Post #1641946

2026-02-23 11:40 UTC

@lproven @grahamperrin @jwallen Liam, Yes, I *do* agree that Linux has advanced far more than the BSDs. I've experienced this myself since starting both Linux and FreeBSD around the same time, roughly 20 years ago. I will not deny that. However, I find Linux more challenging from the perspective of documentation quality. Admittedly, this has been one of my biggest gripes. FreeBSD has The Handbook. It's canonical, it's versioned, regularly updated, and considered a core feature. It's also a single, complete OS. But this is not the same for mainstream Linux distros. OTOH, Debian, openSUSE, Arch, and Ubuntu (to name a few) all vary wildly in quality. Of course, man pages exist but they are just reference. This day in age, tutorials and How-Tos are expected. Funny you mention containers, due to the documentation problems I've struggled over setting those up but found FreeBSD Jails straightforward and significantly easier.

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@lproven@social.vivaldi.net 2026-02-23 11:58

@peteorrall @grahamperrin @jwallen I hear this a lot. I do not see the benefits myself. I think the reasons are interrelated. # The docs TBH, when I am installing or configuring a new OS, I don't have time to sit and read a manual. (Note: I speak as someone who spent 10% of my full-time working life _writing manuals_.) When something doesn't work, or I need to know how to do it, I Google it. Small bite-size pages are 10x (or 100x) more use to me than book. The Arch wiki is more use than a handbook _even when I am not using Arch_. The wealth of Linux info makes it more use than any 1 book. # The "single complete OS" Nice idea, but mostly fails in practice. I use Xfce, & Firefox, & Pandoc, & dozens of other FOSS tools. Most work on FreeBSD. They are not part of the "single complete OS", though. That means they mostly aren't in the docs. The "it's an integrated whole" thing isn't so much an objective fact as it's a viewpoint, that only applies to insiders. For outsiders, there's no clear line. It's an arbitrary grey zone & what it really feels like is that 75% of the time when you look for help you get told "that's not part of Core, go away."

Open ##1641947