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&header;
<p>Much of the success which surrounds FreeBSD is due to people advocating its use to
their friends, colleagues, and employers.</p>
<p>This page provides links to more information to help you do this.</p>
<h2>Mailing lists</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>FreeBSD Advocacy &lt;<a href="FreeBSD-Advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG">FreeBSD-Advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG</a>&gt;</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Web resources</h2>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="myths.html">*BSD Myths</a></p>
<p>Describes and debunks some of the myths that surround the *BSD
projects.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="letter.html">On Advocating FreeBSD and the
Halloween memo</a></p>
<p>Jordan Hubbard's response to the infamous Halloween memo, posted to
the FreeBSD-Advocacy mailing list (and republished with his
permission).</p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="http://www.freebsd.org/news/press.html">FreeBSD in the Press</a></p>
<p>Contains many links to articles that have appeared which mention
FreeBSD.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Sites using FreeBSD</h2>
<ul>
<li><p>Many sites and organizations are powered by FreeBSD, you can view the
list of personal sites and organizational sites at this location:
<a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/gallery/gallery.html">
http://www.FreeBSD.org/gallery/gallery.html</a>. Please do not forget to add your
organization or website as applicable.</p></li>
<li><a name=bsdvlin href="http://www.futuresouth.com/~fullermd/freebsd/bsdvlin.html">
FreeBSD vs. Linux</a>: A bunch of comparisons between FreeBSD and
Linux, which is another publicly-distributed free UNIX-like OS
for PC's.</li>
<li><a name="daemonnews" href="http://www.daemonnews.org/">Daemon News</a>
is an electronic publication about the BSD operating system in general.
It's aim is to be a resource for people in the FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and
NetBSD communities.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.bsdcounter.org/">The FreeBSD Counter Page</a>
page is the start of a project which will attempt to determine the
world-wide installed base of FreeBSD users. The FreeBSD development
community currently has only the vaguest idea as to how large our user
base is, and this makes it all the more difficult to persuade hardware
and software vendors to take it seriously.</li>
<li><a href="http://bsdfreak.org/">BSD Freak</a> is a new site that
provides tutorials, articles, and journals covering BSD operating
systems from a user's perspective.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.freebsdzine.org/">FreeBSD 'zine</a>
The FreeBSD 'zine is a monthly collection of easy to read (we hope)
articles written by FreeBSD users and administrators just like you.</li>
<li><a href="http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Unix/BSD/FreeBSD/" name="dmoz">
The Open Directory Project's</a> goal is to produce the most
comprehensive directory of the web by relying on a vast army of
volunteer editors.</li>
<li><a href="http://people.freebsd.org/~murray/bsd_flier.html"
name="freebsdvslinuxvsnt">FreeBSD vs. Linux vs. Windows NT</a>
is a comparison between the three operating systems which includes
reliability, performance, Y2K issues, support, cost of ownership,
and more.</li>
<li><a href="http://leb.net/hzo/ioscount/" name="ioscount"> The
Internet Operating System Counter</a> is a survey about operating
system usage on the Internet. Host addresses are collected and
queried for their operating system using queso.</li>
<li><a name="freebsdcon"
href="http://www.usenix.org/events/bsdcon02/cfp/">BSDCon 2002</a>, the
third BSD Conference and Expo.</li>
<li><a name="freebsdconeu" href="http://www.bsdconeurope.org/">BSDCon
Europe</a>, the annual BSD Conference in Europe.</li>
</ul>
&footer
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<p>On October 31st 1998 (Halloween) Eric Raymond posted a leaked memo from
Microsoft.</p>
<p>This prompted Jordan Hubbard to write the following response. This text
is unchanged, except for the HTML formatting.</p>
<table width="100%" cellpadding="0" bgcolor="#000000">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="1" bgcolor="#ffffcc">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td align="right"><b><small>To</small>:</b></td>
<td>advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG<br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right"><b><small>Subject</small>:</b></td>
<td>On advocating FreeBSD and the Halloween
memo...<br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right"><b><small>Date</small>:</b></td>
<td>Tue, 03 Nov 1998 08:21:56 -0800<br></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td align="right"><b><small>Message-Id</small>:</b></td>
<td>&lt;709.910110116@time.cdrom.com&gt;<br></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
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</table>
<blockquote><p>[ caution - this is a bit long. Lots of points here I've been
wanting to cover for awhile and now seems as good a time as any.. ]</p>
<p>OK, so we've all seen this latest bit of Linux leaping about and
shouting from the rooftops and some of us have even gone "agh!" and
run around a bit ourselves, but now that we've all hopefully calmed
down again I'd like to say a few words about this and the state of
FreeBSD advocacy in general.</p>
<p>First off, just to cover the Halloween memo in brief, yes it appears
to be genuinely from Microsoft and yes, it appears to be genuinely
full of statements culled from various Linux evangelists who feel no
pangs at making blatantly false pronouncements like "Linux is the only
OS experiencing growth" or "Linux is the only contender for the x86
platform." These types of statements are pure hooey, of course, and
FreeBSD is currently doing better than it has at any previous point in
its history. Our releases are starting to finally hit their stride,
it seems (and try to remember back to the days when it was more like:
"My god! We did it! A release!"), and our rate of innovation and
self- improvement hasn't been higher since the 2.0 days - it's very
encouraging to see that we can spur ourselves to such heights of
productivity *without* legal injunctions staring us in the face! :-)</p>
<p>Second, we have to keep sight of the fact that none of this is
particularly new or even interesting. We know that Linux is the
current poster child of the press and we also know about the press's
irritating predilection for focusing on one and only one champion
rather than looking more in depth at the situation. We can yell and
scream all we like, but we're not going to change the fact that for
many journalists investigating "Open Source", Linux is the first and
possibly only thing they're going to look at. It simply has the right
sized hype-bubble surrounding it where we do not.
We also have to accept the fact that ISVs are going to target their
products at the much more obvious Linux market and try to strike deals
with it, going "FreeBSD? What's that?" when asked about a native
port. The same goes for investment, selling shares in Red Hat, Inc.,
etc. Money always goes after the visible markets first.</p>
<p>What you have to ask yourselves, looking at the dynamics of this
situation as dispassionately as possible, is whether all of this is
necessarily as bad a thing as some of the gloom-n-doomers would have
us believe. Looking at only the superficial indicators, it's easy to
say that "Linux is winning and we're losing", pointing to the stacks
of Linux books and magazines in the bookstores, the Clinton
transcripts where he mentions Linux, the Goodyear blimp circling
overhead with Linus's smiling face shining from it, etc etc. It's
especially easy to say that when you hold Linux and FreeBSD in your
mind as equivalent products, started at the same time and with the
same overall development mentality.</p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that Linux and FreeBSD are NOT equivalent
products with identical user and developer communities surrounding
them, however. We've *always* been lower key about things, preferring
to quietly focus on the business of steadily turning out quality
products to only moderate fanfare. It's no use screaming for teams of
FreeBSD fan dancers to come out and start singing the praises of
FreeBSD in full 4-part hyperbole with some grinning, cigar-chomping
promoter standing in the background - that's just not us. The
nay-sayers will also say that "this not being us" will surely be our
downfall since you gotta sing and dance now if you want to be noticed,
but I'm really not so sure about that. To my way of thinking, we have
our style and we have our niche and they're both respectable in their
own way. Not everyone buys toilet paper because a team of singing
rabbits (to paraphrase the great Rod Serling) suggested it on
television, and some people DO react positively to the somewhat less
superficial attributes of quality, consistency and a focus on the
technology rather than on standing in front of the cameras and saying
things like "open source validates the concept of a basic human
sociological tropism towards cooperation and the free and open
exchange of .." to some vapid blond on Technology Week.</p>
<p>That kind of approach might also get all the sound bites this week,
but remember the old "15 minutes of fame" effect and the fact that the
press is going to get bored with Linux eventually and go off in search
of other things they don't understand to dissect. When that
inevitably happens, it's going to be back to quality and those groups
who remained true to their basic operating principles and didn't get
sucked in and destroyed by excessive growth or hype. The
opportunities for wandering off and getting lost in the woods in
pursuit of some bright and shiny object have never been higher than
they are now, and somebody's bound to panic and go off and do
something stupid in an effort to differentiate themselves. I don't
think we have any need to panic at all and should simply keep doing
what we're doing and try to do it as best we can.</p>
<p>I'm not saying that there's no room for improvement, and some
alliances *are* being made with various artist/marketing types whom we
think can help us get the attention we deserve, but it's not the same
as saying that we're going to drop everything and go play Linux's game
now. That would be the wrong move and I can only point to the history
of BSD itself when searching for good examples of technologies which
have remained viable long after "losing" a war to a competitor. BSD
"lost" to SYSV over a decade ago, but did that kill it? Quite
apparently not and it appears to be doing better today than it ever
did even back in its heyday, when it ran on a large collection of
VAXes but hardly any of the commodity (68K) hardware at all (you had
to buy an obscure 32016 based machine if you wanted to run BSD at home :-).
The situation today is vastly improved by comparison and most people
don't even stop to think about that.</p>
<p>In any case, I didn't mean this posting as a fluffy "we're fine!"
sorta thing, though I do think that people sometimes lose sight of our
own growth rate and notable successes when furrowing their brows over
the latest Linux PR victory, I do have a summary of points I think we
can and should improve:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Keep pushing the magazine articles out. These seem to be easier for
people than books and I've largely given up on trying to incite a
FreeBSD book to happen - I guess that will just occur in its own
good time. Walnut Creek CDROM is still paying a bounty for magazine
articles (matching funds for your fee) and has enabled more than one
person to buy a new machine for the price of one weekend's writing
for a good cause. Pick a target publication and go for it, folks!
I've done about 3 of these so far (maybe more, I forget :) and can
say that it's not that hard. You generate a simple article outline and
you submit it to the editor along with your proposal for what
you're trying to accomplish with the article (just a paragraph or
two of text, not a thesis). If they're interested, they'll send you
back details on how long they want the article to be (generally
500-1000 words) and how much they're willing to pay. When they
pay, send us a photocopy/FAX of your royalty check and we'll pay
too. It's that simple, and it good for FreeBSD to appear in print
like this since it reaches outside the somewhat closed audience of
the mailing lists.</p></li>
<li><p>Look at Linux as a door opener, not a threat. I mean this,
folks, even you rabid Linux haters out there. Consider very
carefully the fact that if customer A needs a PC to do server job B,
customer A is going to do one of four things:</p>
<ol>
<li>Buy NT</li>
<li>Buy a commercial Unix</li>
<li>Buy Linux</li>
<li>Buy *BSD</li>
</ol>
<p>Those really are about the only 4 options for building a
department fileserver or gateway box with cheap, commodity hardware
(we'll assume the people who don't want cheap buy Cisco gear, Suns
and NetApp filers anyway) and let's look at them in turn:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If they buy NT, you can pretty much write them off. By the
time they realize what they've gotten themselves into, the
investment (or embarrassment) is generally too great to back out
of anyway and it's actually very few IS shops that seem to claw
their way back from NT and install a free OS instead. Sure, you
hear widely trumpeted stories whenever some large ISP does make
it back from NT, but its very rareness is what makes it
something to trumpet about. NT is Darth Vader here and we must
fear his control of the dark side (marketing) and the fact that
"everybody knows NT" when the issue of personnel comes up with
most pointy-haired managers.</p></li>
<li><p>Is a much better option since at least the customer has
accepted Unix as their savior and can potentially be won over at
some point by OSS, but the fact that they chose a commercial
Unix probably also means that they have deep-seated needs for
tech support or inter-operability with other parts of the IS
shop and you'll probably have to work on them for awhile to win
them over.</p></li>
<li><p>Here now we've at least accomplished two things: We've got
the customer admitting that they want Unix and that they want a
free Unix. Furthermore, they've chosen a solution which we think
we can beat in all the taste tests if we can just get the CD in
front of their faces. All in all, this has got to be the
easiest conversion of the three and a definite win if their only
other options were A or B.</p></li>
<li><p>Yay! Of course we like this one, but if it's not FreeBSD
then we still have a bit of a conversion job to do and it might
even require something like a SPARC port to be able to offer the
same cross-platform inter-operability that the user has chosen
the other *BSD for. It's something to think about, and
certainly no better than the Linux scenario in some ways (again,
if you're just thinking about this from the pure, mercenary "how
do we get more FreeBSD users" perspective).</p></li>
</ol>
</li>
<li><p>Hold your advocacy to a higher standard, and by this I mean that
if we're to weather this whole PR blitz period with our reputation
for being "the calm and level-headed ones" intact, we can't stoop
to the level of some Linux advocates when trying to make short-term
gains against their PR blitzes. Sometimes you just have to be
Gandi.</p>
<p>When the press have gone away, believe me, people will remember
which groups stuck to their guns and didn't compromise their
identities or ideals and which went sort of nuts and participated
in a few raping and pillaging sessions. I'd far rather be the
group still standing there when the smoke clears going "Yup, we're
still here and still doing good software without the fanfare or
fancy costumes. Have a look!"</p>
<p>To put it another way: If FreeBSD were a respected musical
entertainer, I would want her to be the one who stuck to doing
the kind of music she liked and always did it well rather than
horrifying us during the disco years by suddenly putting on spandex
pants and lip-syncing to formulaic, song-factory material or
shrieking out heavy-metal lyrics in heavy makeup with Axel Rose 10
years later. :-) Sometimes the price of "success" is too
high.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>- Jordan</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>As the BSD projects (FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD) have grown in size,
a number of persistent myths have grown up around them. Some of these are
perpetuated by well meaning but misguided individuals, others by people
pursuing their own agendas.</p>
<p>This page aims to dispel those myths while remaining as dispassionate
as possible.</p>
<blockquote><b>Note:</b> Throughout this page, ``*BSD'' refers to all
three of the BSD Projects. Where a myth or response is specific to a
particular project it is indicated as such.</blockquote>
<blockquote>If you are aware of an omission or error on this page, please
let the maintainer, Tom Rhodes &lt;<a href="mailto:darklogik@Pittgoth.com">darklogik@Pittgoth.com</a>&gt;
know.</blockquote>
<h2>Index</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#closed-model">*BSD has a closed development model,
it's more ``Cathedral'' than ``Bazaar''</a></li>
<li><a href="#own-distro">You can't make your own distributions or
derivative works of *BSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#server">*BSD makes a great server, but a poor
desktop</a></li>
<li><a href="#old-codebase">The *BSD codebase is old, outdated, and
dieing</a></li>
<li><a href="#bsd-war">The *BSD projects are at war with one
another, splinter groups form each week</a></li>
<li><a href="#clustering">You can't cluster *BSD systems (parallel
computing)</a></li>
<li><a href="#support">There's no commercial support for
*BSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#applications">There are no applications for
*BSD</a></li>
<li><a href="#aout">*BSD uses the a.out executable format, which is
outdated technology</a></li>
<li><a href="#beats">*BSD is better than (some other system)</a></li>
<li><a href="#beaten">(some other system) is better than *BSD</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Myths</h2>
<h3><a name="closed-model">*BSD</a> has a closed development
model, it's more ``Cathedral'' than ``Bazaar''</h3>
<p>Eric Raymond wrote an influential paper, ``<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/">The
Cathedral and the Bazaar</a>'' in which the Linux development model
(and the model Eric used for <tt>fetchmail</tt>) is held up as an
example of how to do ``open'' development. By contrast, the model
employed by *BSD is often characterized as closed.</p>
<p>The implicit value judgment is that ``bazaar'' (open) is good, and
``cathedral'' (closed) is bad.</p>
<p>If anything, *BSD's development model is probably
<strong>more</strong> akin to the ``bazaar'' that Eric describes than
either Linux or <tt>fetchmail</tt>.</p>
<p>Consider the following;</p>
<ul>
<li><p><b>FreeBSD, OpenBSD:</b> The current, bleeding edge source
code for FreeBSD and OpenBSD is available for anyone to download
from the Internet, 24 hours a day. You don't need to wait for
someone else to roll a release.</p>
<p><b>FreeBSD, NetBSD:</b> An installable snapshot of the current
progress is made every 24 hours. These snapshots can be installed
exactly like an ordinary release, and do not require installation
over an existing system.</p>
<p><b>OpenBSD:</b> Installable snapshots are generated as and when
people request on the OpenBSD mailing lists.</p>
<p>Contrast this with Linux, where new kernel distributions are
made available on an ad-hoc basis, and where the frequency of
each Linux distribution release is at the whim of the individual
vendor.</p>
<p>There's none of the Linux fanfare every time a new kernel is
released, simply because for most *BSD users it is an every day
event.</p></li>
<li><p>All the *BSD Projects use CVS to maintain their source code.</p>
<p><b>FreeBSD, OpenBSD:</b> The CVS tree is available for anyone to
browse and download, 24 hours a day. The tree can be retrieved using
Anonymous CVS, CVSup, CVSupit, CTM (by e-mail), or through simple
FTP.</p></li>
<li><p>Anyone can submit patches, bug reports, documentation, and
other contributions. They can do this by using the <TT>send-pr</TT>
program installed on their *BSD system, or by using a web based
interface.</p>
<p>Pointers to this system litter the documentation.</p></li>
<li><p>Not everyone can commit code changes to the *BSD code. You
need to be a <EM>committer</EM> first. Typically, people are offered
``commit privs'' after they have made a few well-thought out
submissions to the project using <tt>send-pr</tt> or similar.</p>
<p>This is identical to the Linux mechanism. Only one person is
(notionally) allowed to change the Kernel, Linus. But specific areas
(such as the networking code) are delegated to other people.</p>
<p><i>Aside: Nik (nik@FreeBSD.ORG) is a case in point. After making
several submissions to the FreeBSD Documentation Project and
web pages, he was offered ``commit privs'' so that he did not
have to keep bothering other committers to commit the changes. He
never had to ask for them, they were freely given.</i></p></li>
<li><p>There is a core team who have overall architectural control over
where the *BSD project is heading. Just as Linus has overall
control and final say over the Linux kernel.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Also, see this article written by Jordan Hubbard in Performance
Computing, titled <a href="http://www.performance-computing.com/features/9810of1.shtml">What is FreeBSD?</a></p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="own-distro">You</a> cannot make your own distributions
or derivative works of *BSD</h3>
<p>You can. You just need to say in the documentation and source
files where the code is derived from.</p>
<p>For example, PicoBSD is a tailored distribution of FreeBSD that
fits on a floppy. It's great for turning a diskless 386 PC into a
router or a network print server.</p>
<p>The Whistle Interjet is a ``network appliance'' that acts as a
router, web server, mailhost (and other functionality), can can be
configured using a web browser. The underlying operating system is
FreeBSD, and Whistle have contributed many of their code
enhancements back to the FreeBSD project (while keeping enough of
them proprietary that they can stay in business).</p>
<p>The OpenBSD project started as a spinoff from the NetBSD project, and
has since evolved its own distinctive approach.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="server">*BSD</a> makes a great server, but a poor
(Unix) desktop</h3>
<p>*BSD makes a great server. It also makes a great desktop. Many of
the requirements for a server (responsiveness under load, stability,
effective use of system resources) are the same requirements as for a
desktop machine.</p>
<p>*BSD has access to the same desktop tools (KDE, GNOME,
windowmanagers) as Linux. And ``office'' applications such as
WordPerfect or StarOffice work under BSD's Linux emulation
layer.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="old-codebase">The</a> BSD codebase is old, outdated, and
dieing</h3>
<p>While the BSD codebase may be more than 20 years old, it is neither
outdated or dieing. Many professional users like the stability that years
of testing has provided FreeBSD.</p>
<p>Technological enhancements continue to be added to *BSD, including,
but not limited to;</p>
<ul>
<li><p>SMP: Symmetric Multi-Processing, making use of systems with
multiple CPUs.</p></li>
<li><p>SoftUpdates: Makes the BSD filesystem at least as fast as the
Linux filesystem, <strong>without</strong> needing to enable
asynchronous writes, with their associated risk.</p></li>
<li><p>VM system: The VM (Virtual Memory) subsystem continues to be
refined. The merged VM/cache design helps systems like
wcarchive.cdrom.com juggle thousands (literally, more than 3,600)
TCP/IP connections without falling over.</p></li>
<li><p>Architecture ports: Ports of *BSD are under way or already exist
on many other architectures, including SPARC, Alpha, and PPC. NetBSD
and OpenBSD both have more architecture ports than FreeBSD, which
is, at the time of writing, running on i386, Alpha and
SPARC.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="bsd-war">The</a> *BSD projects are at war with one another,
splinter groups form each week</h3>
<p>No. While occasional advocacy may get a touch heated, the *BSD flavors
continue to work with one another. FreeBSD's Alpha port was initially
heavily based on the work done by the NetBSD team. Both NetBSD and
OpenBSD used the FreeBSD ports collection to bootstrap their own port
sets. FreeBSD and NetBSD both integrate security fixes first discovered
by the OpenBSD team.</p>
<p>This cooperation extends to the commercial company BSDi, who graciously
donated their DOS emulation layer to FreeBSD.</p>
<p>The FreeBSD and NetBSD projects separated more than five years
ago. OpenBSD is the only new BSD project to split off in the last five
years.</p>
<p>The *BSD projects cooperate in other areas as well. For example, the
monthly publication <a href="http://www.daemonnews.org/">DaemonNews</a>
is a collaborative effort by members of all three projects.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="clustering">You</a> can't cluster *BSD systems (parallel
computing)</h3>
<p>The following URLs should disprove this;</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/">http://www.epm.ornl.gov/pvm/</a>
The Parallel Virtual Machine is nothing more than a software package that makes
setting up a Cluster simple. The source code is freely available, and will run
on FreeBSD without much problem.</li>
<li><a href="http://cubix.desy.de/General/bsd/bsd.html">http://cubix.desy.de/General/bsd/bsd.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://acme.ecn.purdue.edu/">http://acme.ecn.purdue.edu/</a>
Advanced Computer Matrix for Engineering (ACME) which runs the FreeBSD Operating System.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/workshops/Talks/Mikler/mikler.html">
http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/workshops/Talks/Mikler/mikler.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.scope.gmd.de/info/www6/technical/paper196/paper196.html">
http://www.scope.gmd.de/info/www6/technical/paper196/paper196.html</a>NetBSD for Clusers!</li>
<li><a href="http://www.ccrc.wustl.edu/~milind/MediaServers.html">
http://www.ccrc.wustl.edu/~milind/MediaServers.html</a></li>
<li><a href="http://daily.daemonnews.org/view_story.php3?story_id=964">
http://daily.daemonnews.org/view_story.php3?story_id=964</a>
Daemon News Posting, quick talk about Clustering</li>
<li><a href="http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Projects/ClusterCookbook/index.html">
http://www.scl.ameslab.gov/Projects/ClusterCookbook/index.html</a></li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to this, Tom Rhodes is currently writing an article designed to walk a user through setting up
a Parallel Computing environment using FreeBSD and other utilities. Keep an eye out for this article in late
2002 early 2003.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3>There's no commercial support for *BSD</h3>
<p><b>FreeBSD:</b> The <a href="http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consulting.html">FreeBSD
Commercial Consulting Page</a> lists companies that offer commercial
support for FreeBSD.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.freebsdmall.com">FreeBSD
Mall</a> also offer commercial support.</p>
<p>For training, one might try <a href="http://www.bsdmall.com/">BSDMall.com</a>, but they sell
other items too, like shirts, hats, books and software! Defiantly worth a look.</p>
<p><b>OpenBSD:</b> The <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/support.html">OpenBSD Commercial
Consulting Page</a> lists companies that offer commercial support for
OpenBSD.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="applications">There</a> are no applications for *BSD</h3>
<p>The free software community started running on predominantly BSD
systems(SunOS and similar). *BSD users can generally compile software
written for these systems without needing to make any changes.</p>
<p>In addition, each *BSD project uses a ``ports'' system to make the
building of ported software much easier.</p>
<p><b>FreeBSD:</b> There are currently more than 6,000
applications ready to download and install in the FreeBSD ports
collection. The Linux emulation layer will also run the vast majority of
i386 Linux applications.</p>
<p><b>NetBSD:</b> The Linux emulation layer will run the vast majority of
i386 Linux applications, and the majority of SunOS4 applications can be
run on a SPARCStation.</p>
<p><b>OpenBSD:</b> There are currently slightly more than 400 applications
ready to download and install in the OpenBSD ports collection. The Linux
emulation layer will also run the vast majority of i386 Linux
applications, and the majority of SunOS4 applications can be run on a
SPARCStation.</p>
<p>Both NetBSD and OpenBSD are able to use applications in FreeBSD's ports
collection with minimal effort. Their lower number of ported
applications reflects this.</p>
<p>It is true that most companies when porting to PC Unix will choose Linux
first. Fortunately, *BSD's Linux emulation layer will run these
programs (Mathematica, WordPerfect, StarOffice, Quake, ...) with
few, if any, problems.</p>
<p>As a historical note, the first version of Netscape Navigator that ran
on FreeBSD with Java support was the Linux version. Now, of course,
Netscape have produced a FreeBSD native binary (and have done for some
time).</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="aout">*BSD</a> uses the a.out executable format, which is
outdated technology</h3>
<p><b>FreeBSD:</b> Until recently (September 1998) FreeBSD used the a.out
format by default. There were no pressing reasons to switch earlier. In
particular, FreeBSD did not (and does not) have the problems building
shared libraries that spurred the Linux conversion from a.out to ELF. As
of FreeBSD version 3.0, FreeBSD uses the ELF executable format.</p>
<p>Check out the wonderful article that Tom Rhodes wrote about upgrading
an a.out to ELF system, it has information on the way FreeBSD uses a.out and
ELF, along with tons of other useful information. The html version can be found here:
<a href="http://www.Pittgoth.com/~darklogik/aout/article.html">
http://www.Pittgoth.com/~darklogik/aout/article.html</a>, but its also available in
the PDF (article.pdf), dvi (article.dvi), postscript (article.ps), sgml (article.sgml),
and TeX (article.tex) versions. Just change the extension as appropriate.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="beats">*BSD</a> is better than (insert other system)</h3>
<p>This is user opinion only.</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h3><a name="beaten">(insert some</a> other system) is better than *BSD</h3>
<p>This is user opinion only</p>
<hr noshade size="1">
<h2>Contributors</h2>
<p>Members of the FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD projects have contributed
to this page;</p>
<table width="100%">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Nik Clayton
&lt;<a href="mailto:nik@freebsd.org">nik@FreeBSD.ORG</a>&gt;</td>
<td>Jordan Hubbard
&lt;<a href="mailto:jkh@freebsd.org">jkh@FreeBSD.ORG</a>&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ian F. Darwin
&lt;<a href="mailto:ian@DarwinSys.com">ian@DarwinSys.com</a>&gt;</td>
<tr>
<td>Adrian Filipi-Martin
&lt;<a href="mailto:adrian@ubergeeks.com">adrian@ubergeeks.com</a>&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tom Rhodes
&lt;<a href="mailto:darklogik@Pittgoth.com">darklogik@Pittgoth.com</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&footer
</body>
</html>