

FreeBSD 9.0-RC1 Available... - Uncle_Sam
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-October/064321.html

======
btw0
Fewer and fewer people are using FreeBSD, and it's starting to cause real
problems. Bugs in ports can't get enough notice. Right now, `htop', an
essential tool for me, has been malfunctioning for months:

<http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=ports/159728>

At the moment, the built-in GPU in newer CPU (core i3/i5/i7) simply doesn't
work in FreeBSD, people have to buy discrete older cards for graphics. Yes,
they are paying someone to work on the part in kernel which will make it
possible to support these newer CPUs, but who knows when it will come.

~~~
omnipath
Maybe because it's a pain in the butt to install it? Honestly, I tried FreeBSD
8 two weeks ago, and until there's an easier to way to install it, I can't
imagine many people will be interested in it.

~~~
Leynos
If you're looking for a desktop install of FreeBSD, I highly recommend PC-BSD.
It's more or less to FreeBSD what Ubuntu is to Debian. It's still a little
rough around the edges, but it's a lot more straightforward to get set up than
vanilla FreeBSD.

~~~
sigzero
I was curious about BSD...found PC-BSD and it was easy enough to get going.

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clarkevans
As of this year, I'm no longer a FreeBSD user. I've been a hold-out... finally
converting over to Linux this year after years of denial. It was a very hard
move for me.

The problem is that FreeBSD developers are still fighting wars of the 90's. By
and large, with the welcome exception of Colin Percival (of
<http://www.tarsnap.com/> fame), they have not embraced virtualization. The
only saving grace of FreeBSD is that it has adopted Sun's ZFS. This won't hold
the fort for long though.

For BSD-on-EC2 see <http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-on-ec2/>

~~~
isocpprar
Have you ever used FreeBSD jails? I wish there was something as easy to use
and flexible as that on Linux. The fact that each jail has minimal overhead
and with dedupe on ZFS I can easily give every user their own "machine" while
spending a lot less on hardware then a linux solution would require.

Having said that I also wish I could run FreeBSD on EC2 however I haven't put
my money where my mouth is. I'm sure if you and many others wanted it badly
enough you could sponsor development to fix any current issues. Also it would
probably help if someone made a large business case to Amazon to ensure that
things were targeted towards FreeBSD that would help too. (i.e. not needing an
ext2 filesystem for the user provided kernel on micro instances, etc)

~~~
clarkevans
Absolute goodness of jails and the simplicity of making a small bootable
readonly CDROM image made FreeBSD a clear winner for me in the late 1990's &
early 2000's. In the 2010's... the world moves forward, now it's about having
a standard virtual image.

~~~
ori_b
Why?

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jedberg
The last version of BSD I used regularly was 3.2, and I've missed it since.
Although, I've somewhat gotten my fix by installing via ports on MacOS.

Perhaps with this release, I'll try my hand at getting it to run on Ec2.

Alternatively, does anyone know of a good cheap vps that runs BSD?

~~~
clarkevans
I think RootBSD is the Linode of the FreeBSD community.

~~~
getsat
Not being able to provision on demand is a deal breaker, though.

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Getahobby
I have used FreeBSD since 2.2. I used to laugh at the slashdot trolls saying
BSD is dying but I really think it is dying. The commercial support is just
not there.

~~~
sgt
"Commercial support" as a selling point is really overrated. You can always
get commercial support in any case, from FreeBSD specialists for hire. Apart
from that, normal users will always be able to get support from the mailing
lists, forums and so on. I'm happy with FreeBSD and there's nothing stopping
me from using it both personally and for my businesses. I am not interested in
FreeBSD on the desktop, however.

~~~
munchhausen
No commercial support makes the software a non-starter in most IT
environments, that's the (sad) reality. FreeBSD is a good example of why that
is a problem - while technically sound, it is at risk of becoming a fringe OS
used only by a couple of enthusiasts and FreeBSD developers themselves. For a
project that produces an OS, that is a big issue, since you need users to make
sure your OS works on various hardware configurations, or else you will become
an "experimental" OS like Plan 9.

~~~
sgt
With FreeBSD being so mature and old as it is, I think it's a given that the
chance that it will continue for many years to come is very high. Sure enough,
the risk is higher than going with "mainstream" Linux, but if you have the
expertise, especially within the business, then it's a no-brainer if you will
clearly benefit from all the great things FreeBSD has to offer. We're running
FreeBSD with jails and ZFS etc. on a lot of servers and we're very happy with
it. It's not hard for a Linux expert to pick up on. Anyway, that's my opinion.

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SagelyGuru
This is great news, well done!

The existence of FreeBSD and other 'alternative' o/s and software in general
is more valuable than it may appear at first sight.

I would draw an analogy between variety of software and variety of a genetic
pool, from which innovation and adaptability spring.

~~~
DanBC
...but some of those OSs (not necessarily talking about any of the BSDs here)
are more like the Northern Hairy Nosed Wombats than a viable genetic pool.

(<http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/11343/0>)

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kinphi
Check out distrowatch.com and see how bad freebsd has it... It is the only
none linux os in the top twenty and it been there as long as I can remember.
Its the only server in my datacenter that upgrades without a problem and runs
and runs and runs.

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derleth
Everyone making comparisons between OSes involving a BSD always picks Linux as
the 'other OS'. How about a good comparison between the various BSD flavors?
Why would I pick FreeBSD over OpenBSD, NetBSD, DragonFly BSD, or PC-BSD?

~~~
X-Istence
PC-BSD is FreeBSD with a nice coat on.

