I realize Linux is by far the most popular open source OS, but doesn't anyone realize that there are in fact many others (*BSD, Minix, GNU Hurd/Mach, etc?). I always frustrates me when the media is so Linux-centric. It is good that end users hear about alternative systems other than Wintel, but there really is a whole other world out there that _includes_ Linux, However, I don't think exposure should be limited to ONE OS other than Windows. After all, if we're to convert the free world to free OS's, shouldn't we give them as many chances to do so as possible?
To me, Linux is a great choice for a desktop computer, as it is relatively user friendly compared w/ say... OpenVMS. However, not all Windows-converts want merely a desktop. Perhaps they are running Windows ICS, and it isn't scaling well enough for their small LAN (I hear it does horribly above about 10 IP's). Linux can do this, although I think there are better solutions out there. Thoughts?
Thank you.


3C2X1.<b><u> The </u></b>job of genius.

the one thing about other os's (besides linux) is that most of them actually cost money.. I think a good alternative to linux is FreeBSD (i think its the only free *BSD out there). but its harder to use then Linux (IMO)..

I personally have a small lan of 4 computers, the firewall/ICS box is running slackware 7.1, my main computer has win98, my parents computer has winME, and my school-work computer has win2000. Just so i get a taste of everything.. this summer ill probably put FreeBSD on one of them to take another crack at it

It is a sad state of affairs indeed! :_(((

I have two immediate thoughts:

1.)
The open source community is more then partly to blame. Just read on /. any time there is some article posted on The Hurd or some other OS, that many people must be taking as, "an alternative to Linux." To me this idea is akin to sticking one's head where the sun don't shine. Ppl like to rant on and on and on how Linux is so awsome and couldn't possibly have any problems, compared to whatever else that sux, because of the license, because of how the kernel works, because it can't run X, because it's not Linux, etc... Add on to that the ammount of time it takes for a person to deal with the intracacies of installing a new OS to be used for a certain purpose, wading through all the BS to find the "right one" to do the job, then finding the filesystem is all different, all the scripts work differently, etc.... People don't like change, even people who like open source; They're all too busy self-importently blathering on about whether Vim is better than Emacs or why GPL is better or worse then "BSD'ing" somthing.

2.)
As a result of 1.) (above) and a lack of interest from readers, Publications don't take the time to do projects involving OS's other than Linux. Even Linux (still!) takes a big back seat to the omnipresent windoze, winblows, win hose.... This is self-recursion at it's nastiest, to encourage more articles, we need more readers, to get more readers, we need more articles. AFAIK there is not one single publication, online or not that does reliable, unbiased, acurate, and timely performance, stability, and usefullness comparisons of: kernel versions, different filesystems, different network filesystems, device support, graphics performance, CPU support, chipset support; OS vs. OS at specific tasks like: DB serving, file serving, multimedia playback, multimedia creation, script execution; SMP support, scalability and performance; clustering support, scalability and performance, etc.... This list could go on forever! Data like that would wake the relegious fsck'ers up I'd be willing to bet!; and I'd bet alot of people would enjoy reading articles about that as well! (Tom & gang-- hint, hint, nudge, nudge)

All I'm saying is Ppl better get a fscking klu, otherwise we'll have lindoze someday, and everyone will be wondering why....
</rant>

Oh well, there's always a group of people surrounding each different OS, and even tho it's difficult due to all the high priest's, rabbi's, and bishops, I'll still continue to try and learn plan9, the different *BSD's, The HURD(HIRD) and others. Nice to know I'm not the only one irritated by all of this.

BTW, I found it most refreshing to be talking to some dude from Germany in #rocklinux@irc.openprojects.net about a simular topic and find some other soul with an open mind as well. Too bad it seems there's not very many more.

~flake



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With the word free being used very loosely, there's also OpenBSD, and IIRC NetBSD. There may be others....

~flake


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