FreeBSD vs CentOS?

LittleBITLittleBIT Member Posts: 320 ■■■■□□□□□□
Can anyone shed some light on this?

I am planning on learning some Linux, and I've heard good things about CentOS as a server host, but after having a conversation with a Sys. Admin, he preaches that FreeBSD is the way to go.

I am a total newbie at Linux/Unix, but plan to learn and develop as I go (Can't always depend on M$)

What are peoples thoughts on FreeBSD / CentOS?
Kindly doing the needful

Comments

  • stryder144stryder144 Member Posts: 1,684 ■■■■■■■■□□
    If you are interested in sitting for a Linux certification, such as Linux+ or RHCSA, then you will need CentOS. Either OS should be a good learning tool and I doubt, in the beginning, that you'd notice a significant difference between them.
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  • linuxloverlinuxlover Banned Posts: 228
    Again one of those apples vs oranges threads. Well, first of all FreeBSD is not Linux so if you want to learn Linux, go with CentOS, Debian or Ubuntu. Second, I don't pretend to work with Linux commercially but I don't know what your sys admin does in his day to day to job to recommend you FreeBSD as a server OS. Thirdly, why not learn both at the same time and see for yourself what suits you best? My guess is Linux.
  • gc8dc95gc8dc95 Member Posts: 206 ■■□□□□□□□□
    CentOS is pretty much the same as RedHat, which is what you will see used in a large amount of Linux deployments and the well known certs are also RedHat based.

    I have never heard of FreeBSD being recommended for learning Linux, since it is not really Linux.
  • antielvisantielvis Member Posts: 285 ■■■□□□□□□□
    To the OP

    FreeBSD is usually used as a web based platform whereas Linux is used in web stuff (LAMP) and on corporate networks. If you intend to work in a web based environment, knowing FreeBSD won't hurt. If you're working for ABC Big Corp on their Linux team, knowing FreeBSD probably won't do much. There is a FreeBSD certification available if you're interested. I recall reading that many of the largest internet corps (Google, Yahoo, etc) used FreeBSD. It's rock solid too.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Senior Member Posts: 0 ■■□□□□□□□□
    Depends on what you want out of your distro. I am also wanting to learn more about Linux/UNIX as well. If you want more Network Administration, I would recommend Kali/BackTrack. If you want a move general overview, maybe some CentOS/Linux Mint. My distro of choice personally just for screwing around is GRML.
  • LittleBITLittleBIT Member Posts: 320 ■■■■□□□□□□
    thanks for all your replies.

    I am not sitting for any kind of cert - this is more towards self learning. I picked up both copies, didn't know FreeBSD has no GUI (Womp womp).

    I also picked up Kali/Backtrack for my security pursuit.

    I suppose I'll start with CentOS. I do understand that Linux/Unix (CentOS/FreeBSD) are two different things but again, as was said, Apples v Oranges.

    I thank everyone for their replies!
    Kindly doing the needful
  • linuxloverlinuxlover Banned Posts: 228
    What do you mean FreeBSD doesn't have GUI?
  • LittleBITLittleBIT Member Posts: 320 ■■■■□□□□□□
    I downloaded the ISO and installed it on a VM and it's all command line :X

    Did I install something wrong? Lol

    Well, after doing a little searching I guess you have to install it? Idk what i'm doing Lol. I'm a newbie icon_scratch.gificon_scratch.gificon_scratch.gif
    Kindly doing the needful
  • linuxloverlinuxlover Banned Posts: 228
    I don't know how your installation went but you can do "sysinstall" and go to packages there and install whichever desktop you prefer. The last FreeBSD I used was 4.7 and back then you'd have to configure to boot into GUI, I don't know how things stand today. Just as a reminder.
  • UnixGuyUnixGuy Mod Posts: 4,564 Mod
    Learn CentOS, you will see it used a lot commercially.
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  • KenCKenC Member Posts: 131
    Learning on CentOS and then getting to know the differences between using a BSD OS would be time well spent.
  • phoeneousphoeneous Member Posts: 2,333 ■■■■■■■□□□
    Freebsd is cool if you want to take advantage of free high availability storage features.
  • TrashmanTrashman Member Posts: 140
  • BryzeyBryzey Member Posts: 260
    Centos is what I used along with debian.
  • Santa_Santa_ Member Posts: 131 ■■■□□□□□□□
    Not to hi-jack the OP thread, just curious what others say. I've installed Arch successfully, but haven't done much at this point. I saw this thread and thought I would ask before I play within Arch.

    Would anyone recommended Arch over CentOS? Is it just as a good OS to learn Linux? Is it a good OS to study for the Linux+?
  • BryzeyBryzey Member Posts: 260
    Arch is bleeding edge so you will not see it in the enterprise where as Centos is identical to red hat so it depends on what you want to achieve.

    Arch is fine to learn Linux but if you want to apply it in the workplace I'd definitely go Centos.

    It's not going to cut it for linux+ either as you need to learn deb and rpm based package managers etc.. Arch uses pacman I believe so you won't be studying exam objectives.
  • LittleBITLittleBIT Member Posts: 320 ■■■■□□□□□□
    Thank you everyone for your replies. For now, I am going to try and utilize both FreeBSD and CentOS. I do like FreeNAS and the their firewall OS that you can utilize via FreeBSD, but man am I useless without a GUI (Sad, I know).

    CentOS seems user friendly, just picked up a cook book for it, going to see what cool things I can do with it.

    I might just put my MCSA Serv 2012 on hold for now to pick up this stuff, I am bored of MS Products...

    To never-ending learning!
    Kindly doing the needful
  • gkcagkca Member Posts: 243 ■■■□□□□□□□
    LittleBIT wrote: »
    but man am I useless without a GUI (Sad, I know).
    That's easy to fix, just grab this free ebook and you'll be fine with no GUI very soon: Download LinuxCommand from SourceForge.net
    "I needed a password with eight characters so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." (c) Nick Helm
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