[Novalug] Recommend a bacteria-sized server OS?

Matt Ryanczak ryanczak@gmail.com
Sat Apr 28 09:14:50 EDT 2012


On 04/28/2012 08:59 AM, Andrew Scott Beals wrote:
> Que?

I view it this way. There are two primary flavors of Unix. System V and 
BSD. I prefer System V myself because that's what I grew up on. I think 
the biggest difference is the init system but there are other minor 
differences as well (command options, etc). I don't think there really 
is any difference in capability these days, for the most part anyway. 
Sure OpenBSD is more secure and netbsd runs on more types of hardware. 
In my experience Linux performs better on the same hardware for a 
broader spectrum of work loads. Linux is also more flexible because, as 
Jim said, it is where all of the action (attention) is. All of these 
OSes have uses and I'm very happy to have such a diverse ecosystem.

In my experience OpenBSD makes the best pure firewall, commercial or 
open source. You just can't beat pf + pfsync + carp. Linux has similar 
capabilities these days and iptables surpasses pf in capability in many 
ways but pf is easy to implement, well designed and pfsync + carp just 
works.

I don't know what freebsd is good for ;) native zfs support is nice 
thought that's actually available on Linux these days via 
http://zfsonlinux.org/ I have friends who I respect quite a lot that 
prefer freebsd over linux for the same workloads I would use Linux for 
and I think thats awesome. We live in a free *nix golden age.... yay!


> BSD and the other Unixen pre-dated Linux by a good long while. Every
> time I run across or trip over my fingers knowing command-line options
> one way but it working differently in linux, I curse "Those damn kids"
> who put it together, not bothering to take a cue from their elders.
>
>
> On Apr 28, 2012, at 12:50 AM, James Ewing Cottrell 3rd wrote:
>
>> I agree with you In Theory, but given that they are essentially
>> General Purpose Systems, either one should be sufficient.
>>
>> Having said that, Linux is Where the Action Is; people are devoting
>> Way More Attention to it, and I think it has reached a higher State of
>> Sophistication. Plus, I am annoyed at many things about BSD and other
>> UNIXen that I just never want to deal with again.
>>
>> So let me ask you, and the group...what does BSD have that Linux
>> doesn't??? Why would BSD be any more appropriate than Linux for ANY
>> task???
>>
>> JIM
>>
>> On 4/26/2012 4:15 PM, Alex Smith (K4RNT) wrote:
>>> You're starting to remind me of the ancient proverb...
>>>
>>> "When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail."
>>>
>>> Corollary of same rule - *right tool for the job*.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 15:25, James Ewing Cottrell 3rd
>>> <JECottrell3@comcast.net <mailto:JECottrell3@comcast.net>> wrote:
>>>
>>>     Yeah, but it's still...BSD. Haven't we all moved on to Linux?
>>>
>>>     JIM
>>>
>>
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