4 ms·

For most simple servers/projects I use Debian/some sort of linux, so I'm pretty unknowledgeable but curious about the BSD side of things. What are the advantag

For most simple servers/projects I use Debian/some sort of linux, so I'm pretty unknowledgeable but curious about the BSD side of things. What are the advantages/differences of using bsd over any other linux distro? Edit: For anyone interested, I actually Googled the question and found a pretty interesting article: http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/01 http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/01

BarkMore 14y ago
ZFS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) is one advantage of FreeBSD.
gonzo 14y ago
Actual design and architecture is the main 'feature'.
merlincorey 14y ago
That article is still fairly good of a read, with a couple things slightly out of date, which I will note here simply for pedantry or anyone interested. BSD no longer uses CVS; FreeBSD specifically has moved to SVN for their primary revision control system, and CVS and related tools (such as csup) are deprecated and in some cases disabled. Along with that, linux kernel is now in git, not bitkeeper. While source is still the "base" method of installing and updating a FreeBSD system, and it will certainly always be available; now, binary base system and add-on utilities are becoming more popular. Specifically, `freebsd-update` can be used to update the base system's binaries and source. `pkg-ng` adds `apt-get` like binary package management. ZFS is definitely one of the major things that has FreeBSD on all of my systems. I even run ZFS on single drive laptops: pool: zroot state: ONLINE scan: none requested config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM zroot ONLINE 0 0 0 ada0p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors
- pestaa 14y ago
  What benefits ZFS brings on a single drive laptop? I was informed it is mainly designed for high traffic file servers with redundancy and so forth.
  - rauar 14y ago
    Snapshots
    - mkup 14y ago
      and checksums (bit rot prevention)
      - benjohnson 14y ago
        I'm amazed at how generally unreliable drives are at retrieving stored data with ZFS checksums in place to highlight the problem - it seems that on average every TB of storages has a problem with a block every half-year or so.
        ChuckMcM 14y ago
        And every 4GB of memory or so if you have ECC turned on.
  - zanny 14y ago
    I run btrfs on my main arch installation. Have for ~6 months. If you get the fsck.btrfs tool (it is upstream) you eliminiate the only real showstopper with btrfs on Linux. You get the online compression (meaning you use less space and read and write faster on mechanical storage because you have less to read / write at a time), you get the snapshots, you get subvolumes, checksums, etc.
    - rauar 14y ago
      I follow the btrfs development because I'd love to have at least the features of ZFS on Linux. However I would not dare (yet) to use it as a replacement for my current home fileserver (which owns ALL my data). Does btrfs provide cifs export like ZFS ? Edit: from the btrfs wiki https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ#Is_btrfs_stable.3F https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ#Is_btrfs_stable.... : Is btrfs stable? Short answer: No, it's still considered experimental.
- stock_toaster 14y ago
  > BSD no longer uses CVS Additional pedantry: This may be true of FreeBSD, but I believe both OpenBSD and NetBSD still use CVS. I think DragonFlyBSD uses git.
profquail 14y ago
Another FreeBSD discussion a few weeks ago had a bunch of good answers to this question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4895022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4895022
mkup 14y ago
Jails. Recently I have configured a dedicated server to run nginx + php-fpm in jail: an entire jail consists of two static executable files, a few config files, and a few logs. There's nothing to pwn there, even if there's unpatched stack vulnerability somewhere. Jails are a very impressive security feature of FreeBSD.
- hedwall 14y ago
  Do you know how they compare to Linux Containers?
  - Spooky23 14y ago
    They are similar. My trepidation with LXC would be from a documentation POV... Jails are very much known quantities, while LXC is newer, not known for great docs, and thus is probably easier to screw up. See this HN thread for more discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4015172 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4015172
tquai 14y ago
First, keep in mind that BSD is an operating system in the same way that Latin is a language: they each live on only in their descendants. Latin became French, Spanish, Italian, and a few others, and BSD became NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Dragonfly BSD. There are different pros and cons to using a BSD operating system, depending on which one you choose. But the common themes are increased security and stability. For a better answer, the websites of the 4 BSD projects give details on their focuses and strengths.
- yawaramin 14y ago
  Actually, I'd say English claims the title of being the truest descendant of Latin. English not only directly uses descendants of Latin vocabulary, it also uses plenty of words from the other Latin descendants. It's kind of like a C++ diamond inheritance pattern.
  - tquai 14y ago
    English actually comes from West Germanic (not Latin). But you're right; there are lots of shared words between Latin and English, and this is mostly due to the historical relationship between England and France.
- jfb 14y ago
  I like this analogy. OS X is therefore like English; an utterly alien world, colonized by a descendent of the original.

BarkMore 14y ago

ZFS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS) is one advantage of FreeBSD.

gonzo 14y ago

Actual design and architecture is the main 'feature'.

merlincorey 14y ago

That article is still fairly good of a read, with a couple things slightly out of date, which I will note here simply for pedantry or anyone interested. BSD no longer uses CVS; FreeBSD specifically has moved to SVN for their primary revision control system, and CVS and related tools (such as csup) are deprecated and in some cases disabled. Along with that, linux kernel is now in git, not bitkeeper. While source is still the "base" method of installing and updating a FreeBSD system, and it will certainly always be available; now, binary base system and add-on utilities are becoming more popular. Specifically, `freebsd-update` can be used to update the base system's binaries and source. `pkg-ng` adds `apt-get` like binary package management. ZFS is definitely one of the major things that has FreeBSD on all of my systems. I even run ZFS on single drive laptops: pool: zroot state: ONLINE scan: none requested config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM zroot ONLINE 0 0 0 ada0p3 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors

pestaa 14y ago
What benefits ZFS brings on a single drive laptop? I was informed it is mainly designed for high traffic file servers with redundancy and so forth.
- rauar 14y ago
  Snapshots
  - mkup 14y ago
    and checksums (bit rot prevention)
    - benjohnson 14y ago
      I'm amazed at how generally unreliable drives are at retrieving stored data with ZFS checksums in place to highlight the problem - it seems that on average every TB of storages has a problem with a block every half-year or so.
      - ChuckMcM 14y ago
        And every 4GB of memory or so if you have ECC turned on.
- zanny 14y ago
  I run btrfs on my main arch installation. Have for ~6 months. If you get the fsck.btrfs tool (it is upstream) you eliminiate the only real showstopper with btrfs on Linux. You get the online compression (meaning you use less space and read and write faster on mechanical storage because you have less to read / write at a time), you get the snapshots, you get subvolumes, checksums, etc.
  - rauar 14y ago
    I follow the btrfs development because I'd love to have at least the features of ZFS on Linux. However I would not dare (yet) to use it as a replacement for my current home fileserver (which owns ALL my data). Does btrfs provide cifs export like ZFS ? Edit: from the btrfs wiki https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ#Is_btrfs_stable.3F https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ#Is_btrfs_stable.... : Is btrfs stable? Short answer: No, it's still considered experimental.
stock_toaster 14y ago
> BSD no longer uses CVS Additional pedantry: This may be true of FreeBSD, but I believe both OpenBSD and NetBSD still use CVS. I think DragonFlyBSD uses git.

profquail 14y ago

Another FreeBSD discussion a few weeks ago had a bunch of good answers to this question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4895022 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4895022

mkup 14y ago

Jails. Recently I have configured a dedicated server to run nginx + php-fpm in jail: an entire jail consists of two static executable files, a few config files, and a few logs. There's nothing to pwn there, even if there's unpatched stack vulnerability somewhere. Jails are a very impressive security feature of FreeBSD.

hedwall 14y ago
Do you know how they compare to Linux Containers?
- Spooky23 14y ago
  They are similar. My trepidation with LXC would be from a documentation POV... Jails are very much known quantities, while LXC is newer, not known for great docs, and thus is probably easier to screw up. See this HN thread for more discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4015172 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4015172

tquai 14y ago

First, keep in mind that BSD is an operating system in the same way that Latin is a language: they each live on only in their descendants. Latin became French, Spanish, Italian, and a few others, and BSD became NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Dragonfly BSD. There are different pros and cons to using a BSD operating system, depending on which one you choose. But the common themes are increased security and stability. For a better answer, the websites of the 4 BSD projects give details on their focuses and strengths.

yawaramin 14y ago
Actually, I'd say English claims the title of being the truest descendant of Latin. English not only directly uses descendants of Latin vocabulary, it also uses plenty of words from the other Latin descendants. It's kind of like a C++ diamond inheritance pattern.
- tquai 14y ago
  English actually comes from West Germanic (not Latin). But you're right; there are lots of shared words between Latin and English, and this is mostly due to the historical relationship between England and France.
jfb 14y ago
I like this analogy. OS X is therefore like English; an utterly alien world, colonized by a descendent of the original.