Previous job was at a University, 15+ years using FreeBSD for almost all services. We've had Jails, ZFS, etc for a good part of those 15+ years, which was a hug

Previous job was at a University, 15+ years using FreeBSD for almost all services. We've had Jails, ZFS, etc for a good part of those 15+ years, which was a huge asset. Not that it was completely trouble free, but assuming that with anything else it would have been easier, is simply a delusion. Why we went with FreeBSD in the early 2000s? If memory serves, the ports tree and the package management were completely blowing away anything else at that point. Nowadays it is considered given for any platform, but it was a great advantage to be able to compile packages reliably with your own options back in the day! The fact is, FreeBSD is (and was for a very long time) a trustworthy and very stable platform to run services in. FreeBSD has a very deep philosophy of trying to minimize surprises, which means that most of the time you can focus on your real tasks instead of fighting what has changed in the last version. And Jails are still a major plus, at least from a certain point of view, since they are very easy to manage, copy, install, administer, etc. Even today where Linux has catch up in all aspects, if you have a large set of services on FreeBSD, you'll invariably have to pay a huge upfront cost to switch everything to Linux and re-learn stuff all over again. It's not a question of freedom or open-source (FreeBSD and Linux are totally free and open-source, in their own way each), it's a question of overcoming the mountain to get across to the other green side. I'm sure it's exactly the same for Linux shops that would like to try out FreeBSD. Why should they pay the cost, if they cannot really get any significant advantage or profit out of it? So one basically sticks to what's known and trustworthy from before, since the investment has already been made and most people don't like doing the same stuff all over again.