what's the difference in effect of backgrounding vs forking?

Goal: Create a long running process from a python script.

I started with a simple unix/linux daemon in Python. But, then I also created an init script that just sents the python script (with a while loop) into the background like this:

py开发者_JS百科thon test.py &

I'm wondering what the difference, in effect, is between the two of these methods?

note: I understand that one creates a child process, and the other doesn't. My question revolves more around the effect.

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They are the same thing. The only difference is the python daemon should set the parent process which means if you kill the parent process the child should die too.