UUASC LA 2003 February
BSD Panel Meeting

Tonight's Panel Format

Moderator's Introduction to BSD
Panelists' Talks
1. 15 minute talk
2. 5 minute Q&A
30 minutes open Q&A to all panelists

Introduction

BSD = Berkeley Software Distribution

A set of tools added to AT&T Unix at UCB that has grown into its own full unix.

The Unix system family tree / BSD history chart
http://www.unix-wizards.com/tree.html

FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD compared to Linux

Major Similarities

Technically similar,
gcc, Emacs, and most other GNU tools.
All run fine on standard PC's.
Performance entirely satisfactory under normal loads.
Both Linux and the BSD's are now fairly mature and stable.
Linux is probably the easiest to install, followed by FreeBSD.
Run each other executables and those of some other unixes.
Software Packages

Major Differences

Linux is more likely to support odd hardware.
The BSD and Linux kernel are very different internally.
Different native file systems (ext2 for Linux and ufs for BSD).
OS level admin differences (mostly command syntax)
Entire OS is in CVS tree and builds with one command "make world"
Distinct difference between OS and applications (ports/packages)

Which one should you use?
Probably won't go wrong with any of them.

Web Sites

FreeBSD http://www.FreeBSD.org/
NetBSD http://www.NetBSD.org/
OpenBSD http://www.OpenBSD.org/
Sun http://www.sun.com/

Article URLs

History

Unix History (with full diagram of most unixes)
http://www.rpf.dp.ua/Linux_Docs/Unix%20hierarchy/

And what about BSD?
November 27, 2001
By: Brett Glass
http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=20072,00.asp

The BSDs: Sophisticated, Powerful, and (Mostly) Free
September 26, 2002
By: Brett Glass
http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=31573,00.asp

Current

Explaining BSD
Greg Lehey - grog@FreeBSD.org
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/explaining-bsd/index.html

In the open source world, the word ``Linux'' is almost synonymous with ``Operating System'', but it is not the only open source UNIX™ operating system. According to the Internet Operating System Counter, as of April 1999 31.3% of the world's network connected machines run Linux. 14.6% run BSD UNIX. Some of the world's largest web operations, such as Yahoo!, run BSD. The world's busiest FTP server, ftp.cdrom.com, uses BSD to transfer 1.4 TB of data a day. Clearly this is not a niche market: BSD is a well-kept secret.

So what is the secret? Why is BSD not better known? This white paper addresses these and other questions.

Throughout this paper, differences between BSD and Linux will be noted like this.

Table Of Contents

1 What is BSD?
2 What, a real UNIX?
3 Why is BSD not better known?
4 Comparing BSD and Linux

4.8 Who provides support, service, and training for BSD?

BSDi have always supported BSD/OS, and they have recently announced support contracts for FreeBSD.

In addition, each of the projects has a list of consultants for hire: FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.

Licensing

The real difference between Linux and freeBSD - a licensing primer
By Tina Gasperson
October 18, 2000
www.bsdtoday.com/2000/October/Newswire312.html
Full Text: http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=00/10/18/1154216

FreeBSD Help Web Sites

FreeBSD Diary
http://www.freebsddiary.org/

BSD Related Sites
http://www.freebsddiary.org/sites-bsd.php

FreeBSD Upgrade Method

Ismet Kursunoglu, LILAX Leader, post excerpt:

I did a test where I did a fairly complete install of FreeBSD 4.5 (with X, KDE etc..), I was able to upgrade to 4.6.2 (building from source) with a simple

cvsup (source)
make buildworld
make buildkernel
make installkernel
reboot (single user)
make installworld
mergemaster -cv
reboot

My Prediction (based on secure computing needs)

In 10 years:

FreeBSD will take over desktop market

In 10-15 years:

The BSD Panel Presentation

Many companies are turning to BSD for a number of reasons including that flavor of UNIX's highly regarded IP stacking, impressive speed, and that many of the world's web sites with the best reported uptimes are running on BSD.

The panel will focus on how to migrate SVR4 skills to the BSD platform, and point out where the "gotchas" exist. And, they will demonstrate package management and the ease of system installation, and discuss wireless networking, security, BSD on SPARC, and much more.

The Panel Members

Tonight's Format

Moderation Introduction to BSD
Panelists' Talks
1. 15 minute talk
2. 5 minute Q&A
30 minutes open Q&A to all panelists

Los Angeles BSD User Group in 2003 ?

Email me at pete-bsd@peterbenjamin.com

UUASC LA 2003 February BSD Panel Meeting