Thinking of making the switch from BSD

monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

Currently I use FreeBSD and am fairly happy with it. What I don't like about it though is a lack of corporate sponsorship, lack of hardware support, and what seems to be a decreasing user-base as well as a decrease in developers. BSD is by no means dead, however I'm interested in other alternatives. I run a small web-services business so stability and power is extremely important. I use x86 based hardware for everything.

I know that there is tension between the BSD's and Linux's user-bases... so I'm not sure what I'm going to get from this thread, but any information, opinions, etc. is welcome. Did anybody here come from BSD? I mean REALLY come from BSD (installing it and trying it for a week doesn't count).

Thanks.. hopefully I won't get too burnt.

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

I did. I love BSD. I use Gentoo for my desktop though as I like having current drivers and software. BSD will always run my servers though

monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

I know you.

from bsdforums.org

I post under a different name there.... I post under a different name everywhere for security reasons.

reisio · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Posts: 121

monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

well, it's not really paranoia.... it's more, that if I post under the same name, all a hacker might need to hack me is my ip and a common nick... using that they could get a ton of info such as OS, routing equipment, employee names, server names, etc. Why give hackers a leg up when it's so easy to just choose an original name with each forum. you know?

also I should mention that I'd love responses from people who have never used BSD as well..... opinions from everybody is much appreciated.

scuzzo · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 31 Location: maryland

woops V

scuzzo · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 31 Location: maryland

[quote="scuzzo"]

shm

reisio · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Posts: 121

Mystilleef · Guru Joined: 27 Apr 2003 Posts: 561 Location: Earth

*drum rolls*

...and the flame begins...
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monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

[quote="scuzzo"]

kamagurka · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:37 pm Post subject:

i think it's funny that a guy who makes a site called "linuxisforbitches" states he doesn't like linux because of the "pinheads" in its userbase...
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ColeSlaw · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:11 pm Post subject:

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Insanity5902 · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:42 pm Post subject:

I just asked this question earlier about a router, whether to use gentoo or bsd (specificly OpenBSD)

And the responses came back as OpenBSD. The main reason being security. If you currently are using BSD on your servers, i would leave them that way, the time and effort you put into switching them to linux won't be worth the trouble. I doubt performance will be noticed or stability. They are both stable and fast. One thing BSD (and again specificaly OpenBSD b/c that is what I researched) as going for it is security, it is more secure.

Now if you have multiple servers, as you replace them I would look into switching them. You seem to be a person who lilkes security. Why make it easier for a hacker by making all your servers the same OS, switch it up a bit. Yeah it makes it a bit harder for you b/c things are a bit different on each, but it will make it harder for them b/c the vulnerablities won't be the same on each machine.
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monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

that's an interesting idea actually.

Insanity5902 · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:17 pm Post subject:

why thank you,

But I do not deserve the credit, I don't remember where I read it though.
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monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

I guess I'll phrase my question differently which might help me understand this better. Why might Linux be more suitable for a server than BSD these days. Why might you prefer Linux over BSD?

With the trouble involved in migrating aside, why might one choose Linux over BSD. It's a lot easier to migrate now than it is when I have even more servers. As of now I only have 5 servers. I'm looking to add more soon. So this is an optimal time to evaluate this. I can only imagine that the trend of BSD losing devs and Linux gaining devs will continue. There doesn't seem to be anything that will revive BSD (unless FreeBSD 5.x release is revolutionary).

What are the pros/cons of each? I've read a lot about the two, however often it seems that people prefer FreeBSD for its heritage. That's not important to me. What's important is stability, power, and hardware support.

fernandotcl · Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:54 am Post subject:

I've read lots of reviews and comparisons between Linux 2.6 and FreeBSD 5. Almost all of them showed that Linux scales and performs better.

I use Linux and not FreeBSD due to the following: The BSDs are distributed under the BSD license. Linux is distributed under GPL. GPL allows code released under the BSD license to be included. BSD license doesn't allow GPL code to be included. That means, Linux is good because it has the best of the both worlds. If the BSDs got a striker feature, it'll be simply used in the next Linux kernel. The same cannot happen with the BSDs. That's why today Linux seems (IMO) to be better, and as the time goes the distance between the BSDs and Linux will be greater. That is, when Linux=BSD^n (n must be greater than 1

).

allucid · Veteran Joined: 02 Nov 2002 Posts: 1314 Location: atlanta

Are the *BSD's really losing ground? I am going to set up a personal server soon and I had planned on going with OpenBSD because I have always heard great things about OpenBSD as a server OS. Recent reviews seem to suggest this is still the case. This is an interesting topic, though. I'll keep on eye on this thread. Currently I am 90% convinced OpenBSD would be a better choice. I plan on setting it up two weeks from now. I should probably do a little more research before then.

monkey with a keyboard · n00b Joined: 22 Jul 2004 Posts: 9

well, I don't necessarily mean losing ground as in "OMG! BSD is totally falling apart!" However, something to look at always is "Is this OS going to be around in 5 years?" That's something that I'm a little nervous about with BSD. Some would argue, "Well, it's been around for a long time already!" I however see this differently. With Linux getting all of the attention lately, I wonder about the likelihood that the FreeBSD devs will continue developing FreeBSD. The same for Open and Net. It's increasingly more work to make drivers and port apps that have already been written for Linux. With 3rd party hardware vendors writing the drivers, the apps being written for Linux (Linux API on FreeBSD doesn't count), etc. I would have to imagine that Linux's growth will continue exponentially over time. While I'd LOVE to see FreeBSD suddenly get more attention, I just don't see it happening any time soon.

What do you think?

Insanity5902 · Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 4:11 pm Post subject:

OpenBSD is more secure then gentoo when compared to each other at a fresh installation.

I think *BSD will be around as a server OS, it won't be compataible with all hardware but don't see them changing as a server OS anytime soon.

I see Linux for the most part becoming more of a desktop OS which explains the wider range of hardware support. Vendors are starting to notice this and are writting drivers for linux themselves. I don't think support for BSD will dwindle but I don't think it is going to grow much either, where as Linux on the other hand is going to keep growing for a while. Especially with OS such as Lindows coming around and gaining strenght.

Those are my 2 two cents, take them for what they are worth.
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Valen · Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 6:41 pm Post subject:

I don't see BSDs going mainstream in the near future, however I think there will always be people interested in alternatives. As linux grows in popularity I think a few people will look to BSD just to be different. For similar reasons I don't think BSD development will stop, people will be interested in doing things differently from linux, people might also feel they could make more of a contribution if they worked on BSD. Of course I'm not offering any quantitative evidence here

.

fernandotcl · Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2004 6:58 pm Post subject: