The BSD way
Revisiting an old allegiance
My sysadmin days started with FreeBSD. I was given a task to research and implement a web server that would host my then employer’s customers that were interested in having websites (this was around 2001 or so). After evaluating many a Linux distribution, I finally found FreeBSD. It was everything that I was looking for: ease of install, configuration was straightforward, and it was FAST. We proceeded to host about 10 moderate traffic sites on a dual PII with 256 MB of RAM.
Fast forward 2 years and I was at a new company. The FreeBSD 4.4 box I had left behind was still humming along nicely and I had thoughts of getting FreeBSD involved with my new employer. I setup an intranet server and a public Internet server running FreeBSD. Then, my tasks drew me away from managing them. Timelines got tighter, and projects stacked up. I found myself lured in by the ease of package management systems like APT on Debian, and then Ubuntu came along.
Ubuntu found its way onto my home machines and eventually infiltrated the corporate network. This is NOT a knock against Ubuntu. Quite the contrary, I think it’s a great distribution, but it’s really gotten to the point where I don’t feel as in touch with the OS. Too much is abstracted and/or decided for me. I like to have options in an OS and control is key. The BSD family of operating systems gives that to you, and that is why I am drifting back to them quite happily.
OpenBSD: I can get a functional install on new hardware in under 7 minutes. That’s just awesome. Buying CD sets helps to support the project, and I’m all for that considering they also produce one of the most ubiquitous tools in the field today, OpenSSH. OpenSSH has made my life as a developer/sysadmin much easier and it’s just a great system all around. I chose to run OpenBSD as my main server on my home network today and I have no regrets. (this was due in part to the recent arrival of a free shell provider devio.us (they’re awesome!)).
FreeBSD: It’s my old standby. I use it to host my email and serve up this website. I can’t emphasize enough how fantastic an OS it is and I highly recommend it as a first BSD. Technically savvy individuals will be able to complete a basic install, the documentation is very abundant and the community is friendly.
I haven’t had too much of a chance to try out NetBSD, DragonFlyBSD or PC-BSD (which is based on FreeBSD but geared towards desktops), but I fully intend to in the months to come. I’m toying with the idea of a netbook and a BSD seems like a good fit for that type of system.
Enough rambling. Go try a BSD and expand your mind!
