[[!table  data="""
 **Feature**  |  **DragonFly**  | **Linux**  

 Distribution formats |  ISO image, pkgng, tarballs |  ISO image, rpm, dpkg, tarballs 

 Distribution Depots | Central repository with mirrors for base, several binary package repositories |  Debian: many mirrors; Redhat: central; Ubuntu: central; SUSE: ? 

 Number of Distributions | one (3 sibs: FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD; most popular: FreeBSD) | hundreds (most popular: RedHat (sub-distro: Fedora), Debian (sub-distro: Ubuntu)) 

 Update methods | git, cvsup, rsync, pkg | up2date, yum, apt-get, pacman, emerge, etc. 

 Xen | not yet | yes 

 Compiler | gcc 8.3 | gcc 4.7.2 (Debian 7), gcc 4.4.7 (Redhat 6), gcc 4.1.2 (Redhat 5), gcc 12.2.0 (Void)

 Firewall | default: pf; other: ipfw2, ipf | default: iptables; other: pf 

 Livecd | yes (DVD) | yes, many sizes, versions 

 Kernel SCM | git | git 

 Default GUI | none | none, kde, gnome, xfce, etc. (depend on distro)

 File systems | UFS1, MFS, EXT2, FAT (16/32), NTFS (write experimental), HAMMER | BTRFS, EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, FAT (16/32), NTFS (read-write experimental?), XFS, REISERFS, REISER4, JFS, ZFS, UFS2 

 Encryption Mechanisms | LUKS, TrueCrypt (tcplay) | LUKS, TrueCrypt (tcplay) 

 Kernel compilable from supplied source? | Yes | Yes (depend on distro) 

 Predominant Licenses | 3-clause DragonFly, 3-clause BSD, 4-clause BSD, MIT, GPL | GPL, Lesser GPL, MIT, 3-clause BSD? 

 Commercial Support | Not yet | many; leaders: RedHat, Novell? 

 Processor Architectures | AMD64 | x86, AMD64, Sparc, PowerPC, etc 

 SMP | yes | yes 

 NUMA | yes | yes (depending on kernel?) 

 Boot loader | default: bsd boot block; lilo, grub work | default: lilo, grub 

 Disk partitioning | BSD-style: slices on fdisk'ed partitions | fdisk partitions 

 Logical volume management | vinum, LVM2 | LVM1, LVM2, 

 Release schedule | about twice a year (developer-driven) | Redhat: 18 month; Debian: feature-driven; Ubuntu: 6 month; Fedora: 6 months; |

"""]]DD:Distribution dependant




### Advantages over Linux 


* BSD licensed
* All you have to do is give credit.
* Except where the 4-clause BSD License is used, of course: BSD License (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_License)
* More control
* You can easily build your own base system / release / live cd.
* The rpm/deb based distros lack that.
* Everything is developed in GIT. And the GIT repository is available, so that you can download it and commit to your own repository.
* Guaranteed to build from source
* [jail(2)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?section#2&commandjail) support
* A jail is a [chroot(2)](http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/cgi/web-man?section#2&commandchroot) on steroids with low overhead.
* Since jails have their own IP, you can easily setup up Virtual Hosting enviroments on shared servers.
* VKERNELs
* VKERNELs can be compared with UML.
* Many packet filter packages:
* ipf - by Darren Reed
* ipfw2 - the successor to ipfw
* pf - by Daniel Hartmeier and the OpenBSD project, the most flexible, can e.g. match Operating Systems
* SIGINFO signal
* You can send a SIGINFO to a process (e.g. via CTRL-T) and it prints useful information e.g. fsck reports how many percent are done
* Kernel debugger
* CTRL-ALT-ESC in a console gives you a debugger prompt.
* There are non-standard patches for something like that for Linux.
* Debugging via a firewire console is also available, see dconschat(8)
* No binary blobs
* Integration of gcc 5.4.1
* Easily switch your default compiler by setting the environment variable CCVER to gcc6.

     % env CCVER=gcc6 cc -v
     Using built-in specs.
     COLLECT_GCC=/usr/local/bin/gcc6
     COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/local/libexec/gcc6/gcc/x86_64-portbld-dragonfly5.1/6.4.0/lto-wrapper
     Target: x86_64-portbld-dragonfly5.1
     Configured with: /construction/lang/gcc6/gcc-6.4.0/configure --disable-multilib --with-build-config=bootstrap-debug --disable-nls --enable-gnu-indirect-function --libdir=/usr/local/lib/gcc6 --libexecdir=/usr/local/libexec/gcc6 --program-suffix=6 --with-as=/usr/local/bin/as --with-gmp=/usr/local --with-gxx-include-dir=/usr/local/lib/gcc6/include/c++/ --with-ld=/usr/local/bin/ld --with-pkgversion='FreeBSD Ports Collection' --with-system-zlib --disable-libgcj --enable-languages=c,c++,objc,fortran --prefix=/usr/local --localstatedir=/var --mandir=/usr/local/man --infodir=/usr/local/info/gcc6 --build=x86_64-portbld-dragonfly5.1
     Thread model: posix
     gcc version 6.4.0 (FreeBSD Ports Collection)



### Disadvantages compared to Linux 

Most of these disadvantages are curable, not inherent.

* Less popular :-) which means fewer developers and testers
* No driver support from some graphics card companies

### Devices

[[!table  data="""
 **Feature** |    **DragonFly**  |   **Linux**  
 IDE disk |   ad0, ad1, ... |   hda, hdb, ...  
 IDE disk partition |   ad0s1a, ad0s1b, ... |   hda1, hda2, ...  
 Ethernet |   xl0 |   eth0 
"""]]

### Commands

[[!table  data="""
 **Feature** |   **DragonFly** |   **Linux**  
 Manage startup scripts |   rcrun |   chkconfig (Red Hat)/update-rc.d (Debian)
"""]]

*Some packages put their startup scripts in /usr/pkg/share/examples/rc.d/. You can put a symlink in /etc/rc.d or copy the script there.