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> And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. The Playstation System software (Orbis OS) is a fork of FreeBSD: https:/

> And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. The Playstation System software (Orbis OS) is a fork of FreeBSD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_system_software I'd guess performance was pretty high on Sony's list of priorities.

znpy 3y ago
Your guess is mostly wrong. The playstation runs freebsd rather than linux licensing reasons, not for speed.
- roydivision 3y ago
  Sure, Sony chooses a crap preforming OS just because it can't license the most popular. That makes sense.
  - skissane 3y ago
    It’s a gaming console. A lot of performance issues which could occur with e.g. a server OS aren’t going to happen. And the bits that are most performance critical (primarily graphics) are very custom and likely have little in common with vanilla FreeBSD So how well it performs for Sony says very little about how well it will perform for you - since your use cases have a high chance of being very different from theirs
    - roydivision 3y ago
      Yeah, I can see that. Fair enough. Thanks.
  - znpy 3y ago
    > That makes sense. you'd be surprised how many nice things we don't get because of licensing. dumb example: magsafe. it'd be nice and cheap to have it on all laptops, but laptop manufacturers can't license it (because apple won't sell licenses) so they have to go with other routes.
    - BSDobelix 3y ago
      But we got BSD, Linux and GNU because of Licensing ;)
mlyle 3y ago
> > And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. > I'd guess performance was pretty high on Sony's list of priorities. Do you consider the Playstation 4 hardware "top end"? I'm mostly thinking about SMP and IO performance. See the geometric mean results here: https://www.phoronix.com/review/3990x-freebsd-bsd/5 https://www.phoronix.com/review/3990x-freebsd-bsd/5 "At 16 cores, RHEL8-based CentOS was about 17% faster than FreeBSD 12.1 while at 128 threads the lead expanded to 28% based upon the geometric mean or 21% when comparing the GCC9 results on FreeBSD 12.1." It's my understanding that FreeBSD 13 has narrowed the gap a little bit. I was a total NetBSD fanboy at the beginning of my career, but was eventually forced to move away when Linux's momentum inexorably made running NetBSD (and FreeBSD) harder.

znpy 3y ago

Your guess is mostly wrong. The playstation runs freebsd rather than linux licensing reasons, not for speed.

roydivision 3y ago
Sure, Sony chooses a crap preforming OS just because it can't license the most popular. That makes sense.
- skissane 3y ago
  It’s a gaming console. A lot of performance issues which could occur with e.g. a server OS aren’t going to happen. And the bits that are most performance critical (primarily graphics) are very custom and likely have little in common with vanilla FreeBSD So how well it performs for Sony says very little about how well it will perform for you - since your use cases have a high chance of being very different from theirs
  - roydivision 3y ago
    Yeah, I can see that. Fair enough. Thanks.
- znpy 3y ago
  > That makes sense. you'd be surprised how many nice things we don't get because of licensing. dumb example: magsafe. it'd be nice and cheap to have it on all laptops, but laptop manufacturers can't license it (because apple won't sell licenses) so they have to go with other routes.
  - BSDobelix 3y ago
    But we got BSD, Linux and GNU because of Licensing ;)

mlyle 3y ago

> > And performance doesn't come close to Linux on the top end or even high middle end. > I'd guess performance was pretty high on Sony's list of priorities. Do you consider the Playstation 4 hardware "top end"? I'm mostly thinking about SMP and IO performance. See the geometric mean results here: https://www.phoronix.com/review/3990x-freebsd-bsd/5 https://www.phoronix.com/review/3990x-freebsd-bsd/5 "At 16 cores, RHEL8-based CentOS was about 17% faster than FreeBSD 12.1 while at 128 threads the lead expanded to 28% based upon the geometric mean or 21% when comparing the GCC9 results on FreeBSD 12.1." It's my understanding that FreeBSD 13 has narrowed the gap a little bit. I was a total NetBSD fanboy at the beginning of my career, but was eventually forced to move away when Linux's momentum inexorably made running NetBSD (and FreeBSD) harder.