FreeBSD, a few weeks on
The first impression, which still holds, is that what sets it apart from Linux is that Linux is "evolved," while FreeBSD is "designed." "Evolved" here being the euphemism Torvalds uses for a bunch of gung-ho programmers doing what feels right at the moment. This does give it a very fast and very sustainable path of growth, it's what allows Linux to be inovative in the fields where it is innovative, and I think it has more to do with its popularity than the "but the BSD wars" argument would grant. On the other hand, the grab ass nature of this development approach is felt. Everything in Linux is as in a jungle, with no coherent signs, massive intricate monuments set side by side with half constructed huts, unidentifiable ruins, and pits with snakes and swamps and whatnot. Much of this has to do with the direction Linux seems to have finally settled on, a suite of middleware for desktop environment programmers to glue their manic visions together. The user is, at least anymore, not intended to be the pilot. He is a passanger.
It's pretty, it's flashy, it has moments of sheer genius, it's chaotic, and it has (ever increasing) contempt for you. Not by design, because it is not designed, but because this seems to be the path of least resistance to the grab-ass approach to passion project agglomeration.
FreeBSD is designed. And it shows. Everything works. If it doesn't work, you are only two or three steps from a walll, rather than the potential endless spiral of abyssal misery you can inadvertently get sucked into with Linux (where nobody will anyway really know the answer or be able to give you any helpful tips beyond "you stupid you did it wrong"). Once you reach a wall, everything that can possibly be involved is meticulously documented, and level-headed knowledgeable people will be happy to share their passion for this project by guiding you competently in a helpful direction. The problems are simple, because the tools are simple. There isn't a morass of twilight-zone, in-between dimensions where everything is opaque and interconnected and interface-less. Things are small, direct, efficient, customizable, alterable. You are in control, the pilot is you. Because it has less flash, and is less of a chaotic playground, fewer gung ho adventurers are attracted to it, things are less shiny, it is less popular, smaller, there are less things. Example:
I have a laptop with a 10th gen 8 core Intel processor. On all Linux distributions, it is silent as an assassin and self-regulating. On FreeBSD, it sounds like my Windows desktop did in 2004 when I slept beside it in my room, a kind of low-end Yamaha motor. Why? Because noboduy has the time to fine-tune CPU power regulation, or the inclination to design the convoluted process which would probably be required to get it right. So your laptop heats up a bit, don't be a girl. CPUs gonna CPU. And, characteristically, there are definite, accessible, well-documented tools to exert some control anyway and prevent the machine from melting, keep it working. The power to serve, not the power to kiss ass. The machine works, and it works well.
It works really, really well. Things don't hang up. It's hard to describe, it's just a feeling, like driving a really nice car. Everything is slick, everything hums. Nothing gets in your way, methods for dealing with anything that might are simple, direct, and designed for intelligent people rather than mindless robots or 20-year-old engineers with too much time on their hands.
This might sound like I have bad feelings for Linux. I don't, I like it a lot. It's just what happens when you discover something superior, you suddenly start seeing all the flaws of what you had before.
The anarchist elite haha. God bless you bastards.
The first impression, which still holds, is that what sets it apart from Linux is that Linux is "evolved," while FreeBSD is "designed." "Evolved" here being the euphemism Torvalds uses for a bunch of gung-ho programmers doing what feels right at the moment. This does give it a very fast and very sustainable path of growth, it's what allows Linux to be inovative in the fields where it is innovative, and I think it has more to do with its popularity than the "but the BSD wars" argument would grant. On the other hand, the grab ass nature of this development approach is felt. Everything in Linux is as in a jungle, with no coherent signs, massive intricate monuments set side by side with half constructed huts, unidentifiable ruins, and pits with snakes and swamps and whatnot. Much of this has to do with the direction Linux seems to have finally settled on, a suite of middleware for desktop environment programmers to glue their manic visions together. The user is, at least anymore, not intended to be the pilot. He is a passanger.
It's pretty, it's flashy, it has moments of sheer genius, it's chaotic, and it has (ever increasing) contempt for you. Not by design, because it is not designed, but because this seems to be the path of least resistance to the grab-ass approach to passion project agglomeration.
FreeBSD is designed. And it shows. Everything works. If it doesn't work, you are only two or three steps from a walll, rather than the potential endless spiral of abyssal misery you can inadvertently get sucked into with Linux (where nobody will anyway really know the answer or be able to give you any helpful tips beyond "you stupid you did it wrong"). Once you reach a wall, everything that can possibly be involved is meticulously documented, and level-headed knowledgeable people will be happy to share their passion for this project by guiding you competently in a helpful direction. The problems are simple, because the tools are simple. There isn't a morass of twilight-zone, in-between dimensions where everything is opaque and interconnected and interface-less. Things are small, direct, efficient, customizable, alterable. You are in control, the pilot is you. Because it has less flash, and is less of a chaotic playground, fewer gung ho adventurers are attracted to it, things are less shiny, it is less popular, smaller, there are less things. Example:
I have a laptop with a 10th gen 8 core Intel processor. On all Linux distributions, it is silent as an assassin and self-regulating. On FreeBSD, it sounds like my Windows desktop did in 2004 when I slept beside it in my room, a kind of low-end Yamaha motor. Why? Because noboduy has the time to fine-tune CPU power regulation, or the inclination to design the convoluted process which would probably be required to get it right. So your laptop heats up a bit, don't be a girl. CPUs gonna CPU. And, characteristically, there are definite, accessible, well-documented tools to exert some control anyway and prevent the machine from melting, keep it working. The power to serve, not the power to kiss ass. The machine works, and it works well.
It works really, really well. Things don't hang up. It's hard to describe, it's just a feeling, like driving a really nice car. Everything is slick, everything hums. Nothing gets in your way, methods for dealing with anything that might are simple, direct, and designed for intelligent people rather than mindless robots or 20-year-old engineers with too much time on their hands.
This might sound like I have bad feelings for Linux. I don't, I like it a lot. It's just what happens when you discover something superior, you suddenly start seeing all the flaws of what you had before.
The anarchist elite haha. God bless you bastards.
