Should I use gentoo or freebsd for programming/gaming like nwn(games that work on winex) and ect? I hear gentoo is a great linux distro but buggy. I also hear freebsd is good too, although it isnt a linux distro and only supports 80% or linux, but it is very stable. They make software now for windows or linux, so i dont know how freebsd is with compatability so i might not use it for that reason.. Do you guys happen to have any personal opinions or such? [edited by - HTML on September 21, 2003 12:08:14 PM]

When gentoo works, it works.
When it doesn''t...:D

I guess, but software wise, how is freebsd...since it only supports 80% or linux?

Ive never had any problems with Gentoo that wasn''t my own fault =P

Ive never tried FreeBSD though.

If the source code to any software is released (which it is for almost all linux programs) then you should be able to compile it in FreeBSD no problem. Basically if you can get it to compile in Linux, you can get it to compile in FreeBSD.

As for binary compatibility, FreeBSD has an optional "linux binary compatibility mode" when you install, that, like you said, works with 80% of linux binary files (although it runs quite a bit slower as well). This should be the last resort however. The first option is to get the source code and compile. If for any reason you can't compile the source (for instance, it uses libraries that cost $), then you can most likely find the FreeBSD executable online (check the links at FreeBSD.org). These first two options cover all COMMON programs, so I would recommend FreeBSD myself. However, if you are wanting to use linux programs where you can find ONLY the linux executable (no source, no freebsd executable, or the source is uncompilable), you are forced to rely on the "linux compatibility mode" which may not always work satisfactorily.

[edited by - brobanx on September 21, 2003 3:34:20 PM]

ya, thats not a problem, i did some more research and i think im just going to stick with linux. However, gentoo is just so hard to install and takes a while, so might just go w/mandrake, maybe red hat.

Actually, the notion that FreeBSD runs Linux binaries slower is often incorrect. You probably wouldn''t notice it for the most part. There are some apps that won''t work correctly, however, but those are rare usually.

NWN I hear works fine on FreeBSD. Other games written for Linux may or may not work. Wine games should be the same, since Wine can be compiled for FreeBSD, though I never have done so, so you might want to do some research.

I think either choice will be fine, though I find Gentoo to be a distribution that makes you work for it, not the other way around. Fun to play with, but not for work or productivity.

Int.

If you want an easy to install linux distribution, try SuSE (there was a thread in here sometime recently about installing it, I think).