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You should try FreeBSD (2014)

blog.pascalj.com

11–20 of 156 posts

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#11
post #2

I did. I like it. It feels very clean and well engineered, I always manage to break it via updates though (freebsd-upgrade vs ports vs pkg) Apparently pkg-ng and ports are linked via a central database though now, so that should not be the case any longer. As for why? I disliked systemd and was told to "evolve or gtfo" so I gtfo since I didn't like the way it was being forced on me and the few gripes I had with it fe…

freebsd-upgrade has been absolutely fool-proof for me. Mixing ports and pkg is not advisable even though they use the same database since versions are often not in sync.

Boot environments on ZFS with beadm provide a brilliant way to protect against catastrophic updates. I don't know of any other popular OS that offers something comparable.

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#13
post #2

I did. I like it. It feels very clean and well engineered, I always manage to break it via updates though (freebsd-upgrade vs ports vs pkg) Apparently pkg-ng and ports are linked via a central database though now, so that should not be the case any longer. As for why? I disliked systemd and was told to "evolve or gtfo" so I gtfo since I didn't like the way it was being forced on me and the few gripes I had with it fe…

Always read /usr/ports/UPDATING after upgrading your ports tree, before upgrading any ports. This usually has what's going to break and instructions about how to manage. It does seem like it's not updated as often these days though.

Is there an equivalent to Debian's Stable packages?

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#14
post #9

Actually, FreeBSD is a great platform to learn about Linux. The more you learn about FreeBSD, the more will you understand Linux. The only time I will advice not spending time on FreeBSD, is when you have to deal with Java.

Absolutely agree.

A single year of FreeBSD has taught me more than 10 years of Linux about UNIX and by extension made me more proficient with both systems.

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#16
> Many major companies like Google or Netflix use FreeBSD in production.

Citation needed on that Google part. It seems unlikely to be true on any meaningful scale. (That is, when writing a FreeBSD advocacy article, maybe you should not be using the largest Linux user in the world as the FreeBSD example).

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#18
post #10

Does anyone have a source that FreeBSD are used at Google and Netflix today?

Netflix has the OpenConnect server/service that is used to bring content closer to the users by caching content at the ISP. It's a FreeBSD box with NginX and Bird BGP

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#19
post #9

Actually, FreeBSD is a great platform to learn about Linux. The more you learn about FreeBSD, the more will you understand Linux. The only time I will advice not spending time on FreeBSD, is when you have to deal with Java.

What issues do you have with Java on FreeBSD? I only just got FreeBSD running on my dev machine, but I've been able to work on (build/run) my Scala projects easily enough.

Re: You should try FreeBSD (2014)

#20
post #6

#1 selling point missing from the article( though they hinted at it with a nod to /etc/rc.conf ): It's not infected with systemd. Edit: Downvotes? This is a selling point, with all major linux distros leaving very little choice for those who dislike systemd.

Three replies, and two of them gripe about Systemd. I'd be more interested in hearing about everything else.

If they were serious they would be griping about laptop compatability, making me think they arent using it all
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