Why you use FreeBSD ?

[flashweb]

I am new to FreeBSD. I got my last two servers with FreeBSD. I was using Linux on my servers, i brought my FreeBSD box as many says its best and i want to try it. May be because FreeBSD newbie, still i can't find the real advantage. Here is some points from my short experience with FreeBSD.

Advantage

Software Install From Ports, that is easy to do... just got to port directory and type in "make install clean" everything will be installed including required other packages. I like the phpX-extensions port, that is really time saving when installing PHP extensions.

In Linux, you can download source and install it with "./configure && make && make install", at times, you need other depended packages to be installed first. But this is a one time process and you know what you are installing on the server.

Disadvantage

You don't have any control over what version of other packages a port will be installing. For example, if you need MySQL 5 and PHP5 installed, you install MySQL 5 from ports, them PHP5. Latest PHP5 from ports will not work with MySQL 5. It need MySQL 4.1 to work with... So port developer decide which version of MySQL i use on my server and not me.... I want MySQL 5, but php5 is not supporting it, have to wait for port developer to use the latest version.

I feel like i have to depend on some one known as port maintainer, if he is busy or feel like using old version, i have to use that.

Would like to know why others prefer FreeBSD over Linux.

Regards,

Yujin

[cperciva]

Originally Posted by flashweb

Would like to know why others prefer FreeBSD over Linux.

Because FreeBSD is more secure.

[LTADMIN]

Because I cant make Linux do this and still respond.

last pid: 13129; load averages: 409.01, 407.73, 407.19 up 1+16:36:25 19:55:47
434 processes: 408 running, 24 sleeping, 2 zombie
CPU states: 93.8% user, 0.0% nice, 5.9% system, 0.2% interrupt, 0.0% idle
Mem: 258M Active, 889M Inact, 224M Wired, 63M Cache, 162M Buf, 3080K Free
Swap: 2048M Total, 92K Used, 2048M Free

Dual Opteron 244 / 2GB RAM / 7x 400 SATA RAID 5 / 1x 40GB OS. FreeBSD AMD64. Going for 1 day straight at 400+ load averages and disks on fire and it still chugging along.

[sgtcory]

Originally Posted by ltadmin

Because I cant make Linux do this and still respond.

last pid: 13129; load averages: 409.01, 407.73, 407.19 up 1+16:36:25 19:55:47
434 processes: 408 running, 24 sleeping, 2 zombie
CPU states: 93.8% user, 0.0% nice, 5.9% system, 0.2% interrupt, 0.0% idle
Mem: 258M Active, 889M Inact, 224M Wired, 63M Cache, 162M Buf, 3080K Free
Swap: 2048M Total, 92K Used, 2048M Free

Dual Opteron 244 / 2GB RAM / 7x 400 SATA RAID 5 / 1x 40GB OS. FreeBSD AMD64. Going for 1 day straight at 400+ load averages and disks on fire and it still chugging along.

Wow - that's something else. What is this box used for if I may ask?

[flashweb]

Thanks all, i decided to continue my FreeBSD study :-)

Anyone know why "DEL" key is not working on "vi" editor in FreeBSD. Same for command line, "DEL" key produces "~" character, to delete i have to use "Back Space" key. That is different from Linux. Also "vi" is not showing the MOD, to see i have to use ":set showmod", can i have this option turned on by default.

[LTADMIN]

Originally Posted by sgtcory

Wow - that's something else. What is this box used for if I may ask?

New server I am load testing that we will be using to store client backup data on. Need to make sure it can take a good beating. It ran like that for over 24 hours before I stopped the processes and started filling up the disks. Takes a long ass time to fill up 1.8TB of data .

That was also with a bone stock FreeBSD 5.4 AMD 64 install with non-SMP kernel. Tweaking the kernel now and some other knobs to see what this machine can really do.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[rocky]

Just out of curiosity, what command(s) do you use to generate that kind of load?
Ive beaten the **** out of a few BSD's myself, but constantly running at 400...now thats a feat!

[randumb]

Originally Posted by flashweb

In Linux, you can download source and install it with "./configure && make && make install", at times, you need other depended packages to be installed first. But this is a one time process and you know what you are installing on the server.

And this can be done on FreeBSD :S

Originally Posted by flashweb

Disadvantage

You don't have any control over what version of other packages a port will be installing. For example, if you need MySQL 5 and PHP5 installed, you install MySQL 5 from ports, them PHP5. Latest PHP5 from ports will not work with MySQL 5. It need MySQL 4.1 to work with... So port developer decide which version of MySQL i use on my server and not me.... I want MySQL 5, but php5 is not supporting it, have to wait for port developer to use the latest version.

Use Source if you want full control. the same thing when you install a .rpm or a .deb it is a pre compiled package with required packages/applications from my understanding.

I personally use FreeBSD mainly because while being initially educated in *nix my instructor was a FreeBSD buff/contributor so it was easy to get assistance

[IT_Architect]

Quite awhile back we couldn't imagine being on FreeBSD. However, we had a site that grew to have massive traffic. A shared hoster told us we were bad for the neighborhood. After 4 big Linux houses each implied the last didn't know what they were doing, but they couldn't keep the Linux servers up past 9 AM. We remembered the shared hoster was running FreeBSD. Pear, the The Planet, SAVVIS, and LT said we should look at FreeBSD and DirectAdmin. Even the RH Rackspace engineer said they have some sites that need FreeBSD. We put it on one FreeBSD server. No more problems. There was a lot more pain and agony not mentioned here that dragged us kicking and screaming to FreeBSD. Today, there is only one server we NEED to run FreeBSD on, but all our servers are FreeBSD now. We also found performance is consistently fast without the ups and downs. Coming from a Linux background, it took some adjusting to not get my shorts in a bunch when the load went up. Processes don't fail under load with FreeBSD. OTOH, I did learn that clients have trouble getting email until loads cool down below 80, and pages take almost 15 seconds to load at 160. 20,000 unique visitors an hour, 4.85 average page loads per visitor, 1/3 traffic inbound to gather information, MySQL DB reads, creating .PNG maps = 3 -4 15 minute average load. FreeBSD should be a shared hoster's dream and dedicated server salesman's nighmare.

[JBapt]

Hi,

for me FreeBSD is undoubtedly the best operating system to have on a web server. Operating system is the key phrase here since its not *just* a kernel as linux is.

This means that everything works out of the box and is highly polished. I use ports since it allows me to build the userland optimized for my server instead of installing a pre-built package. Ports are heavilly tested before being available in the ports tree. Also using ports allows me to easilly compile the packages with what I need. I know we can do the same in Linux, but never works as well as in FreeBSD.

Also security wise, FreeBSD is much better. I've found this through personall experience.

It may seem a bit harder to pick up then a common CentOS, or Debian, but its not. Once you understand it, you will never go back to Linux. Its well worth the small effort. Makes you wonder why most Linux distros dont things the FreeBSD way.