UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

I believe you can still create good games or write great programs on Linux distros like Redhat or mandrake or suse etc. They are not toys. If you have the necessary programs installed what you can do on FreeBSD you can do the same on Linux, just in some different ways. And in my opinion, I believe from the user's point of view Linux is more polished and supports more hardware configurations etc. that make it (possibly) a better option than BSD. But after all, it's your own choice. I have FreeBSD, but I use Linux much more often. I don't want to be potentially barred on this forum for OS advocacy, especially as this is explicitly stated in the forum rules, so I have tried to refrain from suggesting any particular OS choices.

And also, because C programs on BSD and Linux are somehow different, even if you want to go geek and just use it for programming still you can't expect to learn only FreeBSD and expect programs you write for FreeBSD can run on Redhat for example, unless you really install one, test it on that OS and make the necessary changes (ports) to sources, especially development of system software are very platform-specific. Getting your software to run on as many platforms as possible is now an important affair to any Unix software developer. That's why I think it must be to your benefit if you have several installed on your PC so you at least have an idea of what they are about (I have SuSE, Debian Linux and FreeBSD on the same system, and I do some development too)

Whether FreeBSD is right for you is your own decision. Everybody else can't answer the question for you. Although I personally have grown to believe Linux has been an easier OS to start my Unix experience, and I think I have chosen it correctly, the BSD advocates are likely to tell you otherwise. That's why I suggest you to try both and have you answer that question yourself.

Just what I needed to hear, a good honest opinion.!! Thanks

I do argee some what there.Linux would be a better option.A lot of my friends are running linux and are quite happy with it.

Linux coding is a lot easier to change , strip and customize.Unix on the other hand...well is more complex to me.

Since your running both systems on your PC how does one go about doing that.???

As I had nothing but trouble ..just getting BSD to co-exsist with windows XP. Okay what I mean I've got two 40 gigs split in 4 X 20 gigs.What I want:

1.Is to run windows and linux to run on master without having to disable slave.

2. Unix on slave without having disable master.

3. Have the free 20 gig slave avaible for all 3 os's as a temp back drive.

4.Have Unix and Linux run on windows network.

After this I think I should be settled to do what I do best mess around with the system.(That's why I want that 20 gigslave to work)

I hope it's not to much trouble.!!!

My system is also a dual-HDD configuration. The first disk (master) has:

Primary: A VFAT partition with a broken WinME installation
Primary: A NTFS partition with Win2000
Primary: A FreeBSD partition (as you should know, FreeBSD creates all its needed partitions inside one primary partition)
Extended: Several reiserfs partitions with SuSE 7.3

My second disk (slave) has:

Primary: A ext3 partition with Debian Linux 3.0
Extended: Several reiserfs partitions with SuSE 7.3 (disused)

I don't know Windows XP, but I think it's like 2000 that it needs to be on a primary partition, same is FreeBSD. Linux can be on extended partition. That's all I think you need to watch out for when deciding how to organize your partitions.

I'm not at all proficient with messing with partitions and so hopefully another poster would step in and help you or you eventually figure out how to get it working yourself. You may use my configuration as some reference.