Open-source experts and execs tell us which free operating system they like best, and why.

It's no secret open-source advocates and Windows enthusiasts get along about as well as dogs and steak-pantalooned mailmen. But what about debates within the open-source community?

On tonight's episode of "The Screen Savers" we examine the comparative benefits of Linux and FreeBSD. Both of these operating systems have open standards, both of them are available for free, and both can be customized to the hilt. The only question is, which one is better?

On tonight's show, Damage Studios co-founder and former Slashdot editor Chris DiBona, Offmyserver CTO Matt Olander, FreeBSD release engineer Murray Stokely, and Linux Journal Editor in Chief Don Marti tell us which operating system they like best, and why.

To set the stage for the open-source battle, we asked each of them to summarize their feelings in a brief statement. Read on, reader.

FreeBSD is easy to tweak and maintain
"FreeBSD has a much less restrictive license than most of the other operating systems out there. This allows companies to develop proprietary changes and gain intellectual property instead of being forced to submit changes back to the public. It is also one of the easiest operating systems for a system administrator to maintain due to the ports system, which allows single-command fetching and compiling of more than 9,000 third-party applications."

Matt Olander
Chief Technology Officer
Offmyserver

Linux is all about support
"I like Linux for the diverse hardware it supports and for its good performance. As far as I know, all of the userspace programs I like are also available for FreeBSD."

Don Marti
Editor in Chief
Linux Journal

FreeBSD is mature and professional
"As a developer, I prefer the professionalism of FreeBSD. I like the fact that the code base is more mature and that there is a real culture of professional software engineering associated with the project. For FreeBSD developers, there is peer pressure to produce high-quality solutions that are correct and bug-free the first time."

Murray Stokely
Vice President of Engineering, FreeBSD Mall
Release engineer, FreeBSD Project

Stokely recommends the following sites and stories for more information about the advantages of using FreeBSD.