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FreeBSD Quarterly Status Report, January-March 2014

91 points by bado 12y ago

0161 12y ago
This report has only made me want to try FreeBSD even more at some point. Some highlights for me were: - FreeBSD on Chromebook - Chromium port - Improved Wine port
- wcfields 12y ago
  Ha, you beat me to it! https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Chromebook https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Chromebook I bought a refurb Acer C720 4gb and have found it perfect for everyday tasks / general use with Ubuntu installed.
  - ketralnis 12y ago
    I haven't been able to find the 4gb model, where did you get it?
    - pook1e 12y ago
      Not the GP, but I was able to pick up a new 4gb model from the Acer online store a few weeks ago (the Canadian store - I don't think Acer is selling it new in the US anymore). If you're unable to find one I believe the new Dell Chromebook 11 is fairly similar.
      - faceponder 12y ago
        Marginally relevant - are ARM Chromebooks any good for development? I've been considering getting a Samsung Chromebook 2 when it comes out, but I'm concerned that important software won't be available for ARM. Anyone running crouton on an ARM Chromebook care to comment?
- btgeekboy 12y ago
  I've similar feelings about ZFSGuru. Never heard of it before; might download it and give it a whirl.
- danford 12y ago
  I love FreeBSD and was planning on switching some servers from Linux but found that it consumed about 25% more power than my Linux boxes (even after extensive power management tweaks) and in the end didn't have much advantage. It's not hard to install freeBSD in a VM, set up ssh, run it headless, and ssh in. I suggest you give it a go. It's a great learning experience.
  - networked 12y ago
    >I love FreeBSD and was planning on switching some servers from Linux but found that it consumed about 25% more power than my Linux boxes Wow, I wouldn't have thought there would be such a dramatic difference in power consumption on anything but portable hardware. Did you try to measure the CPU and I/O usage on your servers and compare them between Linux and FreeBSD? I wonder if FreeBSD's greater power draw was due to its ACPI implementation or if the average system load was also higher (ZFS?).
    - danford 12y ago
      I wasn't using zfs at the time and I didn't do much comparison with CPU and IO, I used a wattage meter. I followed the FreeBSD guide (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/acpi-overview.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ac...) and tried just about everything. My Linux box was running at about 9watts (idle) and freeBSD started out at around 18, but I got it down to about 12watts after making a lot of optimizations. I think most of the difference is because FreeBSD is using older more stable software, and the Ubuntu server was running some of the latest software.
      - takeda 12y ago
        Do you remember which FreeBSD version and which Linux kernel version was it? Linux had tickless kernel + CPU scaling for a while. FreeBSD is lagging in this aspect.
        profquail 12y ago
Touche 12y ago
FreeBSD is a fantastic operating system and this report highlights why. Documentation is something the team takes very seriously; as important as the code itself, so if you're impressed by this high-quality report you'll be even more impressed by how easy it is to find your way around FreeBSD because of the documentation.
- 0161 12y ago
  I too noticed the quality of the report. I know what it is and what it is for as soon as I start reading. Well laid out, succinct, contact details and further links for each item. It's all very encouraging.
hf 12y ago
Enticing; depth and vision. Coherence is always tricky, but, to my mind, they pull it off. To be quite honest: Debian/kFreeBSD is still my version of FreeBSD, but that's just laziness.

91 points by bado 12y ago

0161 12y ago

This report has only made me want to try FreeBSD even more at some point. Some highlights for me were: - FreeBSD on Chromebook - Chromium port - Improved Wine port

wcfields 12y ago
Ha, you beat me to it! https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Chromebook https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Chromebook I bought a refurb Acer C720 4gb and have found it perfect for everyday tasks / general use with Ubuntu installed.
- ketralnis 12y ago
  I haven't been able to find the 4gb model, where did you get it?
  - pook1e 12y ago
    Not the GP, but I was able to pick up a new 4gb model from the Acer online store a few weeks ago (the Canadian store - I don't think Acer is selling it new in the US anymore). If you're unable to find one I believe the new Dell Chromebook 11 is fairly similar.
    - faceponder 12y ago
      Marginally relevant - are ARM Chromebooks any good for development? I've been considering getting a Samsung Chromebook 2 when it comes out, but I'm concerned that important software won't be available for ARM. Anyone running crouton on an ARM Chromebook care to comment?
btgeekboy 12y ago
I've similar feelings about ZFSGuru. Never heard of it before; might download it and give it a whirl.
danford 12y ago
I love FreeBSD and was planning on switching some servers from Linux but found that it consumed about 25% more power than my Linux boxes (even after extensive power management tweaks) and in the end didn't have much advantage. It's not hard to install freeBSD in a VM, set up ssh, run it headless, and ssh in. I suggest you give it a go. It's a great learning experience.
- networked 12y ago
  >I love FreeBSD and was planning on switching some servers from Linux but found that it consumed about 25% more power than my Linux boxes Wow, I wouldn't have thought there would be such a dramatic difference in power consumption on anything but portable hardware. Did you try to measure the CPU and I/O usage on your servers and compare them between Linux and FreeBSD? I wonder if FreeBSD's greater power draw was due to its ACPI implementation or if the average system load was also higher (ZFS?).
  - danford 12y ago
    I wasn't using zfs at the time and I didn't do much comparison with CPU and IO, I used a wattage meter. I followed the FreeBSD guide (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/acpi-overview.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ac...) and tried just about everything. My Linux box was running at about 9watts (idle) and freeBSD started out at around 18, but I got it down to about 12watts after making a lot of optimizations. I think most of the difference is because FreeBSD is using older more stable software, and the Ubuntu server was running some of the latest software.
    - takeda 12y ago
      Do you remember which FreeBSD version and which Linux kernel version was it? Linux had tickless kernel + CPU scaling for a while. FreeBSD is lagging in this aspect.
      - profquail 12y ago

Touche 12y ago

FreeBSD is a fantastic operating system and this report highlights why. Documentation is something the team takes very seriously; as important as the code itself, so if you're impressed by this high-quality report you'll be even more impressed by how easy it is to find your way around FreeBSD because of the documentation.

0161 12y ago
I too noticed the quality of the report. I know what it is and what it is for as soon as I start reading. Well laid out, succinct, contact details and further links for each item. It's all very encouraging.

hf 12y ago

Enticing; depth and vision. Coherence is always tricky, but, to my mind, they pull it off. To be quite honest: Debian/kFreeBSD is still my version of FreeBSD, but that's just laziness.