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

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

#171

Post by redacted »

yellow_and_gray wrote: post #39
near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

What stopped me from using FreeBSD a year ago was lack of automatic tab completion on the shell. I would like to try FreeBSD again. Does anyone know if this works now? edit: clarified the reason I ask is because I want to know.

I mean absolutely no disrespect by this: if enabling automatic tab completion stymied you a year ago, running FreeBSD (or other operating systems with a similar ethos) as a main install may not be for you just yet. Play with it in a VM with snapshots, use it as a learning experience for how to manage, break, and fix a *NIX install.

Personally I run Ubuntu on my work desktop so I can focus on work and not managing the OS. I run a private irc server on a busted old desktop running Arch Linux for the opposite reason :)

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

#172

Post by stock_toaster »

louwrentius wrote: post #28

For those of us that are more interested in FreeBSD due to the whole Systemd 'controversy', look at the other HN link about the 'FreeBSD: the next 10 years' presentation. They clearly state that FreeBSD is in the same position and it seems that they are not hostile towards the concept of Systemd. Personally I hope that FreeBSD will choose a solution that does not involve QR codes (not mandatory).

  > They clearly state that FreeBSD is in the same position....
He also talked about using XML (blech!) for configs, and seemed to be implying that launchd was more what he was talking about (see [slide 33][1]).

I am not especially worried though, as it was just a presentation from [one guy][2] who is not a current member of the [core team][3] or [the FreeBSD foundation][4] and is probably not wholly representative of the entire FreeBSD project.

[1]: http://www.slideshare.net/iXsystems/jordan-hubbard-free-bsd-...

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Hubbard

[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD_Core_Team#List_of_membe...

[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FreeBSD_Foundation

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

#174

Post by gillianseed »

near wrote: post #27

Like others have said, being unbiased is difficult, but I'll try. First, Linux v FreeBSD is really tough, so I will instead approach this from Debian v FreeBSD. I really like how easy Debian on the desktop is: install it, apt-get install xfce, and I have a nice desktop. It's very easy to add Adobe Flash, Steam, Skype, etc. The FreeBSD desktop isn't as nice. You can add things like Flash and Skype on FreeBSD, but you…

>and just in general I favor the BSD/MIT/ISC licenses to the GPL.

Curious then as to your choice of licensing your Higan/BSnes emulators under GPLv3.

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

#175

Post by hiphopyo »

tedunangst wrote: post #133
morganvachon wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, this issue exists in PC-BSD too. I tend to use Chromium anyway and Firefox as a backup, so it doesn't bite me as much when I'm in that OS. But it's definitely a big one.

This is why OpenBSD is the superior desktop operating system. Fixed months ago. :)

Indeed. This thread should really be titled OpenBSD vs. Linux.

I'm sure most people here don't even know it's the only OS in the world allowing you run Xorg as an unprivileged user.

Just like Linux taught me to appreciate FreeBSD, FreeBSD taught me to appreciate OpenBSD. OpenBSD -- the world's simplest and most secure Unix-like OS. Creator of the world's most used SSH implementation OpenSSH, the world's most elegant firewall PF, the world's most elegant mail server OpenSMTPD, and the OpenSSL rewrite LibreSSL. OpenBSD -- the cleanest kernel, the cleanest userland and the cleanest configuration syntax.

FreeBSD -- growing overly complex [1], lagging on security [2], packing itself with unnecessary, experimental technologies, and representing itself with a satanic mascot and a shiny, dildo-looking logo.

--

[1] http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2012-Janu...

[2] http://itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/62641-crypto-...

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

#177

Post by wtracy »

kchoudhu wrote: post #156
cturner wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can change the shell for a user in /etc/passwd, or with the command chsh. It's funny how little things like this affect where you go with systems. On the uni systems, emacs was set up to reformat your code by default (as you typed it in). This drove me bananas, and I didn't realise it was configurable. So I went off and found another editor, and I'm still using it.

Just don't change root's shell to something like bash. BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN.

Care to elaborate? Does FreeBSD make assumptions about the root user's shell that Linux doesn't?

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

#178

Post by ewbuoi »

hiphopyo wrote: post #175
tedunangst wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why OpenBSD is the superior desktop operating system. Fixed months ago. :)

Indeed. This thread should really be titled OpenBSD vs. Linux. I'm sure most people here don't even know it's the only OS in the world allowing you run Xorg as an unprivileged user. Just like Linux taught me to appreciate FreeBSD, FreeBSD taught me to appreciate OpenBSD. OpenBSD -- the world's simplest and most secure Unix-like OS. Creator of the world's most used SSH implementation OpenSSH, the world's most elegant…

It's just too bad they don't support ZFS or any similar filesystem. Their reasoning makes a lot of sense, but there are a lot of useful features that would be nice to have.

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

#179

Post by jv22222 »

jocmeh wrote: post #31

I started using FreeBSD (version 4.8 at the time) in 2003 and I began a switch to Ubuntu in around 2011. Disclaimer: the following is all very opinionated and 8.1 is the last version of FreeBSD I actively used. Actually, it's still running without any problems on a colocated machine, but it's a bit a "don't touch it" situation, because upgrading even a single piece of software would probably cause a cataclysm of stru…

If you use saltstack, puppet or chef to manage your servers it shouldn't really make that much of a difference how many servers you manage... be they linux or freebsd.

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

#180

Post by nieve »

byuu wrote: post #47
vertex-four wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not freebsd-update - Ports, the third-party package tree. There's no attempt made to create a "release branch" of Ports that gets kept up-to-date with security patches.

Correct, I should have clarified that. Since you mentioned server usage, keep in mind that the server software (Apache, PGSQL, PHP, OpenSSL, etc) are ports. Not that they're as unstable as desktop software usually is. I have my VPS (production) and a local HDD I use for testing (stage), configured exactly the same way. I'll update stage first, and if all looks good, then I'll update production.

Thanks, I appreciate the clarification from you and vertex-four. I was indeed missing the ports part of what you were saying. I'm relatively comfortable with that since I'm not going to be using FreeBSD for any large-scale deployments and the software I care about tends to be reasonably good at backwards compatibility. In the case of PostgreSQL I'd test, but in an emergency I feel like I could do a live upgrade without too much stress. I'll have to keep an eye on Nginx and Sphinx, though.
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