oliverh said:
Because of "evolution"
SGI Irix -> Slackware -> FreeBSD/OpenBSD (from the early 90s until now)
I can get anything I want in Slack too, but Volkerding cannot fix a lousy kernel. So FreeBSD is my favorite since 5.0. Well have used many Apples since System 7 (68k) until now, but I've never considered MacOS X as something UNIX-like. It's just some toy for rich people without any real needs.
OMG...You had an SGI machine running IRIX and even bothered with Linux? That is literally the machine I'd buy if I won the Lotto here. It's sort of funny because about two days ago my Mom came to me saying "If I win the Lotto..." and I said "Yea, well, if I win, once my bills are paid off, I'm upgrading the "tech room" I have in this House and adding some Sun Workstations to make my Wife Happy, and, a couple SGI machine, for me".
I've checked Ebay because I want an SGI running IRIX so badly but I really can't afford anything right now. I lost my job so anything extra like that is out of the question. To me, an SGI is like the ultimate Computer.
I don't want one running Linux, because I have Linux here, I want one with IRIX because it's amazing. And the cases.... Any PC user who thinks Alienware has the coolest looking cases, or Mac user who thinks THEY are the Kings of Multimedia, has never heard of SGI. They look cooler than ANY Computer, and when it comes to media... Well, heh, before The Matrix people said they used FreeBSD clusters, people assumed SGI.
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Now, on topic after drooling over SGI as geek pron:
I use BSD for a lot of the same reasons people have mentioned already. It's probably one of the more Stable OSs available at any cost, it's awesome, and in particular, I've ALWAYS been biased towards FreeBSD. I have NetBSD, but don't use it, ever... I don't have OpenBSD because I can't stand Theo's attitude problem, and, well, Marshal Kirk McKusic, has more or less chosen FreeBSD as HIS BSD... If THAT guy puts his stamp of approval on something, I listen.
One thing I will say I didn't see anyone else say, is this:
FreeBSD has History. I LOVE that History. BSD in general, is cool, and the History behind it is not only interesting but outright awesome. From the war with which TCP/IP was going to be used where Berkeley said "We don't like your decision, we're not doing it" to "Look, we made Vi" to one member founding Sun... That's interesting.
The History of BSD actually makes me want to use it. Even the History of FreeBSD does. I mean Walnut Creek gave a machine and a high speed Net Connection to the original 3 or so people who started FreeBSD from Bill Jolitz's project, and made it work.