3 ms·

My personal (limited) experience with FreeBSD vs my (extensive) experience with GNU/Linux: FreeBSD pros: Very stable Excellent network support Friendly, kno

My personal (limited) experience with FreeBSD vs my (extensive) experience with GNU/Linux: FreeBSD pros: Very stable Excellent network support Friendly, knowledgeable devs and tightly knit community Runs most GNU/Linux apps via ports or jails, sometimes better than on Linux Easy to learn given prior 'nix experience FreeBSD cons: Difficult to learn if you're new to the 'nix world Smaller pool of compatible hardware[1] The above has been my personal experience and obviously won't be the same for everyone. Also, I'm most comfortable with Slackware Linux, which is very BSD-like compared to other Linuxes, so that probably influences my point of view. Generally speaking, I like FreeBSD but I don't run it as a production machine (yet) since I'm happy with Slackware. Should that ever change (and there's only one reason it would, and that doesn't need to be rehashed here) I'd be able to switch to FreeBSD relatively easily. Something else you might want to explore, as an easy introduction to FreeBSD, is PC-BSD. It takes FreeBSD and makes it much more user friendly, with a focus on being a GUI based desktop OS (though they do offer an alternate server installation as well). [1] While the official list of compatible hardware is extensive, I've found in practice that certain COTS hardware simply doesn't work well with FreeBSD. I've even had professional workstations like a Lenovo ThinkCentre refuse to boot the installation media, throwing a kernel panic instead. I've also had poor luck with cheap motherboards. Generally, my best experiences with installing and running FreeBSD have been on Dell and HP workstations, and on quality motherboards from companies like Gigabyte and ECS.

laumars 12y ago
> Runs most GNU/Linux apps via ports or jails, sometimes better than on Linux Jails is containers like Solaris Zone, or LXC and OpenVZ on Linux. So it doesn't have any relation to FreeBSD ports. FreeBSD does have binary repositories though (pkgng), so perhaps that's what you meant? Another interesting point worth noting is that FreeBSD also has "Linux compatibility" modes for supporting Linux ABIs and virtual file systems (eg /proc). Though these are often outdated and generally it's better to run something native to FreeBSD instead.
- morganvachon 12y ago
  You're right of course, I meant to write "packages" and I honestly don't know why I wrote "jails" instead. Call it Saturday morning brain fuzz, I guess.

laumars 12y ago

> Runs most GNU/Linux apps via ports or jails, sometimes better than on Linux Jails is containers like Solaris Zone, or LXC and OpenVZ on Linux. So it doesn't have any relation to FreeBSD ports. FreeBSD does have binary repositories though (pkgng), so perhaps that's what you meant? Another interesting point worth noting is that FreeBSD also has "Linux compatibility" modes for supporting Linux ABIs and virtual file systems (eg /proc). Though these are often outdated and generally it's better to run something native to FreeBSD instead.

morganvachon 12y ago
You're right of course, I meant to write "packages" and I honestly don't know why I wrote "jails" instead. Call it Saturday morning brain fuzz, I guess.