Hi Everyone, This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? David
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 2:20 PM, David Chisnall <theraven@freebsd.org>wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it > to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which > advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd > like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If > you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would > you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >For me it is: -Stability -Well-structured OS (i.e. filesystem, kernel and its config, etc) -The ports system These are also the elements that made me start using FreeBSD about a decade ago. So these are mainly consequences of the development strategy of FreeBSD, as opposed to the free for all approach of Linux. Personally, what makes me choose Linux over FreeBSD for laptop usage is the very limited acpi support of FreeBSD (suspend and resume) compared to Linux.
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 19:20:31 +0100 , David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic,... and not wrapped at <80 characters.> I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material > (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before > I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using > FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about > FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first > started using it?1. Solaris features without being beholden to Oracle. 2. The FreeBSD community focuses more on tech than on licensing and political activism like a certain freeware Unix "alike". 3. The ports system does a far better job of balancing tracking recent software releases and stability than other systems of the same sort (most typically exemplified by certain popular Unix "alikes"). Bonus round, something subjective: 4. Everything "feels right" and "makes sense" on a very deep level for me, in a way that never happened with the other Unix and Unix "alike" OSs I've used. The first item is not the same as when I started using FreeBSD, because those features didn't exist in FreeBSD at the time. The third reason is what actually brought me to FreeBSD, after I became frustrated at the seeming inability of Unix "alike" maintainers to maintain that balance of recent software and stability (Ubuntu didn't exist at the time, and the less time I spend using that the better). -- Thanks and best regards, Chris Nehren
David Chisnall <theraven@freebsd.org> wrote:> If you had > to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick?1. Large number of ports, including obscure programs other package system don't have. 2. Relatively straightforward system configuration (i.e. rc.conf), as opposed to options scattered across multiple files and tools. 3. Port options. I don't want to run HAL and friends for example; on FreeBSD I can skip them. Why don't you ask about top 3 things we hate about FreeBSD? Listing negative sides in advocacy materials would be a refreshing change.> Are they the same as when you first started using it?Nope. It was mostly blind chance.
David Chisnall schreef:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"Why i use and still use FreeBSD 1) stability 2) ease of use 3) ZFS 4) Community 5) I does the things i need. The first encounter with FreeBSD was with FreeBSD 4.5 if i recall correct. I did try a lot of Linux distro's in that time, and could not find a distro that suits me well. I did use redhat 6 to 7 and Suse also tried Slackware, and gentoo that was new at that time. But each distro had it quircks, redhat and dependency hell, suse had yast which was horrible back then. Gentoo had way to many knobs you need to set to get it compiled and so on. Then i did try FreeBSD and it did what i needed back then, the installer was something i need to figure out, but once i got the idea of slices and so on, it did what i needed. Upgrading was easy, rebuilding the system worked and so on. It never let me down. I was a happy camper, and settled with FreeBSD. Till today i still can do all i want. Mail server, Web server, MailScanner server, samba server, ISCSI server and NFS server is what we need today, and FreeBSD does it all. Now with ZFS , things got even better. Did try some Linux distro's, but only for the desktop. Linux Mint is what i use on the laptop now. As long as there is no need to use Linux to get things done i stick with FreeBSD. regards Johan
On 05/30/2012 12:20 PM, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"For us, stability is the biggest reason. Stability in terms of not only reliability, but also the design philosophy and consistency. I really appreciate the "cleanliness" of FreeBSD, and what seems to be a well thought out and well deployed base. To me, FreeBSD seems conservative in that a lot of design is "tried and true", but also progressive at the same time where it counts (e.g. ZFS). I don't get the feeling of hasty implementations that I have with other systems. We replaced a Linux file server (which replaced several Mac Xserves) with a FreeBSD box in the recent past and I've had zero issues with stability, reliability, or performance. Whereas before, it was always a struggle to maintain any of those, and with constant maintenance. This is on the same hardware with the same userbase. This is just my two cents as an end user sysadmin with no development experience. Josh
On 5/31/2012 1:20, David Chisnall wrote:> I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it?1. High performance with security and stability focus -- truly makes it the ideal server platform 2. The ports system (and supporting tools like portupgrade, portaudit, etc) 3. The OS "makes sense" (as Chris N. mentioned). The file system layout, tools, etc are consistent. There is so much other stuff too. Like PF and CARP, ZFS and more ... a kick-ass combo of features and very server-focused. As a professional admin FreeBSD is a pleasure to work with day in and day out. I've never heard a admins of "other" OSes say that :P
On 5/30/12, David Chisnall <theraven@freebsd.org> wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it > to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which > advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like > to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had > to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? > Are they the same as when you first started using it?Hi! Likes (sorry, not only 3 item): ---------------------------------------------------------- 1) FreeBSD is NOT Linux = FreeBSD is stable, reliable, simple (there are no automated brainfucks... like udev, hal and dbus in base system) 2) has a clean source, and FreeBSD is maintainable: if there are a working driver in N+2 version, I have a much bigger chance, that working in N too 3) is highly configurable (~ 1) ), I like rc.conf and sysctl (linux's procfs and sysfs is a chaos ...) 4) FreeBSD has a ports system, that contained KDE3 5) well documented 6) not fragmented as Linux, (relation to many distro, that not have idea/goal) 7) not GPL 8) FreeBSD is a complete system, and not just a kernel + random thing from everywhere, and not hackish Are they the same as when you first started using it? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- yes> > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >
On 30 May 2012 19:20, David Chisnall <theraven@freebsd.org> wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. ?If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? ?Are they the same as when you first started using it? >You might not have wanted opinions from developers... but 1) Complete base system-- if I mess up badly with ports I can delete them all and still have a usable system to recover from 2) Simplicity of configuration-- mostly configured with flat text files rather than directories full of conf files 3) Friendly community; easy to get support from people who really know what they're doing. Chris
On Wed, 30 May 2012 19:20:31 +0100 David Chisnall <theraven@FreeBSD.org> wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm > sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish > number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material > (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before > I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using > FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about > FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first > started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"1) Stability in the meaning of "does not break config semantics from one second to the other without mentioning". 2) Help from the list which not only solves your problem, but teaches! also. 3) Features like ZFS, PF, periodic, ZFS ... I could name many more, but you wanted the top three and I am not really sure about the order, so I just typed down those which came to mind first. BTW, I got hooked coming from Gentoo, so I am sure I would miss and then list many more FreeBSD-likables when I would be forced away. Cheers, Christopher
1. The community - Unlike Linux which is very fragmented by all the different
flavours and hence individual communities, FreeBSD
has one community who are always happy to help with hints tips and advice. This
simply cant be beaten!
2. Stability - There's always issue with any OS but in our many years of
using FreeBSD, we've never had any issues which haven't
been able to fix quickly with the help of the community.
3. Easy and quick to install servers - No other OS comes close with regards to
simplicity of install to get a "server" up and
running. Initially we used the standard sysinstall, which while had its quirks
was still many times faster and easier to use than
any Linux installer I've tried. Recently we've been using a small custom
version of mfsBSD (http://mfsbsd.vx.sk/) which enables us
to do base machine install on any hardware we run in minutes.
If you want a 4th I'd have to say ZFS support, the flexibility and
simplicity this has brought to the management of storage under
FreeBSD has been a godsend! This is the big new one for us :)
Regard
Steve
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Chisnall" <theraven@FreeBSD.org>
To: <freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 7:20 PM
Subject: Why Are You Using FreeBSD?
Hi Everyone,
This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it
to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish
number of users.
I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which
advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and
before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using
FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most
like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first
started using it?
David_______________________________________________
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- You can (change how to) compile /tailor almost everything, yet whole OS doesn't feel fragmented. - Provided you have massive ;) WITHOUT_* stack in make.conf you can have pretty frugal system. (hal, dbus etc.) - Native Opera support, yes it really mattered to me, and still matters. Web browser is usually single most used application. - Compiling base system from source and customising e.g. kernel is actually supported (not like in OpenBSD, which (for valid reasons!) is rather discouraged). - You can actually have all (ports & base) binaries on particular system compiled from source on the same machine, not only it's supported, it's popular route. - Huge ports system, mostly simple & sane (vanilla sources, clear structure). - Portmaster. - Good Thinkpad support usually. - STABLE branch, every day is release day ;) -- View this message in context: http://freebsd.1045724.n5.nabble.com/Why-Are-You-Using-FreeBSD-tp5713439p5713522.html Sent from the freebsd-stable mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
On Wed, 30 May 2012, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone,I came to FreeBSD nearly 20 years ago because it had text-mode (aka command line, console, etc.) apps and I wanted to avoid GUIs for applications that are not essentially graphic in nature. The ability to switch for applications essentially graphic (paint, image manipulation, etc.) and back for everything else (writing) without rebooting was very attractive. There is not any graphics font that can put 2000 characters (80x25) on one screen legibly - and that has not changed. The native editors on BSD (vi, emacs) are pretty horrible -- imagine the Frankenstein that thought "I'll just write an editor in Lisp!" But once I discovered Joe, it was smooth sailing. There is no GUI file manager as good as lynx ./ . This is still why I use FreeBSD. I tried linuxes, but found keyboard mapping really opaque. Now, I won't use linuxes because they have abandoned text-mode for rasterized text -- which is just as horrible as GUIs -- and the linux distributions just assume you are trying to run Gnome, completely ignoring formerly text-mode, now rasterized applications. Unfortunately FreeBSD seems to be headed this way and I will have to hop off the upgrade cycle at some version and hope that I die before it becomes orphaned. -- Lars Eighner http://www.larseighner.com/index.html 8800 N IH35 APT 1191 AUSTIN TX 78753-5266
On 5/30/2012 11:20 AM, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"SMP support (pause) new (longer pause) I spent as little time as possible in version 5.x. For me there are a few reasons I like FreeBSD. I was first introduced to FreeBSD by a coworker in 1997 or so. I had tried a bit of Linux before that. I was working for a SunOS/Solaris using ISP at the time; so when I tried FreeBSD it did seem to make more sense to me. The keys are these. The filesystem layout just makes much more intuitive sense to me. If I want a barebones system where I just add what I want to it, that is easily available. Minimal install + packages/ports I need has been my approach for awhile. Although I have gotten in trouble with the FreeBSD ports/packages system, the tools that FreeBSD includes make it much easier to recover from package dependency messes than the Linux version so lovingly called RPM hell The stable version is pretty reliable; I have been tracking -stable on a couple home mail servers for several years, perhaps a decade. In all that time, I only once had a serious problem, caused by drive detection changes; I used ee to edit some files and I was all set. Brian Whalen
On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 07:20:31PM +0100, David Chisnall wrote:> If you had to list > the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you > pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it?1) Using it doesn't require changing me (well, at least change is gradual and continuous.) (BSD since '86, even though the hardware dies every few years.) 2) Incremental updates from source are easy. (What's running corresponds to the source on the system, so I can fix breakage as I find it. Not that that's common.) 3) ZFS turns out to be very cool, and seems to work really well. (3) is new, but (1) and (2) have been there since the beginning (since it was the patchkit.) [Another change, not listed among the three most-liked things, but still something that I like equivocally, is that I've stopped fighting GUIs, and relegated my FreeBSD boxes to servers. GUI work I've delegated to Macs. That could yet change back/again, if Macs keep getting worse...] Cheers, -- Andrew
Thanks to all who replied, both on and off list. I've attempted to distill the replies that I got into a coherent summary. I've put the draft on the wiki here: http://wiki.freebsd.org/WhyUseFreeBSD Feedback welcome! David On 30 May 2012, at 19:20, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David
1) Been with BSD/OS since it's inception. Great OS and good example to follow. But BSD/OS was eventually killed and FreeBSD sort of inherited it's legacy. Both follow the simplicity and good architecture models, with FreeBSD improving on modularity. 2) The BSD license. Contrary to popular belief, it has brought a lot of high quality development to FreeBSD. 3) Universal toolkit. It scales easily from the thinnest embedded system, to various desktops to huge servers -- all with the same familiar tools and environment. Sure, for consumption there are "easier" systems, such as PC-BSD (FreeBSD again), Ubuntu and, of course OS X. But there is no better platform, or kit to build whatever you need around. Daniel
On Wed, 30 May 2012 19:20:31 +0100, David Chisnall <theraven@FreeBSD.org> wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm > sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish > number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material > (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before > I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using > FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about > FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first > started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"There are lots of reasons but in my mind the top three are : 1 - It works 2 - It works everytime 3 - It works everytime the way I expected it to work. I would like to be able to say this about any other OS, the closest I ever got to this level of reliability and reproductibility in behaviour was with VAX-VMS. -- J?r?me Herman Directeur Technique 06 14 37 76 28
On 5/30/12 8:20 PM, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > DavidWe're using FreeBSD here only for firewall boxes. Reasons for using FBSD for firewalls: - CARP - relayd - PF - pfsync Reasons I can't get management to use FBSD for regular servers (web, haproxy, db...): - "hard" to use - update process is "hard", time-consuming and annoying (as opposed to debian's for example) A regular debian update is 5 minutes + reboot A regular FBSD update is about 1.5 hour + 3 reboots (after installkernel, installworld, rebuild of ports)
David Chisnall wrote:> http://wiki.freebsd.org/WhyUseFreeBSD > > Feedback welcome!Quote:> The RCng system that reads this file [rc.conf] understands > dependencies between services and so can automatically launch > them in parallel [...]Can it? There have been patches in the lists, was one of them committed?
On 5/30/12 2:20 PM, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > >These have been said before but I'll reiterate. 1. Stability. It's a well thought out, designed from the ground up, operating system. It is not a collection of "chosen for you" packages attached to a kernel. 2. Ease of configuration 3. Ports Having used various Linux distos for quite awhile, the above are all so much of an improvement, and are still why I use FreeBSD. To add others, in no particular order: Ease of upgrade. While some have noted that binary upgrades are easier on Debian, it's far and away superior, IMMHO, to have a locally compiled system. Many Linux distros have no upgrade path short of a wipe and re-install. Community support by dedicated professionals. BSD License vs GPL. I agree with the sentiment about small minds and viral licensing. I use FreeBSD for webserver (nginx), database (MySQL), mail (exim and dovecot), nameserver (BIND), firewall, and more. As a small time, part time sysadmin I couldn't imagine going back to any other OS. I don't make my living from server management, rather my servers support my interests and small business (if anyone has ever seen the Staples commercial in the US with "Bob", the sole proprietor and employee who wears all of the hats including tech support, that's me). -- Jim Ohlstein
David Chisnall wrote: > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material > (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before > I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using > FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about > FreeBSD, which would you pick? I agree with what many others already wrote: Ports, ZFS, stability, consistency, ... But there's one thing that hasn't been mentioned so far, I think: jails. The jails feature was the most important reason why one of our largest customers chose FreeBSD for its server farm instead of Linux. I also use this feature quite a lot on my own boxes to easily confine services and applications into sandboxes, without having to use a full- blown virtualization system with all of its disadvantages. I also like the fact that there's a manual page for pretty much *everything*. If you come across an unknown system binary, configuration file, library function, system call or whatever, typing "man <name>" is almost guaranteed to enlighten you. Another thing worth mentioning is the FreeBSD policy that any change should try hard not to violate "POLA", i.e. the "principle of least astonishment". This improves users experience a lot. And finally, I like the way FreeBSD enables you to perform source-level upgrades. The last time I used installation media (CD, DVD, USB stick, whatever) for FreeBSD was in the previous century. > Are they the same as when you first started using it? That's a different story ... Basically, I started using FreeBSD because it was BSD. It was almost 20 years ago when I was using SunOS 4.x (BSD-based) at the university. Then those dumb bastards at Sun (sorry, that's what I was thinking at that time) decided to switch to a SysV-based system with SunOS 5.x. It was horrible. I wanted my BSD back. At that time I had a little Slackware Linux partition on my PC at home, but it was an ugly mixture of BSD and SysV stuff. Then a fellow student mentioned FreeBSD to me, so I gave it a try (I think it was 2.0.5). Within minutes I was sold. Long live BSD! Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M. Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606, Gesch?ftsfuehrung: secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht M?n- chen, HRB 125758, Gesch?ftsf?hrer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd The whole world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel. -- Horace Walpole
On 05/30/12 20:20, David Chisnall wrote:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm > sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish > number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material > (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before > I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using > FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about > FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first > started using it?Without going into detail,BSD has served our company extremely well for over fifteen years for all server purposes we need. File server, mail, MX, web, routing/firewalls you name it. Never let us down, the stability is just out of this world, the docs are excellent and the people great. So, 1. Stability 2. Ease of upgrades 3. The community and developers A big thank you to all that keeps us running! //per
> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending > it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of > users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which > advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd > like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. > If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which > would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David > > ------------------------------1. Stability 2. Security 3. Ease of configuration ... and more ... 4. Lots of good ports, that build and install mostly with NO trouble. 5. Works like ('cause IS) BSD/Solaris, rather than Sys5 (see 3 above) 6. Good lists 7. Great help when I need it ... some history ... Had been using Solaris on a variety of Suns, when in July 1999 it fell to me (a hardware designer) to set up a firewall to replace a really unreliable Windows app-level firewall. Got an old PC, put FreeBSD 3.2 on it, got Trusted Information Systems' proxies for HTTP and FTP, got it up and working with only minor problems. Into production in less than a week. It ran until GE bought the whole company out in late 2001, finally upgraded to 4.2. Currently (2012) maintaining a FW based in FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE GENERIC for a local charity's office. Hardware is a Dell T105. First light was in 2008 using 6.2. No noticeable trouble. The same host also runs Samba 3.3.13 for the LAN users, DHCP, and internal mail. FW is NATing ipfw. I have been retired since 2002 January, and do this for fun. FreeBSD has made it so. Thanks, very much indeed, everyone. Karl Dunn kdunn@acm.org
Because I really like it! ;-) I've been using FreeBSD since the RELEASE-1.0(.5)?, as far as I remember... But, the first BSD I had installed was a 386BSD, on a old 386 computer. Yeah! Version 0.0 or 0.1... God! I'm getting old! Cordeiro Em quarta-feira, 30 de maio de 2012, ?s 19:20:31, David Chisnall escreveu:> Hi Everyone, > > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it > to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which > advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd > like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If > you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would > you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? > > David_______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
Hi, On 30 May 2012 PM 7:20:31 David Chisnall wrote:> > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it? >I must say that it is a long time ago when I sat at the first BSD machine. The most important feature is the configuration and the update procedure. Things rarely change in a way that users have to relearn. It is also important that it is possible to use a machine and upgrade it only every six or twelve months without facing fundamental problems. What helps there that the user can define a branch (8.x or 9.x) and stick with it as long it is supported. The users are not forced to move to the next version which might introduces some changes the user is not used to it. This allows users to skip one main branch. While it is possible to stick with 8 until 10 is released, it is also possible to move to 9 or even 10. Sticking with 8 reduces the risk to get caught with some problems during the upgrade by some 50% But I have to mention one disadvantage. The ports are in no way linked to the releases. This leads to situations in which a small change in a basic library will result in a complete update of the installed ports. I expressed this already many time here. It would be of advantage if the ports tree would also have tags like the base system itself. I use a simple trick. I update the ports tree mainly when it is frozen due to a new FreeBSD release. I believe that it is hard to express the other reasons for using FreeBSD in a world in which users take is as god given that an operating system fails or forces them to reinstall over and over again. Erich
Hi, On 02 June 2012 PM 3:47:27 Daniel Kalchev wrote:> > On 02.06.12 15:32, Erich wrote: > > I know that the ports tree is a moving target. But it stops moving during the release period. This could be used to give a fall back solution. > > > > Or do I see this really too simple? > > The ports tree is a moving target during release periods still, although > there are efforts to make movements smaller. This is why, after a > release it suddenly moves more :)I know. I save me as many versions as possible during a release just as a fall back. I did not do this before and got hit several times when I believed that all I need is the installation of a small program. Anyway, the team knows the version of the tree used for the release they are working on. Making this ports tree easily available could help to overcome some problems. Erich
Hi, On 30 May 2012 PM 7:20:31 David Chisnall wrote:> > This is off-topic, so please feel free to disregard it, but I'm sending it to this list in the hope that it will reach a largish number of users. > > I am currently looking at updating some of our advocacy material (which advertises exciting new features like SMP support), and before I do I'd like to get a better feel for why the rest of you are using FreeBSD. If you had to list the three things you most like about FreeBSD, which would you pick? Are they the same as when you first started using it?one thing which cannot be stressed enough is the responsiveness of FreeBSD under all load conditions. I am surprised how slow Fedora feels occasionally. FreeBSD does not show this behaviour until the load average is double the number of CPUs in a system. I also noticed meanwhile that another big advantage of FreeBSD is the fact they it does not even try to give you the feeling that all is possible with just a click without being able to work on the low level. Fedora gives you this feeling but makes you feel totally lost when the click does not work. This leads to the clear structure of FreeBSD and its configuration. There are not several different systems which might even change from release to release. It is just /etc/. The clear separation of the base system and the applications (ports) is another clear advantage. I would not like to see things which are happening now with Fedora 17 happening with FreeBSD. As I have said before, the only real reason for me not to use FreeBSD on a machine is hardware support. Erich
I use FreeBSD because it was the first Intel based unix I tried. A friend of mine suggested I try FreeBSD instead of Linux. More recently I have had to start using Linux because FreeBSD doesn't have very good laptop support. (All I ask for is a way to configure the mouse pad so that I can switch off "tap to click.") My main application is to write my own mathematics code. From time to time I try running it under both FreeBSD and Linux to see which is fastest. It seems the two OS's take turns in which is fastest, depending upon which has had more recent development work done on it. Another reason I am forced to use Linux is because I sometimes use Mathematica 8. I haven't got this to work with Linux emulation under FreeBSD yet. When I use Linux, I use Ubuntu. I like very much how things just "work." For example, to use a flash drive, I just plug it in. I am sure I could configure FreeBSD to do the same thing, but it just becomes easier to type "mount_msdos /dev/da0s1 /tmp" as root rather than climb the learning curve. On the other hand Ubuntu recently switched their Window manager, and I hated it on their early versions. They also offered gnome3, and it just wasn't working. So I dare not go beyond Ubuntu 10.04, and I fear the day 10.04 becomes EOL. Having started with FreeBSD before Linux, I feel I understand FreeBSD a lot better. Stephen
Hartmann, O.
2012-Jun-06 12:30 UTC
port graphics/inkscape: not compiling anymore WAS: Re: Why Are You NOT Using FreeBSD?
On 06/06/12 10:41, Nicolas Rachinsky wrote:> * "O. Hartmann" <ohartman@zedat.fu-berlin.de> [2012-06-03 22:55 +0200]: >> ... I spent now two complete days watching my boxes updating their >> ports. Several ports do not compile anymore (inkscape, libreoffice, >> libxul, to name some of the very hurting ones!). > > Do you have graphics/libwpg01 installed? After deinstalling this, I > was able to compile inkscape again. > > NicolasYes, this port is installed and it is required by a lot of ports I have installed. I will not deinstall this port since I fear it will not be able to be reinstalled after that and increase the mess as it is already.