[GLLUG] BSD Distro First-Try Recommendations

Adam McDougall mcdouga9 at egr.msu.edu
Wed Jul 7 12:48:01 EDT 2004


I think trying FreeBSD would provide the most support from this list
of the BSD varients, assuming you are working with a PC.
You might as well start with 5.2.1 or a later build 
since it will be more similar to 5.3-stable when it comes out.

I highly recommend using portupgrade (from ports or packages) to
install/manage/upgrade ports and packages on freebsd, it takes care of
upgrading dependancies and all that, and you can use command line
switches so it operates completely on binary packages like apt would.  I
still go with the source method since it is fairly streamlined, realizes
updates in ports sooner than packages, and offers some more compilation
choices (plugins for php for example) compared to packages, and I don't
mind the compile times if interaction is minimal. 

On Wed, Jul 07, 2004 at 11:18:34AM -0400, Mike Szumlinski wrote:

  FreeBSD hands down...its by far the easiest first run BSD to get up and 
  running.
  
  FreeBSD uses the ports collection too, so getting software is just as 
  easy as an apt style setup.  The only downside to the BSD way of doing 
  things is it only grabs source, not compiled binaries.  That means that 
  it takes time to install stuff if you have a slower machine.
  
  I don't think its all that off topic...I think I've posted more BSD 
  questions on this list than Linux over the years.
  
  -Mike
  
  On Jul 7, 2004, at 10:59 AM, Brian Hoort wrote:
  
  >Greetings Venerable GLLUG Members,
  >
  >Being frustrated with some GNU/Linux distros, I'm considering trying a 
  >BSD varient.  I'm mainly concerned with stability and ease through 
  >updates.  Do the BSD distros provide a APT/up2date style update 
  >mechanism, and which variety would be recommended for a first timer 
  >with no experience there?
  >
  >I'm aware this is a little off-topic for a linux group.  Yet many of 
  >you drive both, hence your advice should be more relevant to me.
  >
  >Thanks,
  >
  >
  >-- 
  >Brian Hoort
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