FreeBSD or Linux?

BSD is starting to really intrigue me.

When I finally decided to jump ship from Windows I went straight to Linux. The reasons are many but, aside from the security issues, the main factor in my decision was that I actually knew a bit about it. It's hard to be somewhat geeky and not know about Linux, right? Aside From Windows and OS-X, it's the most talked about OS (okay, kernel) on the Net. After that it was pretty easy to narrow it down to Ubuntu.

It's got a cute little mascot, too, but that didn't sway me.

I briefly considered FreeBSD, but I didn't know enough about it to commit to it as my full-time OS. All I knew was that it claimed to not be Linux, and that was enough for me. Linux gets all the press, and I wanted something widely used in case I ran into problems.

Now that I'm reading about Linux every day I often cross paths with BSD users. Both Linux and BSD are like Unix, so it's natural that the two sorts of users would occasionally hang out in the same places. BSD users go on about their operating system like I go on about Ubuntu. They don't merely tolerate their OS like Windows users often must, they love it like a Mac user loves OS-X.

What inspires such devotion to an OS? Security obviously plays a role, or it should, and so does stability. Linux has both of these, as does OS-X from what I understand. Customisability sure appeals to the geeks, too. You can tweak Linux 'til the cows come home. (I don't know how OS-X measures up in that regard so I won't comment.)

But I've come to learn in the past six months that, despite their similarities, there is a definite Linux camp and a definite BSD camp. And they are similar. Google for BSD screenshots if you want to see.

So why the divide? What's the difference between them if they're so similar?

Set aside an hour and read this: BSD vs Linux. You'll learn how the two philosophies differ.

Yeah. BSD is starting to really intrigue me. After reading that and poking around FreeBSD.org, the only reason I haven't switched is that Ubuntu ain't broke.

Dammit. I think.

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BTW, tinkerers might be interested in looking at Arch Linux "an i686-optimized linux distribution targeted at competent linux users (read: not afraid of the commandline)." Those I know who've tried it like it a lot. It's apparently noticeably speedier than Ubuntu, too.