OT Comments -- Unix documentation / speed question

From: Kevin L. Anderson <kla_at_helios.augustana.edu>
Date: Wed Apr 12 10:56:38 2000

This is clearly off-topic compared to 10-year+ old computers,
so reply off-line if so inclined. (An observation -- since
this list moved to its new site, the topics of discussion, plus
the volume, has clearly taken a turn -- much for off-topic
notes, such as my own, plus much more opinionated notes. A
trend I've observed on other lists that moved their location.
I wonder why that is so....)

My few opinions include:

While I was never a VMS or other DEC programmer, and hence never
saw the "orange" or "gray" walls of documentation, I was for a
time a Sun/Unix programmer. So I did see Sun's "green and white"
wall of SunOS documentation -- about 3-4 four feet long of four-
inch binders. It was a very good resource that was quickly
augmented by a selected few Unix administration third-party books.
With later version of SunOS, as well as the early Solaris releases,
this same material was on a CD as postscript files -- another
useful source (their so-called AnswerBook, which I never did
actually install per se, but just read it directly using pageview
PS viewing software). They mucked it up however with the release
of Solaris 2.6, changing the AnswerBook format and making it much
less useful. At the same time they significantly modified the Unix
install procedure, using instead of a quick-loading mini-root from
CD a very slow loading graphic shell -- yuck. Moves by Sun that I
was thrilled about, despite their making Solaris cheaper for so-
called developers.

I have RedHat Linux 6 and I am not happy. I was very dismayed to
see how big the loaded version was, which very quickly filled
400+ MB of material onto my 540MB hard drive with just basic
stuff, and it seems to run slow to boot (including very slow to
boot-up). In contrast, when I earlier played with FreeBSD (2.2.5),
that seemed to be a lean and mean, fast running system on a
comparable 486-33 that I have the Linux on. Software bloat is
most definitely an issue -- and unless you REALLY KNOW Unix, it is
tough (like for Win9x) to know which files can be trimmed away.
And reliance on package installs/removes doesn't help, as they
don't tell you of Unix dependencies in their documentation, hence
a growing problem like for WinDoze. Not good I think.

Now to my question --

Has anyone actually done an speed comparison between Linux, FreeBSD,
and NetBSD?

My impression (from limited exposure) is that BSD-based kernel
versions run much faster (and are generally smaller in size) than
comparable SYS-V or Linux systems. That comment stems from
comparisons of SunOS and Solaris on comparable Sun systems, followed
by FreeBSD and Linux on comparable 486 systems.

In particular, I would like to know how FreeBSD compares to the
more open (cross-platform) implementation in NetBSD.

This is clearly off-topic, so reply offline. Thanks.

Cheers. Kevin

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kevin L. Anderson Ph.D., Geography Department, Augustana College
  Rock Island, Illinois 61201-2296, USA phone: (309) 794-7325
e-mail: kla_at_helios.augustana.edu -or- gganderson_at_augustana.edu
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    Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent
           the administration of Augustana College.
Received on Wed Apr 12 2000 - 10:56:38 BST