Funny to see FreeBSD promoted, and Linux taken down a notch in the top comment on a thread for an article celebrating 30 years of Linux...well, funny, if a bit unexpected...
Some prominent Linux developers and interactions in person or on mailing lists can be nasty, rude, even bullying. There are also a great deal of very nice people, and in the middle are a lot of people who can get frustrated or upset at times when discussions become robust, but are not inherently mean.
Exactly the same for the BSDs. The free BSDs have famously fragmented into several major groups, in some cases due to quite toxic conflicts including by some prominent members and leaders. BSDs are not objectively better than Linux in that regard.
It's a big part of the history. Linux has been compared to its competitors all along after all.
I remember FreeBSD being ever present all along. Ultimately, Linux won on many fronts, the biggest one maybe the vast hardware/driver support.
I've used both extensively in the 90's and early 2000's, both on the server and workstation side. Ultimately settling 100% on Linux around 2004-5.
Still, competition on this space is very healthy. Who wants an OS monoculture?