Unix vs Linux vs FreeBSD

[Gore]

Can someone esplain why Linux is any better than Unix or FreeBSD? I don't
get it. X window is oooolllllddddd.

Linux seems to be a buncha hype. In order to catch on for consumers it would
have to turn into windows. And why would anyone run a production server with
unsupported freeware?? And theres only like 5 games that run on linux.

[Neil Matthew & Rick Stones]

Hi,


Gore <Gore@hyperstudios.com> wrote in message news:39593a8c@news.devx.com...
>
> Can someone esplain why Linux is any better than Unix or FreeBSD?

Well, Linux and FreeBSD and UNIX have a lot in common. They all provide
an environment for applications and development that is efficient,
reliable and embodies a co-operative philosophy.

Linux and FreeBSD are quite similar in many ways, if you are looking to
run a UNIX-like OS on a PC you can try both and use whichever fits your
needs best. As they are both freely available, this is not an expensive
option

UNIX, by which we assume you mean commercial offerings, is not well
suppported
on PC hardware (Sun's offering has been effectively side-lined). UNIX is
still very stong in the server market. Sun, IBM and HP all have very strong
offerings in the enterprise server market with their own UNIX variants.

Linux has been developed over time by an enthusiastic community, the source
code is freely availble. This means that users can either modify it
themselves
or get others to so so if they find it does not quite meet their needs.
More commonly you can take a look behind the APIs to see how things work,
and better understand what's going on.

Linux now runs on many different hardware platforms, including Sun servers
and IBM mainframes! It's the only UNIX-like operating system that spans the
major manufacturers, so if you need a coherent OS platform, Linux is an
intriguing choice.


> I don't
> get it. X window is oooolllllddddd.

Yes it is. It's remarkably stable, and robust. It plain gets the job done.
The internal combustion engine is even older, people still buy cars that
use it. The point is that X has evolved as time goes by. It enables user
interfaces as good as anywhere else in GNOME and KDE. It's client/server
architecture has stood the test of time. Only recently has Windows developed
a remote GUI interface, X has been doing this since the 1980s.

Neil and Rick