I switched my startup’s whole infra to FreeBSD a couple months ago. Found a use after free bug that Linux’s memory management was just fine with in Gnome XSLT lib that FreeBSD properly refused. Other than that smooth sailing, jails work great.

After IBM destroyed CentOS, all the Xorg politics nonsense, the list goes on with Linux, not interested. I just want something quiet and boring and stable and correctly designed. NetBSD would be my first choice but they don’t get the $ they need for drivers.

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rednb 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Done the same since 2018 circa, never looked back.

For a while even used it on the desktop, but was too much trouble due to specific tools we need that weren't supported properly. so we're using Linux on the desktop.

FreeBSD is stable, lightweight, gets out of the way, and without drama.

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manuelabeledo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You don’t need to follow the news cycle to use an operating system.

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user3939382 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I do follow the news cycle and if I’m hearing about a software package in it, something is wrong with the people making the software and I don’t trust them. Software is an engineering discussion or at least it’s supposed to be. Here’s my community guidelines: everyone be nice and respectful engage in good faith and focus on the math. Being social is fine so long that it doesn’t become a diversion from the engineering discussion. We’re talking about code not a philosophical treatise. There are civil ways to settle disagreements. I’m so sick to death of the politics.

	▲	manuelabeledo 32 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It sounds like software projects are built by humans. Nothing wrong with that. Unless we’re assuming here that the BSD community is free from that.

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ajross 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> all the Xorg politics nonsense

Uh... Xorg is packaged by FreeBSD too...

Really the whole theme that (from the article) "FreeBSD ships as a complete, coherent OS" is belied by this kind of nonsense. No, it's not. Or, sure, it is, but in exactly the same way that Debian or whatever is. It's a big soup of some local software and a huge ton of upstream dependencies curated for shipment together. Just like a Linux distro.

And, obviously, almost all those upstream dependences are exactly the same. Yet somehow the BSD folks think there's some magic to the ports stuff that the Linux folks don't understand. Well, there isn't. And honestly to the extent there's a delta in packaging sophistication, the Linux folks tend to be ahead (c.f. Nix, for example).

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rednb 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The key thing is that on freebsd you do not risk bricking your system by installing a port. Even though this guarantee has become less true with PkgBase

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ajross 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> The key thing is that on freebsd you do not risk bricking your system by installing a port

What specifically are you trying to cite here? Which package can I install on Debian or Fedora or whatever that "bricks the system"? Genuinely curious to know.

	▲	rednb 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I was referring to the need to be careful to not modify/update packages also used by the base system. Since all packages are treated the same on Linux, you often can't tell which package can put you in trouble if you update it along with the dependencies it drags with it. This kind of problem happens frequently when users add repositories such as Packman on Linux providing dependencies versions different from the ones used by the base system of the distro. Experienced people know how to avoid these mistakes, but this whole class of problem does not exist on FreeBSD.

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user3939382 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> a huge ton of upstream dependencies

I think you missed the point in my original comment. I explained I moved my platform with all dependencies and had 1 bug which was actually a silent bug in Linux.

In other words, it works. Your particular stack might have a different snag profile but if I can move my giant complex app there, yours is worth a shot.

FreeBSD is more complete than you make out. They also have hard working ports maintainers.