FreeBSD 5.3 or DragonFly?

[Matthew Dillon]

:If a new user of BSD is trying to decide between installing FreeBSD 5.3, the 
:current version, or DragonFly, what advantages does DragonFly offer? 
:Hopefully someone can refer me to a document that has already been written, 
:since I imagine that a comparison would take up a great deal of space.
:
:-- 
:Robert T. Kopp
:http://analytic.tripod.com/ 

    For a new user or an existing 4.x user I would recommend DragonFly
    over FreeBSD-5.x, but with the caveat that ports are more likely to
    compile and install cleanly running FreeBSD-5.x verses DragonFly
    because we have not shifted our focused to the ports/packages system
    yet.  That said, most ports are available using pkg_add -r and do not
    need to be compiled from scratch, however.

    For someone who has already invested time and effort in 5.x or 6.x 
    switching to DragonFly is more of a chore because we are binary 
    compatible only with FreeBSD-4.x, not 5.x or 6.x, but I would still
    recommend switching to DragonFly sometime in the next year (especially
    once we get the ports/packages stuff sorted out and a few more 
    infrastructure features in-place).

    Now, of course, I am biased.  This is a DragonFly group after all!

					-Matt
					Matthew Dillon 
					<dillon at xxxxxxxxxxxxx>