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Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

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Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#1

Post by bjackman »

Since the recent surge of interest in FreeBSD I've been curious to find out more about it. I did some Googling but couldn't find any quality articles discussing FreeBSD from the common Linux-er's perspective.

I did find this: https://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/01. It doesn't have a date, but he mentions using GCC 3.2.2, which came out in 2003, so I'd say the info is pretty out of date.

Can we share some links and knowledge?

PS: I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say I'm not remotely interested in arguing over which system is "better" - I just want to know about differences in design and unbiased identification of strengths and weaknesses.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#4

Post by keithpeter »

It might help to know your main interest: bare metal server in a coloco? Virtualised servers? embedded? desktops?

Do you manage thousands/hundreds/a handful of machines?

Or is your interest entirely academic and structural?

I agree that most of the obvious Google searches return superficial comparisons of the installation process or explanations of the packaging and upgrade processes.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#5

Post by gingersnaps »

> I just want to know about differences in design and unbiased identification of strengths and weaknesses.

There's no such thing as an unbiased identification of strengths and weaknesses, especially when it comes to monoliths like operating systems.

You say you're not interested in arguing about which system is better -- and I believe you -- but you're also asking for argument about which system is better, in list form. Heck, even your title has a versus in it.

That said, I join you in looking for a concise source of information about FreeBSD's design and usage in the wild contrasted with Linux.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#8

Post by vitriol83 »

i use it mainly as a soho nas. the things i like about it are

1) userland and kernel owned by the same group. this lends consistency to the experience, that is absent in linux, where it's clear that it's an amalgamation of many different tools.

2) (largely) one way of doing things

3) package management system (pkg-ng) that is a cross between gentoo portage and debian apt-get

4) extremely good documentation for an open source project (https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/)

5) configuration is very simple (mostly driven from rc.conf)

6) excellent full-disk encryption support (geli)

driver support always lags a bit behind linux, on the other hand the drivers that do exist i'm confident are stable. i make sure to buy hardware which i know is supported.

Re: Ask HN: Can we talk about FreeBSD vs. Linux?

#9

Post by reidacdc »

I think this would be a useful conversation.

The userlands are pretty similar, I think, they both support the GNU tools, as is attested to by the existence of Debian/kFreeBSD.

I don't know what the OP's motivation is, but I'm an enterprise server admin, with lots of Debian experience, but no real FreeBSD knowledge at all. I've been looking at Debian/kFreeBSD off and on for a while as a way to get at ZFS, and possibly better NFS performance. I was actually planning on deploying some experimental Debian/kFreeBSD systems when Jessie releases, but it now looks like that might not be such a good plan: http://lwn.net/Articles/614142/

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