From: cosmos@yabbs
To: all@yabbs
Subject: UNIX info sheet
Date: Sun Jul 31 14:00:24 1994

Alot of the kids have been asking me what version of UNIX they should run 
on their computer to learn or be cool or whatever.  Rather than repeat 
myself over and over or perhaps tear them a new arse I thought a short 
info file on the 3 variants prevailing in the free net implementations 
would be useful.

This document is in no way official or meant to be taken as gospel.  This 
is just my observations.


         ***  The Berkeley Camp  ***


There are 2 variants of the original 386BSD port done by William Jolitz 
on the net today.  Both are *very* similar in general appearance and 
contain alot of the same code, however are targeted at a much different 
audience.

The BSD implementations of UNIX are a very popular flavour in the 
university community and have been for the past 10 years.  Many 
commercial flavours such as SunOS are BSD based.

The 2 net implentations are not beginner oriented per se.  Both are aimed 
at a more knowledgeable UNIX base and do not specifically cater to the 
new or inexperienced user.  This is not to say that a new user cannot do 
anything useful on a BSD variant, just that his hand may not be held very 
closely.

If you have experience in a commercial UNIX environment, especially SunOS 
or Ultrix you may notice little difference besides vendor crap between 
your variant and the *BSD versions.

FreeBSD:  This is the intel specific release of BSD.  It relies on a core 
team for its major development.  Install is easy to follow and well 
documented for new users.  Numerous mailing lists serve the FreeBSD 
community and the freebsd.cdrom.com FTP site contains much to keep a 
FreeBSD user happy.  The FreeBSD team maintains a "package" site there as 
well which are precompiled binaries for many useful programs and 
utilities.  I recommend this one heartily to someone wanting to do some 
quality work on a rock solid UNIX os.

          Currently the last release version was 1.1.5.1 which is still 
based on 4.3 net/2 code.  You can get this release from 
gatekeeper.dec.com in the /BSD directories.  Release 2.0 which will be a 
4.4 lite based implementation is due out in late September.

NetBSD:  This is an architecture independent release of the 386BSD code.  
It runs on many popular machines like the intel 386/486, Macintosh, 
Amiga, Sun3 etc...   It is currently a working implementation of BSD 4.4 
code and within a week or two release 1.0 will be out.  This is *not* the 
beginners OS.  The only thing you get with this baby is the OS itself.  
No ports or packages are maintained, thus the need for a more in depth 
knowledge of software porting to UNIX and admin skills are needed.  I 
like this release of *BSD the best.  If you like hacking around on UNIX 
and feel comfortable, I urge you to give this one a try.



         ***  Linux   ***


Linux is an entirely different beast.  The BSD variants are technically a 
real UNIX, they do have original UNIX code in them (which has upset many 
a Novell/USL lawyer). however Linux is a complete rewrite from the ground 
up based to look like a System V UNIX.

Lets first clear up some myths.  LINUX is not System V UNIX.  LINUX is 
not UNIX period.  Linux is a very stable UNIX clone which attempts to 
give the user a System V feel with alot of BSD add ons.  

Linux has quite a few non standard quarks specific to itself that may 
confuse and/or piss off a UNIX regular.

However, Linux is written and maintained with a user-oriented attitude 
that serves its community quite well.  From the initial install program 
which is a color menu driven install more user friendly than the Windows 
install to each individual package, Linux is clearly user oriented.

Linux Slackware distribution is very well documented and contains 
*everything* under the sun you would ever possibly need/want(much too 
much sometimes ;) ).  This is one of its major differences from the older 
BSD crowd.  

It is much eaiser to a newbie or novice to install Linux, fire up X and 
start learning than on one of the *BSD variants.  But it has its 
tradeoffs.  

You can grab Linux stuff from:  sunsite.unc.edu  /pub/Linux



The bottom line is that each user must make a choice and go from there.  
Try all three and see which suits you best.  But dont expect someone else 
to spoonfeed you the whole way.  Man pages do have a reason for their 
existance...

Cosmos