What to Install?

[Ilya020]

Hi guys. I would like to start out by asking everyone who reads this to bear with me as I am a BSD newbie. I have been using Linux for around seven or eight months now and I decided to try something new.

Now to the question; what version of BSD do you recommend I install? I have 5.0 on hand and installed it but I had a lot of problems with it and was wondering wehther I should reinstall 5.0 and try again or if I should install 4.8 and wait until 5.0-stable gets released.

I was wondering if I could compile a list of the pro's and con's of 4.8 and 5.0 and then decide. I was also hoping that someone would be able to point out major flaws or impressive feaures of both.

Thank you for your time.


Ilya.

[elmore]

Ilya,

That's great that you're looking at FreeBSD, it's a great Operating System.
If you've had problems with 5.0 and you suspect that it's acting squirrely because of unsupported hardware then you might be better of with 4.8.


I have had a mixed experience with 5.0 On some boxes it runs like a champ. On others I have stability problems and even one computer that won't even boot the ISO disc, due to a wierd memory exaustion error.

You're best bet might be to go with 4.8 right now. 4.8 is really good and is what I primarily use on production boxes that run FBSD.

[soup4you2]

i've got 4.8 on all my box's and runs ohhhh so sweet....

[KrUsTy!]

I've been running 5.0 release for while now and have not encountered a single problem. Runs like a champ. Your choice will really depend on what you are comfortable using in what enviroment. I do agree that in a production style enviroment, it may not be apropriate to be on the leading edge. If you say that you have had problems with 5.0, then going with 4.8 sounds like it could be the right choice for you.

One thing I really like about 5.0 is background fscking on boot. Gets your box back to running instead of having to wait through a fsck if the box goes down awardly. Like when the power goes out for a while and the UPS doesn't hold. :roll: Not a huge deal, just a little thing I like...

To be honest I can't think of a major flaw in either. :D Both, as long as they run stable on your hardware, will likely be able to do the same kinds of things.

Certianly support for your hardware will likely be the first detetmining factor.

You may also want to consider going with OpenBSD, especailly if security is a big concern (say the box is to be a public web server, etc.) Of course security should always be a concern... Current version is 3.2 with 3.3 coming in about 2 weeks. I have many OpenBSD servers and do like OpenBSD a bit better for running as a pure server. Hardware support is not as current and extensive as FreeBSD though ( i.e no SMP support).

I have found that people starting into BSD find OpenBSD a bit more straight forward. Although if you have linux experience this will likely not a problem for you.

Welcome to the BSD world! Hope we can be helpfull as you get into it.

{K}

[Kernel_Killer]

I'm still running 5.0 on the laptop, but DAMN! 4.8 has got me big time on one of my big machines! I'm very impressed with it!

*Kernel_Killer looks at the name again......

Ilya020!!!!! Welcome to SE!!!!

[Ilya020]

Thanks for all the feedback.

I decided that I am going to run FreeBSD 4.8 on my Workstation. My server (should be up in a few weeks) however, will be running OpenBSD 3.3. I was already thinking about OpenBSD as 3.3 will be released May 3(?).

Thanks once again,

Ilya