by A handout BSDI was distributing at the Internet World show now concluding
in New York compared their BSDI Internet Super Server 4.0 to,among other
things,FreeBSD 2.2.6.
It was dated February 1999,by which time they should have been looking at
FreeBSD 2.2.8,and they're distributing it in October,when the stable
release of FreeBSD is 3.3(though I'm not clear that 3.x has been
proclaimed as fully stable as the mature end of the 2.2.x branch).
Leaving aside the things tagged as Microsoft proprietary(WinNT is also
on the chart,with Solaris and Linux),various features they cover are
said in the FreeBSD column to be N/A[not available],Biy[Build it yourself;
saying "make install" is generally easy!],or left blank[reason unclear];
I'm wondering how the situation may have changed for FreeBSD in some
areas since the non-current version they are comparing to...or how
inaccurate their table may be.
Under "World Wide Web Support"
SSL2 and SSL3 are 3rd-party-available for BSDI,left blank for FBSD.
XML is standard on BSDI,left blank for FBSD.
Remote Database is 3rd-party-available for BSDI,left blank for FBSD.
Front Page server extensions are 3rd-party-available for BSDI,N/A for
FBSD.
Under "VPN Support"
IPsec and ISAKMP are standard on BSDI,left blank for FBSD.
Under "Security"
Kerberos is standard on BSDI,left blank for FBSD(though I've certainly
seen it in FBSD release notes!!)
Under "Reliability"
"Uptimes > 1 year" is said standard on BSDI,left blank for FBSD.
Under "Advanced Features"
IPv6 is standard on BSDI,and N/A on FBSD.
Under "Technical Support"
They claim a 60-0 day advantage in "Initial Free Phone Support",
and everything else is "N/A" on FBSD and standard or optional on
BSDI...though saying "Update Support" and "Patch Server" are not
available for FBSD is IMO a stretch...just what is CVSupping and
the errata files and all such on ftp.freebsd.org classified as??
And "Email support",there are some addresses at freebsd.org to
send questions to.(And they don't mention newsgroups).
Under "Pricing"
They say the "Base Product" is $995 from them and $49 for FreeBSD,
and "16 User" $995 from them and left BLANK for FreeBSD,and that
they have a "60 day return privilege" and FBSD does not...if they
are talking about the Walnut Creek CDROM product,it's my understanding
that it can be returned for refund for a whole year,and costs $39.95
even to non-subscribers...and of course 16(or more) users are welcome
to use that CDROM set,or make boot floppies from it and make an
unlimited number of FTP installs...