Contemplating a migration to FreeBSD

[Ahimsa]

Greetings folks

I have an opportunity to experiment with FreeBSD 5.0, and before making the plunge wearing a blindfold wanted to harvest some opinions from folk here about a couple of issues.

I have used Linux for about 18 months or so now and am feeling more and more comfortable with it. I have read a reasonable chunk of the FreeBSD handbook from the site, but it is all rather abstract unless one has the system in front of me I find. So a quick couple of questions:
1. Those of you who have used both Linux and FreeBSD, what specific differences did you notice between the two systems, if anything?
2. Are there any things that I should be on the look-out for, so that I don't stumble into where angels may fear to tread?
3. Will all the usual accompaniments that I have come to know and love on Linux work with FreeBSD - the different WMs, Python, the multi-media, Gimp, the games, etc? I should imagine that they will, but just double-checking?
4. Do I have to pass specific arguments to the kernel to get my IDE CD-RW to emulate a SCSI drive, or will it just be recognised 'out of the box'?
4. Any other advice I should be mindful of for a home box, using dial-up, with a possibility that I might want to do a small home network with a Samba link at some point in the future?

Thanks, in anticipation.

AmF

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Originally posted by Ahimsa
Greetings folks

I have an opportunity to experiment with FreeBSD 5.0, and before making the plunge wearing a blindfold wanted to harvest some opinions from folk here about a couple of issues.

I have used Linux for about 18 months or so now and am feeling more and more comfortable with it. I have read a reasonable chunk of the FreeBSD handbook from the site, but it is all rather abstract unless one has the system in front of me I find. So a quick couple of questions:
1. Those of you who have used both Linux and FreeBSD, what specific differences did you notice between the two systems, if anything?


One of the things I noticed is a lot of packages aren't in the same places as Linux. For Linux, bash is at /bin/bash. For FreeBSD, bash is at /usr/local/bin/bash. In fact, bash is optional. And here's another tip: Don't just try to reuse your Linux XF86Config-- it won't work.


2. Are there any things that I should be on the look-out for, so that I don't stumble into where angels may fear to tread?


There shouldn't be anything. If you read the handbook, you will be plenty prepared for what lies ahead. I personally use FreeBSD exclusively for day-to-day use.


3. Will all the usual accompaniments that I have come to know and love on Linux work with FreeBSD - the different WMs, Python, the multi-media, Gimp, the games, etc? I should imagine that they will, but just double-checking?


Yup. In fact, FreeBSD has an extensive collection of WMs. They are all available in /usr/ports/x11-wm


4. Do I have to pass specific arguments to the kernel to get my IDE CD-RW to emulate a SCSI drive, or will it just be recognised 'out of the box'?


Actually, it will be recognized "out of the box". Instead of using cdrecord for IDE CD-R drives, there's a command called burncd. which runs on IDE drives, no emulation needed. Check the handbook. It gives you a rundown of it.


4. Any other advice I should be mindful of for a home box, using dial-up, with a possibility that I might want to do a small home network with a Samba link at some point in the future?


Samba's not that hard, just read the documentation at www.samba.org. In FreeBSD, the samba config files are in /usr/local/etc/, not /etc.

Thanks, in anticipation.

AmF


Have fun! But if you want a usable, stable system, you might want to try version 4.8 instead of 5.0. 4.8 is officially STABLE, but 5.0 is actually the development release. If you know about Debian Linux, you're probably familiar with the stable, testing and unstable versions of Debian. FreeBSD isn't like Debian-- unless a version's declared the -STABLE version, there might actually be things that could break your running system.

[alcdotcom]

I'm curious about FreeBSD as well. One of the things I've wondered is why you always hear so much about Linux, but rarely do you hear of an IT manager considering using BSD for production servers. (at least I don't) Is there a good reason why Linux seems to be more popular? Are there areas where FreeBSD is better than Linux and vice versa? I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I've never experimented much with BSD. I started with Solaris 2.6, which is mostly SVR4 and went straight to Linux from there. The name of the OS isn't really that important to me. I'm just interested in stability and efficiency as a web/mail server. I suppose one could dual boot Linux and FreeBSD right?

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Originally posted by alcdotcom
I'm curious about FreeBSD as well. One of the things I've wondered is why you always hear so much about Linux, but rarely do you hear of an IT manager considering using BSD for production servers. (at least I don't) Is there a good reason why Linux seems to be more popular? Are there areas where FreeBSD is better than Linux and vice versa? I know I'm asking a lot of questions, but I've never experimented much with BSD. I started with Solaris 2.6, which is mostly SVR4 and went straight to Linux from there. The name of the OS isn't really that important to me. I'm just interested in stability and efficiency as a web/mail server. I suppose one could dual boot Linux and FreeBSD right?

The BSDs are ROCK SOLID. They excel at serving. The reason why most IT managers don't consider a BSD is because they've never heard of it. It seems that the media likes to make a big hubub about Linux, but they, too don't realize that a BSD, like FreeBSD, is just as capable as Linux. In fact, some would say they're more secure, though I have no examples to prove the point.

Many places do use *BSDs, though. Yahoo! uses FreeBSD for major production servers, and even Microsoft uses FreeBSD to run its Hotmail service. They've proven their mettle and, in my opinion, can hang with many commercial unices when it comes to things like web serving, file serving, and database apps.

I used to quad-boot: Win98, Win2k, Debian Linux (unstable) and FreeBSD 4.6.2. When I rebuilt my machine, I pared it down; Now I just run Win2k and FreeBSD 4.8. Why? FreeBSD does everything that I need, everything that I want, and I can still keep finding new things to do with it. Nothing was wrong with Debian on my machine (I actually think Debian's edging out Slackware as my favorite Linux distro), I just found that FreeBSD had everything that I needed, and it just plain worked. I find something, and I stick with it if it works for me.

Heck, my internet router is a Compaq proliant 1500R. It sits here on my floor, with 5 SCSI hard drives, 3 NICs, a P120 processor and 16MB RAM. It provides all of the internet access via NAT in my house, and it does bridging. Also, it is the access point to my house: not only does it do the routing/NAT, but it serves as my ssh portal to the other boxen in my house, and my friends can dump files on it that they think I'd find interesting. And it does all of this with a pretty barebones install of FreeBSD 4.6.2, a and a tweakings, such as editing /etc/rc.conf and rebuilding my kernel to pare it down with only the options I need.

[Ahimsa]

Alex - hi there and thanks for posting. It looks like my plans have changed and my intended/considered migration will be put on hold for a bit. Nevertheless, your insight was useful, and the description of your system sounds really cookin' :cool: !!
So, thanks and I'm sure that when it comes time for me to consider it again I'll have plenty more questions. Is there a *BSD specific board? I can't recall seeing any when I was browsing the FreeBSD site, but I could have missed it?

Be well :)

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Most *BSD questions you ask will probably get a competant response here. A lot of people here use different flavors of BSD, so there's a good bit of knowledge to be had here.

But, if you do want just a BSD specific folrum, there's always BSD Vault (http://bsdvault.net). They discuss everything BSD, including OS X and its core, Darwin, as they are based off of FreeBSD.

[drummerboy195]

if you look at the netcraft survey (server uptimes) all but 4 of the top 50 run a bsd. three, (i think) run linux, and one is a win2000. if that says anything.

[mister_math]

Even though it sounds like you're not going into FreeBSD right now, I couldn't resist adding my two cents. :-)

Originally posted by Ahimsa
Greetings folks
I have used Linux for about 18 months or so now and am feeling more and more comfortable with it.
I was only using Linux for 6 months when I started using FreeBSD 5.0. If you can learn Linux, you can learn FreeBSD.
1. Those of you who have used both Linux and FreeBSD, what specific differences did you notice between the two systems, if anything?
Lots of things are easier in FreeBSD, and lots of things are harder. For instance, I had never compiled a kernel in my six months of using Linux, but within a month of using FreeBSD, I had recompiled my kernel twice, on each of two different machines. Ports are much easier than an RPM-based distribution. There are fewer 'wizards' in FreeBSD, but this probably isn't much different than a 'harder' Linux distro (I used Mandrake). Some stuff is easier to set up in Linux, such as Java and Realplayer. And so on and so forth. Me, I love the challenge of setting up my system (as long as certain things work without too much hassle) and the satisfaction of configuring a machine so that it's MINE.
2. Are there any things that I should be on the look-out for, so that I don't stumble into where angels may fear to tread?
Lots. But the answer is READ, READ, READ!
3. Will all the usual accompaniments that I have come to know and love on Linux work with FreeBSD - the different WMs, Python, the multi-media, Gimp, the games, etc? I should imagine that they will, but just double-checking?
Yes, but again, they might take a little longer on the initial set-up. FreeBSD doesn't assume you're an idiot and set everything up for you. Sometimes you may have to go in there and write the config file yourself (or, more frequently, copy it off the net).
4. Any other advice I should be mindful of for a home box, using dial-up, with a possibility that I might want to do a small home network with a Samba link at some point in the future?
Know that FreeBSD DOES NOT support winmodems (except some Lucent winmodems). This is the only reason I'm still using Linux at home.

There is a *BSD message board at http://www.bsdforums.org/forums/

You can also look into the mailing lists, which you can find from the FreeBSD homepage.

Good luck, and hope to see you posting soon from a FreeBSD box!

[Ahimsa]

Hey mister_math: well, I'm still not posting from a FreeBSD machine (yet!!). The opportunity has arisen to clean off my desktop and load 4.8 (the 5.0 boot CD was buggy and gave a kernel panic after it had started to boot, so I returned it and the guy was real cool and sent me the 4.8 as a replacement, so thanks for that tip). I have some backing up to do first, and then some configurations on my laptop to do as a substitute machine should the excrement hit the rotator blade, and then I may well be posting here from a FreeBSD. Watch this space!!! :)
Thanks for all the comments, all of you.

AmF