Daemon to Penguin

I've been using and blogging about FreeBSD for about five years now, and I have been dabbling in Linux even long longer. My main server, which hosts about 5 web sites, currently runs FreeBSD 6 and I'm still very happy with it.

However, my main operating system has been Microsoft Windows pretty much ever since Windows for Workgroups hit the scene. Although I got my start in programming on a Unix box, most of my professional life has been spent on either DOS (mostly game programming - what fun EMS, Extended Memory and near/far/huge pointers were!), then on to Windows programming. I had been a pretty satisfied user of Windows, especially Windows 2000, although I was always drawn back, like a moth to the flames, to the Unix and Linux world. I have burned many a CD with virtually all the major Linux distributions and BSD flavors.

I settled on FreeBSD for my server because I love the control it gives you. Compiling packages via source code allowed for easy customization by this inveterate hacker, so I could tweak all I wanted. Keeping it up to date is still a bit of a chore, but the trade off in simplicity and openness (the BSD license is a beacon of clarity compared to the Windows license or even the GPL) made the annual pain worth it.

But late last year I became disenchanted with Windows as my personal operating system. I became more involved in Redhat Linux programming for my job and just wanted to be free of the black box that is Windows. I decided to once and for all throw off the Windows shackles and move to a free operating system (not that I have ever paid for Windows - as a developer, I got them all free of charge from Microsoft).

My first choice was FreeBSD. It's a little barebones and I really didn't want to spend my days tweaking it, so I moved to the wondefully complete PC-BSD version of it. A simple, turnkey FreeBSD "distro" with a vibrant user community, I settled into it quickly and became a frequent contributer to the forums. There were a few bumps on the way to fulltime BSD (well, save for dual-booting into Windows XP to play games), but I soon was enjoying the ride.

But then it started to be a drag. Each and every day seemed to bring new challenges that just took too much time to solve. I really wasn't in it for hackers paradise - I wanted an OS that just worked. The last straw was trying to get my dual monitor setup working. Literally days of xorg.conf tweaking later only gave me partial satisfaction, so I began looking around at Linux distros.

After a week or so of trying all the popular distros, I settled on openSUSE. I didn't know about the "sleeping with the enemy" reputation of Novell, for better or for worse, so it didn't enter into my consideration. This was way back in May of this year and I couldn't be happier.

Here is my list of why Linux is better than FreeBSD for me. Of course, everyone will hav their own ideas, but this is my article, so this is my list!

• Better support. And by support, I mean it in so many ways, from an enthusiastic user community, to hardware driver support to resources you can turn to in a pinch.


• Better tools. While I don't mind getting my hands dirty with a text config file, my days of having the time to figure out the nuances of every little text string are long gone, so I truly appreciate having GUI admin tools.


• Bigger installed base. No longer do I feel like the forgotten stepchild when it comes to getting media files to run, viewing Flash sites, playing music CDs, etc. While Windows remains the 1000 pound gorilla in the closet, Linux must run a close second to the Mac as far as third party support goes. I can't even begin to tell you the hoops you needed to jump through to get Flash to work on PC-BSD. And my Palm Pilot? Forget it!


• More resources. I mentioned this in the first point, but it deserves its own entry. I'm a real information hog and love the plethora of print and electronic information sources for Linux. I grabbed a bunch of books, bought all the magazines, started reading all the web sites, rolling around in the information like Scrooge McDuck rolling around in his coins.


• Fun. I love how vibrant and even fractious the Linux community is. FreeBSD feels a little inbred at this point, with a serious (and understandable) "us against the world" mentality, while the Linux crowd is looking to conqueror the world. And I am psyched to be a part of it!