After a long time, people finally started to accept the Solaris system based on SYSTEM V, which replaced SunOS 4. Although six years a long time, if Sun continues to maintain SunOS 4, it will cost longer. Why do people are so loyal to the old system? After all, they are all UNIX families.
I am never want to re-ignite SunOS and Solaris here, but I want everyone to pay attention to the biggest difference between SunOS 4 and SunOS 5, today's Solaris operating system components: Sunos 4 is based on 4.2 BSD, this is The UNIX version developed by the University of California University is also the first operating system that supports TCP / IP. Instead, SunOS 5 (commonly referred to as Solaris, although this title is not quite accurate), is based on AT & T's UNIX System V.4. Significant differences in BSD and SYSTEM V have made it still have a lot of supporters even after SunOS 4 "Death" for six years. It can't run in modern hardware is so unfortunately.
When SunOS 4 cannot run on modern hardware, other kinds of BSDs can be. In addition, they are still free. Recent propaganda to Linux
There is a fact that there is other free operating system. As early as 1991, when the Linux program has not been implemented, the Berkeley is ready to release the free 4.3 BSD running on the Intel platform. In addition, Berkeley Software Design Company (BSDI) is also writing a commercial version. However, UNIX System Labs (USL) sued by BSDI, saying that they illegally used AT & T source, so that these efforts were seriously hindered.
This case was resolved in 1994. Only one of the solutions is known for public knowledge: BSDI requests to move its codebase to 4.4 BSD Lite, which is the last BSD series of Berkeley's computer scientific research team. AT & T Appreciates this version does not contain its source code. In this way, the free BSD project is also moving to 4.4 BSD-Lite.
● Modern BSD
One of the main reasons why you stop using SunOS 4 is because it is outdated, especially it does not support modern hardware. So what about the family members of 4.4 BSD? They each have their own focus:
BSD / OS
BSD / OS is a BSDI product. Although I have tried to introduce it into the SPARC structure, it can only run on Intel. It seems that the BSDI has already determined that the version of the sparc is getting more and more unfair. As a unique commercial sales BSD product, it provides excellent after-sales service.
FreeBSDFreebsd is currently the most popular BSD product. Compared to other members, it pays more attention to the convenience of users installation and use. It turned out to be just an Intel platform, but recently released a version of the Compaq / Dec Alpha structure. Other projects include the version of UltrasParc, but this version has not been significantly advanced.
NetBSD
NetBSD is different from the opening direction of the beginning, it hopes to support as many hardware platforms as possible. When writing this article, it supports almost any platform you can think of, including all Sun hardware starting from Sun 3, although some are limited support. For example, when writing this article, the Ultrasparc version does not support PCI-based motherboard or multiprocessor, but it is likely to support these hardware in the near future.
OpenBSD
OpenBSD is differentiated from NetBSD in 1995. It supports more security than other members, it supports a variety of platforms, but less than NetBSD. For example, it is now still there is no UltraSparc version.
● Why is there so many versions?
See the directory of these operating systems, you may ask why there are so many similar operating systems. Is there anything that is not enough?
Historically, each project is established because of the differences in opinions when forming a good operating system. Because this software is free, anyone can decide to build its own operating system according to your needs. If it doesn't work, people can go here. In fact, all current BSD members, including BSDI, from the 386 BSD project of Bill Jolitz, which is gradually forgotten until 1994.
On the surface, differentiation of disintegration is not a good trend, why can't you dare to act, everyone compromises with each other? In practice, the BSD system showed a significant "autonomous" trend: only 386 BSD is close to the door in all members, and its descendants are very healthy and actively learn from each other. Each version has a different kernel that it means that the survival of the fittest is also for kernel code, and for Linux, this is only available for user code. For example, young FreeBSD SPARC version is not a white hand: it begins with NetBSD implementation and directly presents the following questions: Where are we doing better? This process naturally improves the standards necessary to success. As a result, many such an attempt failed, and those who did not create a "world-class" code were successful.
When you choose a BSD version, you should first consider the platform. In many cases, the platform will determine the selected operating system. By the PC platform supported in all BSDs, it may be more difficult, but there is no choice for absolute errors. ● What is their feeling?
The biggest difference between the BSD member is independent of the system itself, but what you use it. Now all workstations use some form of graphical interface (GUI). All BSDs include xfree86, which is an X11 implementation, and there is also Linux. On the one hand, this interface has a strong unity: only from the screen, it is difficult to talk about the system running BSD, Linux or even Solaris. On the other hand, the broadness of the PC hardware is selected such that the reliable installation x is relatively difficult, and some time to select the display hardware for XFree86.
In addition to hardware selection, Xfree86 is confused when choosing software, especially displaying and desktop manager, which makes the following platforms becomes more difficult by watching the display on the screen. For more information about the Window Manager, see "Open Directory Project" .http: //directory.mozilla.org/computers/software/x_windows/window_managers/ You can even use OpenLook WINDOW Manager to make it look OpenWindows. http://www.plig.org/xwinman/screenshots/olwm.gif
Although many times you might want to use the GUI. The BSD system is particularly suitable for domain name servers, web servers, mail servers, news servers, and so on. These systems do not require a graphical interface. In fact, they may even connect the display.
● What would you get?
All free BSDs can be obtained from the disc, including complete source and tools. The tools used in many tools and Linux are based on the same GNU tool, and some are based on old BSD tools. All versions include complete software development tools, which are also centered on GNU tools. As mentioned earlier, they also include XFree86 implementations of X11, and many platforms can execute Linux and SCO executable code.
In addition, we will see below, BSD also comes with a large number of third-party software.
● What can BSD do?
First, BSD / OS and FreeBSD seem to be as attractive as NetBSD and OpenBSD because they cannot run on the SPARC hardware. In fact, the ability to run on SPARC hardware is a bit exaggerated. This may be that BSDI decides to stop supporting the SPARC version. We already have an operating system Solaris, SUN, who is well supported on the SPARC, is a lonely. Although NetBSD and OpenBSD are better than Solaris more than Solaris, it is difficult to compete with it, and there are still some shortcomings in UltrasParc support. In particular, PCI support is still developing, and now you can't support multiprocessors. In fact, many of the interests of the BSD family are from the low price of PC hardware. For example, if you want to build a large FTP server, you probably have four options:
· Buy a Sun SPARC with Solaris 7. It is very expensive, but it is no problem in work, and you will not encounter a lot of trouble.
· Buy a PC and install Microsoft software. If it is a large server, you need NT. For this application, you only need basic NT server software, and $ 809 is relatively cheap. Microsoft's solutions and best practices (URLs see the end) above, claiming you can transfer 6GB data from three Compaq's ProLiant 5000S or 5500s, three machines are all Pentium Pro processors and 512 MB's memory memory. In order to ensure that the service is not interrupted, Microsoft recommends that you install multiple sets of spare systems.
· Buy a PC and install FreeBSD for it. The price on the hardware may be the same, but you don't have to spend a penny for the software. As the hardware configuration of wcarch.cdrom.com, ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/archive-info/wcarchive.txt Microsoft's statement is misleading. WCARCHIVE is just a single system, with only one CPU, and the Pentium Pro core. Compared to Microsoft's 6GB of transmission daily, WCARCHIVE is generally up to 700GB, and 3,600 users can be received at the same time. Such a performance is more than 100 times higher than the three large NT machines. On December 2, 1998, WCARCHIVE issued 820, 097, 694, 368 Bytes data, making it the most busy FTP server in the world.
· Buy a PC and install the commercial UNIX system. In many ways, the advantages for FreeBSD are also suitable for such configurations. But commercial UNIX is very expensive, and many evidence shows that they are more than BSD more than BSD performance.
WCARCHIVE is not the only instance of successful BSD. Another outstanding user is Yahoo !, it almost uses FreeBSD to do all things. In addition, there are at least two Internet root domain name servers running BSD, and most ISPs use BSD to complete certain features. In addition to such advanced applications, NetBSD and OpenBSD are also a good choice for old SUN hardware, including early SPARC hardware, SPARC hardware, and Sun 3 systems. Supported levels: NetBSD and OpenBSD include code for Sun 3, but OpenBSD said that its code did not get active maintenance. Both BSDs actively support Sun 4, Sun 4C and Sun 4M systems.
Why run BSD on the Sun machine? In many cases, the old hardware is more suitable for completing some features; you can easily use an old Sun 3 or SPARCSTATION I as a mail server or domain name server. This can also be done with SunOS, but the kernel's remarks will be exhibited in some aspects of the network stack, and then you must transplant all the current versions of the network client, which will obviously be the latest client to install BSD and BSD. The software is more time to flow. Ironically, these "returning to childhood" is more even more than PC hardware. It is often seen that an old 386 machine that runs a single Microsoft desktop system can set up the Internet gateway, mail server, domain name server, and web servers after installing BSD.
● Transplanting software
I just said "transplantation"? For decades, transplantation is one of the lifestyle of UNIX system administrators, but it is not easy in transplantation in the past. FreeBSD's transplantation software library, it is also used by OpenBSD, completely changing this situation. For example, do you want to install Xarchie on your own system? this is very simple:
# cd / usr / ports / net / Xarchie # make install
You will say, "No", as long as you put the source code on your machine, everything is very simple. But until you find that only six files under / usr / ports / net / xarchie - the biggest is not 691 Bytes, you will realize that there is a very complex connotation.
FreeBSD Transplantation Software Currently contains nearly 2,000 transplanted software products. Any of them does not include the software itself, but only one how to get this software, how to build and how to install the instructions. This allows BSD users to easily get the most installable software for any platform, all of which is only two lines of commands and a short period of time when the software is sent from the Internet.
People may underestimate the advantages of this way. What is the version of Sendmail you run? It is probably the version included in your system. If you have recently upgraded the system, maybe it is 8.8.8. The current version should be 8.9.1, which contains a series of improvements made to prevent messy, especially to prevent illegal forwarding and blocking certain domain names. However, transplantive Sendmail is always a bitterness, even if it is the same as the SENDMAIL's original BSD platform. If you use the software transplant library, everything is very simple.
Let's talk about NAMED. A few months ago, a suggestion that CERT released http://www.cert.org/advisories/ca-98.05.bind_problems.htmlnamed, Name Daemon may have several weaknesses that affect UNIX systems. When this recommendation is released, the BSD project has released patches for this issue; while Sun is just a patch for different systems in the future. ● Why do you want BSD, don't Linux?
Linux is more widely known than BSD. If you want to install a free Unix, why not choose Linux with the way?
There is no good answer to this question. LINUX is suitable for many working BSDs. Some people say that BSD is more stable than Linux - that is more suitable for the server-oriented application, and Linux is more suitable for desktop systems. Freebsd's slogan word is "the strength of service".
Others say that the pure Unix blood of BSD makes it more mature than emerging Linux. It is also said that BSD developers include a well-known person from Berkeley's computer science research group, which means it is better.
But this is just part of the reasons and there is no conclusive basis. The truth is that Linux is also a good operating system. Like other operating systems, it also has its weaknesses and its strengths. Some people say that Linux's weaknesses include its virtual memory system, which is the strengths of FreeBSD and NetBSD, but there is currently no comparative performance comparison test.
BSD and Linux are different in their foothold. Like Linux and BSD, it is a civilian development project at the beginning, but it has become more commercialized in the past two years. One of the main reasons you heard so much about Linux is that someone will profit by selling Linux. BSD is not concerned about commercial sales.
So why choose BSD? Oh, one of the reasons is that BSD comes from the same CodeBase, which is running on your Solaris machine, so it feels more familiar. In addition, although there is no conclusive evidence to prove that BSD is more stable or better than Linux, the opposite allegation from the Linux camp is also unusual.
● Get BSD
FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD are free from the Internet. Because the software is very large, and the network problem may make this form of installation. This may not be the best solution. All three operating systems have disc versions, and FreeBSD version is also attached to "complete freebsd", http://www.cdrom.com/titles/os/bsdbook2.htm It covers the system installation and maintenance FreeBSD is different from all aspects of the UNIX family.
● How about technical support?
A major controversy using a free operating system in a business environment is technical support. Who do you want to find once problems? In this regard, the free BSD family and Linux did not differ much. There are indeed some commercial technical support, and there will be more support. However, another difference is that there is also a commercial BSD, BSD / OS, which is not assessed by other UNIX members. Traditionally, the technical support of the free operating system is to answer the question by answering questions in the mailing group, usually the answer is correct. The problem here is "usually". How can you judge what you get is correct? Another solution is to join the help of commercial technical support organizations, which can be contacted through these independent projects.
All in all, try to try a BSD family now.
· BSD / OS is a commercial product you can get from BSDI http://www.bsdi.com, which also provides technical support.
· FreeBSD can purchase ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/freebsd from the Internet, you can also purchase the disc version from Walnut Creek CDROM.com/titles/os/bsdthree.htm freebsd Consultants provide technical support. Http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consulting.html
· You can get NetBSD http://www.netbsd.org/sites/net.html from the Internet, or get the disc version http://www.netbsd.org/sites/cdroms.html NetBSD has no formal consultant list, But many FreeBSD and OpenBSD consultants also support NetBSD.
· You can get openbsd http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html from the Internet, or ask the disc version http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html also has commercial technical support http: // www. Openbsd.org/support.html
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◆ Resource catalog
· Berkeley Software Design Inc. (BSDI) http://www.bsdi.com
· BSD / OS http://www.bsdi.com
· Freebsd http://www.freebsd.org
· NetBSD http://www.netbsd.org
OpenBSD http://www.openbsd.org
· Xfree86 http://www.xfree86.org/
Open Directory Project http://directory.mozilla.org/computers/software/x_windows/window_managers/
· Openlook window manager http://www.plig.org/xwinman/screenshots/olwm.gif
· Microsoft's Solutions / Best Practices Page http://www.microsoft.com/misc/backstage/solutions.htm
Hardware configuration for wcarch.cdrom.com ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/archive-info/wcarchive.txt
· The freebsd ports collection http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/ports.html·cert Advisory http://www.cert.org/advisories/ca-98.05.bind_problems.html
· CERT Advisory on named http://www.cert.org/advisories/ca-98.05.bind_problems.html
· The complete freebsd http://www.cdrom.com/titles/os/bsdbook2.htm
· Freebsd download ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/freebsd
· Freebsd on cd-rom http://www.cdrom.com/titles/os/bsdthree.htm
Freebsd's consultants http://www.freebsd.org/commercial/consulting.html
· NetBSD Download http://www.netbsd.org/sites/net.html
· NetBSD on CD-ROM http://www.netbsd.org/sites/cdroms.html
· Openbsd Download http://www.openbsd.org/ftp.html
· OpenBSD CD-ROM http://www.openbsd.org/orders.html
Openbsd Commercial Support http://www.openbsd.org/support.html
"Getting help with free software," december 1998 sunworld feature story http://www.sunworld.com/swol-12-1998/swol-12-support.html
· "The Story on Freebsd," December 1998 Linuxworld Feature Story http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/LW-1998-12/LW-12-Freebsd.html
