6 ms·

The BSDs always feel beautiful to me. (I'm a mixed GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OSX user. ) The kernel configuration feels more simple and the official documentati

The BSDs always feel beautiful to me. (I'm a mixed GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OSX user. ) The kernel configuration feels more simple and the official documentation feels uniform, informative, and almost always sufficient. If more virtualized hosting providers offered BSDs (FreeBSD in particular) I would choose them over Ubuntu for servers.

a2tech 16y ago
I had the same dilemma when looking for virutal hosting-I ended up at rootbsd.net because running FreeBSD was important to me. Not as cheap/featureful as linode, but its good enough for rsync.net its good enough for me.
- avar 16y ago
  You can run FreeBSD on Linode as of FreeBSD 8.*. It can run in domU now.
  - lsc 16y ago
    is this true? hot damn, I am behind the times. do you know if it's the paravirtualized kernel? last I checked it wasn't particularly stable... but damn. I don't see it in their 'distro manager' thing
    - a2tech 16y ago
      I emailed them about it after 8 was released-they have a 'non supported install method' for OpenBSD that a forum member wrote. They told me it SHOULD work for FreeBSD, but they're currently not devoting any resources to figuring out how to make it go
      - deleted 16y ago
        [deleted]
      - lsc 16y ago
        huh. the paravirt OpenBSD stuff is pretty old and dead (Theo, uh, is obviously not a fan of virtualization) I'd be interested to hear if anyone has gotten FreeBSD running on linode or another paravirt xen host, though.
    - avar 16y ago
      They don't officially support it. But they just run a normal Xen setup. Setting up any Xen OS that supports running in domU is relatively easy. There's a few people that have already done it for FreeBSD and NetBSD. You can try it out locally by setting up Linux and running FreeBSD in domU. Then just transfer that image to Linode.
      - lsc 16y ago
        So, like I do with NetBSD then? well, I guess I actually have the netbsd installer in there. freeBSD 8 requires at least xen 3.3 to run in paravirt mode; this is why it won't work on ec2, so I don't know if that counts as a 'normal xen setup' - The thing is, last I read FreeBSD8 was not stable under paravirt xen, and I was hoping to hear this had changed. Also, last I remember, it didn't work at all with more than one vcpu.
- aevernon 16y ago
  Actually, rsync.net is owned by the same people who run JohnCompanies.com, which is an excellent FreeBSD virtual hosting company.
Niten 16y ago
> If more virtualized hosting providers offered BSDs (FreeBSD in particular) I would choose them over Ubuntu for servers. In that case I might as well give a shout-out to my current VPS host, ARP Networks: http://www.arpnetworks.com/vps http://www.arpnetworks.com/vps They virtualize using KVM rather than Xen, so you can run any variety of OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, or Linux without worrying about Xen support in your guest OS. Their performance seems as good as any other VPS host I've used (Xen or otherwise), I think the price is pretty good, and I haven't had any downtime to speak of so far. So I recommend giving them a try if you're looking.

a2tech 16y ago

I had the same dilemma when looking for virutal hosting-I ended up at rootbsd.net because running FreeBSD was important to me. Not as cheap/featureful as linode, but its good enough for rsync.net its good enough for me.

avar 16y ago
You can run FreeBSD on Linode as of FreeBSD 8.*. It can run in domU now.
- lsc 16y ago
  is this true? hot damn, I am behind the times. do you know if it's the paravirtualized kernel? last I checked it wasn't particularly stable... but damn. I don't see it in their 'distro manager' thing
  - a2tech 16y ago
    I emailed them about it after 8 was released-they have a 'non supported install method' for OpenBSD that a forum member wrote. They told me it SHOULD work for FreeBSD, but they're currently not devoting any resources to figuring out how to make it go
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
    - lsc 16y ago
      huh. the paravirt OpenBSD stuff is pretty old and dead (Theo, uh, is obviously not a fan of virtualization) I'd be interested to hear if anyone has gotten FreeBSD running on linode or another paravirt xen host, though.
  - avar 16y ago
    They don't officially support it. But they just run a normal Xen setup. Setting up any Xen OS that supports running in domU is relatively easy. There's a few people that have already done it for FreeBSD and NetBSD. You can try it out locally by setting up Linux and running FreeBSD in domU. Then just transfer that image to Linode.
    - lsc 16y ago
      So, like I do with NetBSD then? well, I guess I actually have the netbsd installer in there. freeBSD 8 requires at least xen 3.3 to run in paravirt mode; this is why it won't work on ec2, so I don't know if that counts as a 'normal xen setup' - The thing is, last I read FreeBSD8 was not stable under paravirt xen, and I was hoping to hear this had changed. Also, last I remember, it didn't work at all with more than one vcpu.
aevernon 16y ago
Actually, rsync.net is owned by the same people who run JohnCompanies.com, which is an excellent FreeBSD virtual hosting company.

Niten 16y ago

> If more virtualized hosting providers offered BSDs (FreeBSD in particular) I would choose them over Ubuntu for servers. In that case I might as well give a shout-out to my current VPS host, ARP Networks: http://www.arpnetworks.com/vps http://www.arpnetworks.com/vps They virtualize using KVM rather than Xen, so you can run any variety of OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, or Linux without worrying about Xen support in your guest OS. Their performance seems as good as any other VPS host I've used (Xen or otherwise), I think the price is pretty good, and I haven't had any downtime to speak of so far. So I recommend giving them a try if you're looking.