FreeBSD

jquirke · 24th August 2002, 12:32 AM

Just wondering how many people use, or have even heard of FreeBSD?

The fact that it's less known means its free of microsoft-bashers and the people who use it are those who develop it. Also it has a superior development model to Linux, better architecture and generally more stable.

Unfortunately these days Linux is plagued by the unproductive bill-gates-hating-type which are really pulling down the development of what could have been a superb OS.

FreeBSD 5.0 RELEASE is due out later this year which will be quite a revolution in the free operating system world. November 2nd, is the approximate date.

I really recommend you have a lot of advanced operating system knowledge, computer skills, UNIX background however before attempting to try this OS! :-)

isuru · 24th August 2002, 7:47 AM

I've got FreeBSD running on my sytem (dual booting with Win2k).

At the end of the year, after 5.0 is released, I'd like to have it running as the main OS on my computer.

Quadbox · 24th August 2002, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jquirke
Also it has a superior development model to Linux, better architecture and generally more stable.

I can hear a religious war coming on...

I'd be surprised if there are many people here who haven't heard of bsd. It is, after all, one of the original unix os's. (the other ones including System III) It's also been in the press a lot of late, mostly because of Darwin.

Osiris · 24th August 2002, 1:34 PM

Im building up an OpenBSD firewall atm. Its one of the easiest installs i have ever done. it takes less that 10min and i have a backup of the ipf.rules and nat.rules (im using 2.9 atm...) remotely so that every time i stuff something up, i just reinstall, download the rules then muck around, all in < 15min.

If you want to get more hands one with your firewall, i really do recommend trying out OpenBSD.

As for FreeBSD, im planning on using it in VMWare and see how i go cause i wouldn't mind having it as my main OS as apposed to Redhat.

.:Osiris:.

Pinger · 24th August 2002, 1:39 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Osiris
Im building up an OpenBSD firewall atm. Its one of the easiest installs i have ever done. it takes less that 10min
.:Osiris:.

You would have had to have read the docs quite a bit longer that 10 mins to understand the OpenBSD install though.

I have OpenBSD 3.1 and FreeBSD 4.6 on my desk both are going to be installed as soon as I can pick up a old video card.

jquirke · 24th August 2002, 3:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Quadbox

I can hear a religious war coming on...

Yep, that was my intent. Enjoy a good FreeBSD discussion!

But it really is a fantastic OS, you might run into a few initial problems but once your past those, its rock-solid and has excellent performance - on one of my workstations a bit short on memory I can feel it is a lot more responsive than KDE or Windows XP/2000, especially under heavy load.

Oh, and contrary to popular belief, a lot of hardware is supported.

However it can be frustrating for users with even a Linux background (forget going from Windows!), but there is a lot of quality documentation - the handbook is particularly useful. What disappoints me is the lack of a proper kernel compilation guide - I would very much like to write one when I have some spare time.

Pinger · 24th August 2002, 4:44 PM

whats more resposive than KDE, or do you mean that KDE under FreeBSD is better than under Linux?

jquirke · 24th August 2002, 5:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pinger
whats more resposive than KDE, or do you mean that KDE under FreeBSD is better than under Linux?

Yeah that's what I meant - KDE is much more responsive on FreeBSD than Linux (on a number of different hardware configurations, I've noticed).

Quadbox · 24th August 2002, 7:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jquirke

Yeah that's what I meant - KDE is much more responsive on FreeBSD than Linux (on a number of different hardware configurations, I've noticed).

I'd be GREATLY surprised if it's more responsive than it is in my install

FreeBSD has nothing on Gentoo

The C Man · 24th August 2002, 8:14 PM

I have used FreeBSD for around 9 months on my server and find it an excellent OS for this purpose. It has ran stabily since i first installed (and configurd) 4.6. I reconmend this to anyone running a home network

martinus · 24th August 2002, 9:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jquirke

Yeah that's what I meant - KDE is much more responsive on FreeBSD than Linux (on a number of different hardware configurations, I've noticed).

do you have a plausible explanation for this observation? It cannot be the time for switching tasks, I remember benchmarks where linux beats every OS under the sun (omg, what a pun).

jquirke · 24th August 2002, 9:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by martinus

do you have a plausible explanation for this observation? It cannot be the time for switching tasks, I remember benchmarks where linux beats every OS under the sun (omg, what a pun).

I attribute this to FreeBSD's better VM which adjusts well under changing conditions. Linux's VM is pretty decent now too, but I still think FreeBSD has the edge. Take a look at Matt Dillon's article on this topic - http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ign/index.html
Please note I am talking about my experience with machines on a tighter memory budget. I guess VM is more criticial in these conditions - swapping out a popular page is a really big mistake under these conditions.
And please, the benchmarks are always designed in such a way that benefits the author - e.g. I've seen benchmarks where Windows 2K outperforms Linux and FreeBSD, and vice-versa in all combinations. And it's going to vary depending on what you are doing.

sciencewhiz · 25th August 2002, 11:05 AM

I've been a FreeBSD convert for a while. It helps that I have a true BSD god for a friend though. It's always felt a bit snappier than my linux distro's on the same hardware. (Note that use of the word "felt"
I love pkg_add and the ports collection. I also like the fact that the documentation is on the web site and I can get to it within about 14 minutes of sticking the FreeBSD CD in my computer.
Each time I use it, I find something else I can do with it.
I also like the use of the standard config method.
When the Openoffice 1 port finally works, it'll be a windows kicker for me....

Quadbox · 25th August 2002, 12:15 PM

It seems likely that my next server project will be based on some flavour of bsd, for several reasons:

Being a Gentoo user, I've come to like ports-style package management. Whilst the original Ports isn't anywhere near as feature-packed as Portage (the gentoo package management system), it's still got many of the features I like.
I believe you can make a BSD install quite a bit smaller than a linux install.
I haven't currently got a bsd box . It's something of a challenge, and I always accept a challenge.
It is, by all accounts, an excellent server os.

It should be fun

EDIT - I haven't decided which bsd to use, though, whether that be free- open- net- or even Darwin x86. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

martinus · 25th August 2002, 1:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jquirke

I attribute this to FreeBSD's better VM which adjusts well under changing conditions. Linux's VM is pretty decent now too, but I still think FreeBSD has the edge. Take a look at Matt Dillon's article on this topic - http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/vm-design/index.html
Please note I am talking about my experience with machines on a tighter memory budget. I guess VM is more criticial in these conditions - swapping out a popular page is a really big mistake under these conditions.
And please, the benchmarks are always designed in such a way that benefits the author - e.g. I've seen benchmarks where Windows 2K outperforms Linux and FreeBSD, and vice-versa in all combinations. And it's going to vary depending on what you are doing.

I'll read up on it a bit more. the url is not working, but I have google installed on my internet.

24th August 2002, 12:32 AM	#1
jquirke (Banned or Deleted) Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil Posts: 1,699	FreeBSD Just wondering how many people use, or have even heard of FreeBSD? The fact that it's less known means its free of microsoft-bashers and the people who use it are those who develop it. Also it has a superior development model to Linux, better architecture and generally more stable. Unfortunately these days Linux is plagued by the unproductive bill-gates-hating-type which are really pulling down the development of what could have been a superb OS. FreeBSD 5.0 RELEASE is due out later this year which will be quite a revolution in the free operating system world. November 2nd, is the approximate date. I really recommend you have a lot of advanced operating system knowledge, computer skills, UNIX background however before attempting to try this OS! :-)

24th August 2002, 4:44 PM	#7
Pinger Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Nth Narrabeen, Sydney Posts: 842	whats more resposive than KDE, or do you mean that KDE under FreeBSD is better than under Linux? __________________ And I personally refuse to use inferior tools because of ideology. In fact, I will go as far as saying that making excuses for bad tools due to ideology is _stupid_, and people who do that think with their gonads, not their brains. - Linus Torvalds

25th August 2002, 11:05 AM	#13
sciencewhiz Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Canberra Australia Posts: 2,528	I've been a FreeBSD convert for a while. It helps that I have a true BSD god for a friend though. It's always felt a bit snappier than my linux distro's on the same hardware. (Note that use of the word "felt" I love pkg_add and the ports collection. I also like the fact that the documentation is on the web site and I can get to it within about 14 minutes of sticking the FreeBSD CD in my computer. Each time I use it, I find something else I can do with it. I also like the use of the standard config method. When the Openoffice 1 port finally works, it'll be a windows kicker for me.... __________________ Life can be tough, it can be a lot tougher if you're stupid...... Overclockers Australia Forums > User Control Panel For sciencewhiz > Edit Options> Show user's signatures in their posts? = NO

25th August 2002, 12:15 PM	#14
Quadbox Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane 4065 Posts: 5,090	It seems likely that my next server project will be based on some flavour of bsd, for several reasons: Being a Gentoo user, I've come to like ports-style package management. Whilst the original Ports isn't anywhere near as feature-packed as Portage (the gentoo package management system), it's still got many of the features I like. I believe you can make a BSD install quite a bit smaller than a linux install. I haven't currently got a bsd box . It's something of a challenge, and I always accept a challenge. It is, by all accounts, an excellent server os. It should be fun EDIT - I haven't decided which bsd to use, though, whether that be free- open- net- or even Darwin x86. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each? Last edited by Quadbox; 25th August 2002 at 12:24 PM.

24th August 2002, 7:47 AM	#2
isuru Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Posts: 121	I've got FreeBSD running on my sytem (dual booting with Win2k). At the end of the year, after 5.0 is released, I'd like to have it running as the main OS on my computer.

24th August 2002, 1:34 PM	#4
Osiris Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 3,716	Im building up an OpenBSD firewall atm. Its one of the easiest installs i have ever done. it takes less that 10min and i have a backup of the ipf.rules and nat.rules (im using 2.9 atm...) remotely so that every time i stuff something up, i just reinstall, download the rules then muck around, all in < 15min. If you want to get more hands one with your firewall, i really do recommend trying out OpenBSD. As for FreeBSD, im planning on using it in VMWare and see how i go cause i wouldn't mind having it as my main OS as apposed to Redhat. .:Osiris:.

24th August 2002, 8:14 PM	#10
The C Man Member Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Dreaming of Electric Sheep Posts: 1,617	I have used FreeBSD for around 9 months on my server and find it an excellent OS for this purpose. It has ran stabily since i first installed (and configurd) 4.6. I reconmend this to anyone running a home network