Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:12:00 -0500 From: Dave Pooser <dave-freebsd@pooserville.com> To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: A quality operating system Message-ID: <CA754F69.68E1F%dave-sa@pooserville.com> In-Reply-To: <86wre8inmi.fsf@gmail.com>
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On 8/20/11 1:49 AM, "Test Rat" <ttsestt@gmail.com> wrote: >There is an ongoing discussion on arch@ about this. > > http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-arch/2011-August/011412.html Thanks for posting that link; it covered some of the reasons I'm retiring my office FreeBSD servers in favor of Solaris and Linux. My own take: 1) I really don't see the Handbook as all that great. It's great that a volunteer team put it together, but when I compare it to <https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/docs/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/>; or <http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E19963-01/index.html>, I don't think the FreeBSD handbook compares well. 2) Lack of geek-on-the-street support. If I'm looking for an experienced Linux administrator, I'll get thousands of applications; for a Solaris administrator, I'll get hundreds. For a BSD admin? Maybe half a dozen? 3) Updates are a mess. It's cool that I *can* compile a new kernel, but that I *have* to is ridiculous. Updating a server should not be more difficult than "yum update" -- full stop. 4) Poor support from running FreeBSD under virtualization. When I start to think about deploying a new server, I'll generally spin up a new VM on my workstation or on an ESXi host. If I have trouble with that VM, my first response is not going to be to try again with the same OS, it's going to be to fall back to a configuration I know works. There are some things I liked a lot about FreeBSD -- its support for DTrace and ZFS was the reason I looked into it in the first place. But from where I sit, technologies like that are just duct-taped on to the base system rather than integrated. (For example, why isn't there something like the [Open]Solaris beadm, where the system creates a ZFS snapshot automatically before any major updates to let you revert to not just an earlier kernel but an earlier world?) Just my $.02. -- Dave Pooser Cat-Herder-in-Chief, Pooserville.com "...Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in one pretty and well-preserved piece, but to slide across the finish line broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out, leaking oil, and shouting GERONIMO!!!" -- Bill McKenna
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