.



First Contact.
Upon first booting to the FreeBSD CD, morale was high. The CD 
booted up to a Kernel Configuration Menu that offered 3 choices 
"The kernel's fine the way it is", "Edit it Fullscreen" (for novices), 
and "Edit it CLI mode" (for advanced users). I just went with the first 
option. It seems to be kind of like Linux's "kitchen sink" kernel. 


Every thing is supported. I watched it scroll through the kernel messages 
and noticed right away that it  had detected my Plug 'n Play modem. This 
was a good sign. It booted into a menu that was pretty self-explanatory, and 
rather familiar to Slackware (woohoo!) users. Being somewhat versed in the 
ways of Linux installs, having installed Caldera, RedHat (eww), Slackware, 
Debian, Stampede, et. al., I decided to go with the "Custom" install. 


I never tried the other options, but custom wasn't too bad for an 
experienced user. One thing that I must, at this point, complain about is the 
usage of "Yes" and "No" in the options menu. I mean... "Yes to all?" shouldn't 
be chosen with a Yes/No answer... There are other examples of this (better ones) 
also in the options menu. Now, as far as fdisk goes, FreeBSD's fdisk leaves much 
(IMNSHO) to be desired. 


Linux's fdisk (please don't flame me) seems to be a little more (please don't!) 
user friendly. FreeBSD's was cryptic upon startup. It also uses a block method 
without readily giving up info about the current block size. My suggestion for 
the weary: use PQMagic to resize any (ahem) DOS partitions, then Linux's fdisk 
to create 2 FreeBSD partitions (one for / the other for swap). I had a problem 
w/ FreeBSD complaining about not having a swap partition. 


The boot manager, on the other hand, required no configuration. It 
appears to probe each partition on each drive that it recognizes, then offers 
you the choice of what partition to boot to. FreeBSD does also have a straight 
MBR for FreeBSD only systems. One thing that I liked about FreeBSD's install 
(as well as most Linux based install systems) is its flexibility. 


Anything mountable or accessable by ftp (even through firewalls!), is a possible 
candidate for installing FreeBSD. Those of you familiar with Debian's system 
of installing should feel at home with the style FreeBSD uses. You use the 
installer to install the base system (or some predefined packages...) then 
add packages as you see fit to customize the install. 


Vi is a great editor to learn because it is available on a variety of 
platforms, but when you're sed to joe, it takes a far second, and csh's 
default look and usability are horrible when compared to bash or zsh (remember, 
I'm a Linux nut ;). Using csh's defaults will remind you of the good 'ol days 
of bash when you could hit alt-[right arrow] to get to the next console over. 
I assume that all of this is customizable, but you'd think that it'd be capable 
of that out of the box. 



Conclusions.
At any rate, FreeBSD definately has its merits, and its downfalls. 
I personally think that I'll stick with Linux for the time being, 
until I can get my hands on a "FreeBSD in a Nutshell" book, or something 
similar. 


There were major differences in some aspects, and many major 
similarities. For the bold hearted -- try it without reading any docs ;). 
Plain FreeBSD certainly isn't for dumbasses, and for the time being, it 
isn't for me.