Could somebody tell me the difference between UNIX, BSD and FreeBSD?
I've been using Linux from always, but now I'm curious about FreeBSD and BSD, because maybe there are more "unix-legacy"... What's exactly the difference between them?
Thanks!
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The various current UNIX systems are quite different from each other, and from the various BSD flavors (which also have significant variety). I'm not sure this can be answered unless you have a more specific question. – Mat Sep 16 '12 at 17:14
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@Mat Well, we did it with Linux and BSD, although I don't really know what the point is in this case – Michael Mrozek Sep 16 '12 at 17:33
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See the Wikipedia articles and the unix history diagram. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Sep 16 '12 at 17:40
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@MichaelMrozek: there's also What do different BSDs have in common? (that formulation actually makes a bit more sense to me for comparing these). I don't have a problem with this question except its scope. "UNIX, BSD and FreeBSD" isn't a very well defined set of things. I'm not even sure if what is meant is from a historical perspective, or for stuff as it is today. – Mat Sep 16 '12 at 17:42
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1The number one component is the user. Say some Unix flavor really is objectively better, or more streamlined into some field of computer activity. To actually benefit from this, compared to using some "worse" Unix flavor, you need to be a seasoned, absolutely hard-core expert. If you browse the web with Firefox, write code with Emacs, etc., your choice of flavor is a negligible quantity - any limitation will be because of you and me, not our systems. (But, as for computer culture, your question is not uninteresting.) – Emanuel Berg Sep 16 '12 at 22:04
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@Emmanual: I'd say the exact opposite. A real expert can adapt quickly to any *nix variant, but a novice or casual user is likely to find something like Ubuntu a lot easier to use (for daily tasks and to upgrade or install software) than, say, FreeBSD or gentoo. – cas Sep 16 '12 at 22:21