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BSDI Acquires Telenet System Solutions
pestel writes: "BSDI has acquired Telenet System Solutions, a hardware supplier that sells systems built using BSD. You can see the press
release over at Daily Daemon News. Good
news for BSD people looking for hardware from workstations to huge servers." Built using BSD? Well, built for BSD rather. Interesting news for VA Linux; remember, competitors in the rearview mirror may be closer than they appear...
Well.. if the company makes money then it helps your bottom line..
Linux is a decentralized development model. It is very difficult for one point of failure (other than Linus T) to cause a total breakdown in development. With most of the major players in BSD now under one umbrella, if the ship sinks, will there be enough left to continue?"
FreeBSD has more than 200 committers, and they don't all work for BSDi/WC (not by a long shot). AFAIK Open/Net BSD aren't 'under the same umbrella' as FreeBSD/BSDi either. If BSDi/WC go down then toilet then that is not happy news, but I think there are a LOT of other companies around which would NOT want to see that happen. Also remeber that WC and BSDi actually make money, unlike the IPO'd Linux companies which it is claimed will support Linux. Presumably Telenet ALSO make money, so now you have a very nice package to offer customers.
IMHO the Linux community has more to worry about in this regard, most of the companies which a vested interest in Linux are fairly new, and hence have a higher chance of failure.
the subject says it all.
-l
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Your criteria for OS selection seems to be flawed.
The more support offered the better, I don't have all the time in the world to fix/patch/debug the systems myself.
The expansion of BSDI is a great thing, it'll give me a 'one stop freebsd shop' that I can depend on for my systems. And I'll be a much happier sysadmin, I'm sick and tired of all the do-it-yourself stuff already, I need to get _real work_ done and anyone else wanting to do the same (getting work done) would see this as a good thing .
I really can't understand how one could enjoy the feeling of getting a new server without FreeBSD pre-installed, it's a nightmare of worry (will it work? will it boot? will it be stable?)
- Alfred Perlstein - Programmer and Administrator, Wintelcom.
I don't get it. Another greybox me-too linux on generic hardware company. What lessons have we learned from the PC business. Nothing apparently. With razor thin margins and distribution problems all over the yard the PC hardware business is collapsing into a few mega vendors whose value-add is brand recognition, slightly different/better peripherals and SERVICES. What does investing in a HW company actually bring to the table for BSD? So you call up your friendly BSD rep and order the latest greybox you've never heard of with,....HOLY CONFIGURATION BATMAN.....BSD preinstalled. Wowie! Just doesn't seem that great.
I'd recommend using the smaller hardware vendors (like Telenet) instead. Just fire up pricewatch.com and see what you can find.
Does *BSD have HOWTOs?
I found when I started out in Linux, the HOWTOs were really helpful. Even if they sometimes were wrong, or covered an old version of the software, they were often enough of a pointer to get me started or show me the right direction if I was stuck,
Je ne parle pas francais.
The thing that has me switching to BSD is that its a total system, rather than a kernel, a few kernel-dependent tools, and a lot of third-party bits, often weirdly integrated. Don't get me wrong, I like the GNU tools, and many of them actually have better functionality than their "built-in" BSD counterparts.
Since the implementation of a Linux system is often dependent on the distro-maker, each one does things in a different way, and often doesn't seem consistant from distro release to distro release (redMumblehatMumple). Nowadays, it seems like the distros distinguish themselves not on stability, etc, but on the number of X11 gizmos they come up with and the number of "applications" they ship with. This is the part that makes me laugh -- they count every little 0.0.2ALPHA "open source" package they can get their hands on as part of this -- it's the equivilent of MS rolling in the old SIMTEL DOS archives as "included applications."
FreeBSD has a stable base and the included applications are worthwhile system tools. Ports provides a consistant way to add applications as needed.
Not that FreeBSD can get off scott-free. Too many ports that *can* be built with X often list X as a "requirement" and end up trying to fetch, build, and install X when you don't want it. Ports tend to get added to the collection and then rot due to lack of maintenance, and may be a week or so behind the Linux world when major packages update.
Many of the base built-ins (ls, find, etc) aren't quite as feature-filled as the GNU equivilents -- I'm not sure why the features haven't been mirrored or the GNU versions merged in to replace the built-ins. I'm not sure if this is a licensing thing (GPL v. BSD), a feature thing ("We need foo -bar for our build scripts, GNU foo does foo -ber"), anti-GNU/Linux attitude ("If you want foo -ber, use Linux, we use foo -bar") or just more developer interest in extending drivers/features ("You can have foo -ber or gigabit NICs and IPv6.."). I'd buy the latter, but I wouldn't be suprised if it included some of the former as well.
Sorry, but slightly bored of the "linux vs bsd as holy war" thing. There so damn close, in the bigger picture.
:)
I've been getting hugely into BSD over the last six months or so, and have been slowling bringing it into work. The response has been hugely positive. The couple of linuxen we have want a 'go', and our NT admin is, like "God, you can do *that*?".
Oh yes, my man, oh yes.
My favourite linux distribution is FreeBSD.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Shocker, eh?
:)
What does this mean in the bigger picture? Particularly when we shine the same torch on a profitable BSDI as we do on a shriking TurboLinux or Linux Care. Or even the evaporating market cap of VA and/or RedHat, Caldera et al?
I honestly don't know. The only thing it says to me is either "No forgone conclusion in this one", or "Don't believe the hype". Depending what mood you're in.
BSD != competitor, anyway. BSD is your friend.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
I was one of the original senior System Admin's at USA.NET (before they were even USA.NET), and a 3 year resident of Colorado Springs (up in Denver now). They aren't at all a BSDI house. They were, for a long time, one of Sun's biggest customers. I think they may be moving towards HP now for some stuff, but its most definately not a BSDI shop. Also, they aren't in the same building as USA.NET. USA.NET is on Kelly Johnson Blvd, and BSDI is over on 30th St (next door to another former employer of mine).
\w0zz - OpenBSD - A Better Solution
On laptops and such it makes sense to run Linux;
Actually, I prefer to run FreeBSD on laptops, for one reason: USB support - the multitude of hot-swappable USB devices can make laptop life much easier.
Unlike x86 linux, FreeBSD has good USB support, including USB mice, printers, USB to parallel adapters, digital camera conduits, zip drives, ethernet dongles, and keyboards
It used to be that many people chose Linux over FreeBSD on intel boxen because Linux had support for a wider range of hardware. It seems to me that FreeBSD is rapidly catching up in most areas, and has surpassed linux in a few. Perhaps FreeBSD hasmore low-level hardware hackers these days?
I honestly do not know that much about BSD. I have heard many good things about it and understand that it has been around for quite some time. I've seen the issue raised several times of "Linux Vs. BSD" and that this battle of the systems is somewhat of a holy war amongst the free OS community. It seems that so much effort is being thrown into Linux that too me it would make sense that Linux will emerge on top eventually by the sheer development/advancement effort thrown into it. Is BSD really needed? How much longer will it be around? Does Linux really need more "competition" besides trying to compete against the Redmond giant? Just a thought on my mind. It's late and so far a bunch of junk has been posted. So, thought I'd throw out something with more substance.
For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.
No it was not a troll. (Yeah, I did post it very early in the morning when I should've been sleeping, but not to troll.) Considering the lack of interest in this article overall (currently half of the 98 comments are score 0 or less) and the state of the discussion while new on the board (a bunch of A.C. trolling and flamebaiting) I thought I'd try and get a discussion going. Honestly the original article was very "ho-hum" boring. Sure, it was news that pertains to geeks, but sometimes geek news is boring.
Maybe you know everything, but I don't. I thank those that bothered to post decent replies. I actually learned some good things about BSD and am now going to take a closer look at it as an option for a good server OS for a business idea I'm developing. Hopefully others learned some stuff as well. Hopefully one day I'll be as 31337 as some of you are. Until then, I guess I'll just have to "Troll" for information.
For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.
"Hey Kirk, what's left on the IPO checklist? You gonna be ready to go around September 1?"
I don't see how buying a hardware company helps the bottom line. Yes it diversifies and adds to the impression that BSDi is more vertically integrated, but does it do anything other than annoy all the other hardware companies that ship boxes with FRbEsEdBiSD already installed?
"The investment bankers said, "Hey, you need a hardware company." So hey, we purchased a hardware company. Next we'll figure out what to do with it."
Linux is a decentralized development model. It is very difficult for one point of failure (other than Linus T) to cause a total breakdown in development. With most of the major players in BSD now under one umbrella, if the ship sinks, will there be enough left to continue?
Did I really post that or did I just think it? (Yeah, I know it's a quote from a different psycho but it seemed to fit)
Yes, and the PC manufacturers like DELL and Gateway are re-sellers of M$ Windows... :P
Let's see the DOJ's response if Microsoft buys DELL...
What it DOES do is allow a corporation to buy pre-tested and "approved" hardware without worrying about compatibility issues
It is not strictly necessary for the software supplier to OWN the company that sells the hardware. Companies like DELL, Gateway, Compaq etc. also sell pre-tested and 'approved' hardware, and I bet they need not be owned by Microsoft to do that correctly. It is even better if they are not since they may either refuse to use or replace (parts of) the software on their system when these cause problems.
Brand hardware for re-sale
I think you forgot Microsoft Powerpoint there ;) Seriously, I think most examples there are not very discutable. Point is, TelnetSystems is not going to make a switch to Linux now, are they? Previously they could, now they can't. End of choice, and if you would take it to the extreme, no real 'market'.
Or, you could be joking, and if you were
Heh...
--
Common sense is not so common - Voltaire
Isn't the basis of a free market that clients keep their options open? I bet if Microsoft would do this the world would be screaming murder.
--
Common sense is not so common - Voltaire
FreeBSD was started for the purpose of making a quality UNIX port to the x86 architecture. All of the ports of FreeBSD to other platforms are really secondary, and often not for production-level machines.
If you think Linux is a serious competitor to Solaris on Sparc, you've got another thing coming. Linux doesn't scale nearly as well as Solaris on any platform, including x86, nevermind Sun's native platform. Perhaps the OSes should stick with what they do best instead of half-assed approaches to secondary platforms?
Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
Well, I guess I won't be moderating this topic :)
Slashcode will run just fine on *BSD. It can, however, be painfull to get apache to recompile itself with mod_perl if you get a BSD that doesn't include it by default. I personally have Slash 1.01?? running on OpenBSD 2.6. I had to download a new version of Apache and Mod_SSL (Mod_SSL is installed by default). Other than that everything went very smoothly.
Les Weinmunson
les@weinmunson.net
one saying comes to mind: "if you want it done right, do it yourself." All my friends use SWAT for samba administration, but none of them understand the smb.conf file. By going through that stuff, you learn it. I can see the benefit of bundled HW/SW to guarantee compatibility, but I'd just reinstall it when i got it, to make sure its installed like i want it.
If you want to get "real work" done, you should set it up yourself and make sure its right. sure it not as fast as other setups, but how often do have to mess with it now? easy...I don't.
Something like this would be good for more options, as long as it stays optional.
Chaos, Mayhem, and Destruction: Not
Thats my point. OpenBSD doesn't have guys in suits. no VP's there.
Chaos, Mayhem, and Destruction: Not
OK, so I am going to be installing the Slash code to run a portion of my web site. My major question of the day (Or at least my Major 4:00 AM Question of the Day) is:
Can I run the Slash code on a *BSD? If so, does it require any special considerations?
What does Slashdot use for their server OS? They credit Debian and Red Hat on the Slash Code Site, but I haven't seen what they are using. I'd really be interested in finding out what distro it is, not because I'd necessarily use it, but because it might help me decode the Slash documentation. I've run Caldera, Mandrake, and SuSE before, but I'm willing to try others of course.
Anyway, I was also considering running OpenBSD or FreeBSD as my web server OS for Dragonfly Dynamix, but then I decided in the car today on the way home that I wanted to run the Slash code...
Anyway, I know this is slightly off-topic, but I at least nailed the right forum. Right? Guys? Right?
*gulp*
*Watches Karma plummet...*
=P
Free music from Jack Merlot.
Gee, an Anonymous Coward referring to an article without providing a reference? ;) I'd hate to see Slashdot's spotless reputation tarnished by someone posting FUD. Seriously, though, care to provide a reference? I'd like to hear why it is that The SF Chronicle thinks that FreeBSD "continues to decline in the marketplace" (or why they think it has shown a trend toward decline lately at all).
-- Anony Mouse
# echo 'SboPshAeaM@rSicPocAheMt.SnePt' | sed -e 's/[SPAM]//g'
For those of you interested, I've ordered a few servers from Telenet, all of them Linux boxen. They are a tad expensive, but their support is very good, their salespeople knowledgeable, and their products solid and built with standard products. I recommend them to anyone looking for good servers...
Linux is verry easy to build from scratch. I did it by first purchasing RedHat5.2 from eBay($5) and I then built my first kernel and transfered it to another partition on my scsi hdd. After that, it takes many, many hours of configuring the filesystem and getting the modules and daemons working correctly. To this day, I am still working on getting it perfect. The many different distributions of Linux are verry thoughful in preconfiguring everything for you, except they not only configure it, but sneak all these unnecessary and especially unstable bloatware programs into your computer. Most of those bloatware programs will not even run correctly on their installation. Have you ever click an icon and nothing happens? Well, you most likely have to find the properties of that icon, open an xterm, and run it manually so you can catch the output of error messages. Web browsers and the KDE are a perfect example. I was forced to use netscape at first, but I got another console SVGAlib webbrowser named "wb0" and it has propper graphics gray-scaling as opposed to Netscape. Why would I use Kfmclient as a webrowser? Too many alternate programs are installed with Window Managers. The other problem with the every Linux distribution is that they install on average 10 different mail clients. I ask myself, "what were they thinking?" Even though it may take an average system to install a Linux distribution in 15 minutes, it takes about 5 *HOURS* to remove the unneaded programs and get everything configured *CORRECTLY*. Plus, you must hunt down those distribution-specific daemons that cause all the unnecessary DNS queries; causing Diald to bring up a link. My incesant ranting is not of dislike, but distaste. I have conjectured that every Linux ditribution's phylosophy is that everyone is stupid and needs every Linux program that exists. Even on a class install, like "base install", or "minimum server" install, on a distribution, you still get too much unnecessary programs. Linux is awesome, but it is becoming more different in every distribution. The only way to make Linux useful: stay verry close with GNU and build your own Linux from scratch and backup your handcoded configuration files. Else, you will be busy most of your time when hunting-down the configuration files that were supposed to be in /etc and you'll find them in either /usr/lib or /var or /usr/var or whatever. I have BSD and am experimenting with it. BeOS is my next test after BSD.
without prejudice
It is possibly the sad truth. Linux seams to be alot of bloatware Nowadays. BSD was on the first Netpliance I-opener and is known to be the first on many of the PDAs simply because it is slightly smaller than the Linux kernel. I'd like to see BSD progress past linux by means of performance. Or does it already? BSD gurus claim that it runs Linux programs faster than Linux itself and that it has better SMP support. That is verry notable.
without prejudice
Catch me if I'm wrong here, but I'm an avid reader of the BSD section, and everytime, without fail, when an article is posted, at least half of the responses fall under one or both of the following categories:
-
1. Why doesn't x hardware work with *BSD?
a. RTFM
2. Linux vs. BSD
a. Troll.
Why can't we stick to the f*ing topic here people. None of the other Sections, etc. have anywhere near the useless crap to valuable information ratio as does the BSD section (well, polls, but that doesn't count).
I realize I'm being a hypocrite here, but the situation is so out of hand, that the only way to influence it is to play by it's rules.
-----------------------------------------------
How did this post get past the lameness filter?
While I'm not just another whiner about x86-only software, I think that it'd be good to have FreeBSD continue on multiple platforms - it could be a serious competitor to Solaris and Linux on Sparc.
Does this also mean that Telenet will be ditching their NT 5 servers?
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
Visit
On FreeBSD, the Linux emulation is good enough that I run Blackdown 1.2.2rc4 without trouble. Just install it from the port, not by hand, since there's no reason to re-invent the wheel. With the better JIT, it's faster than the native port anyways (although the freebsd-java project is changing that). In fact, the only thing I've ever had fail under emulation was a port of linux wine, and that just needed linux-proc, which wasn't installed. The whole emulation thing is rock-solid.
BSDi buys Walnut Creek, giving them a software/publishing outlet. BSDi buys Telesys, giving them a hardware outlet. Sounds like somebody's been taking lessons from Microsoft and Sun - which begs the question 'when will we see our first BSDi-branded peripherals?'. Or, maybe the better question is 'who will they buy next?'. I think we'll see movement in the applications arena next - maybe something like Applix or BRU. Or I could just be wrong. It appears to me that BSDi is taking the right steps to combat the establishment on all fronts, and I'm happy for them.
main(){char I,l,O[]={'-',1-1,0,(1<<5)-1,0+'-',-10-1,-10,11-0,
Debian and FreeBSD. Easy to secure. Easy to use packaging systems that allow you to avoid thinking.
Next door to another employer? I lived a block away and walked to that GOG facility.
Thanks for the advice. I will certainly look to switch over to FreeBSD from Debian GNU/Linux in the future, or perhaps run them both and see which one delivers a better computing experience.
Cedric Balthazar Rotherwood
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform +
System Admin. for Solaris
I thought it was Berkeley Software Distribution. I could be wrong, though. I've tried FreeBSD and OpenBSD fleetingly on my Intel boxen, and although their installation was painless, I didn't experiment with them for very long (reinstalled Solaris x86 and Debian/GNU Linux).
I'm just wondering about support for the Java platform in the way of JDK, etc. With Linux emulation, would it be possible to run JDK 1.2.2 under *BSD, or is the Linux emulation on the *BSD platforms not quite there yet? Java support is the main factor in any platform (At least, to me), so if anyone has information on this aspect I'd be very interested.Thanks,
Charles Balthazar RotherwoodCedric Balthazar Rotherwood
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java Platform +
System Admin. for Solaris
While BSD/OS (what you are calling BSDI) is not perfect, it is far from "unstable", and unless Telenet was trying to pawn off old software, it was probably not "outdated".
Lastly, BSD/OS is not a "distro" but a distinct variant of the BSD line of operating systems.
I'm assuming that for whatever reason you are not working there anymore? I'd like to know how the big transition went.
Have a GREAT day, and remember,
You can all just kizmiaz!
Simple to remove if needed, no requirement to pay M$ a royalty, and a relatively good test of the hardware.
Were you expecting blank disks?
Rember,
You can all just kizmiaz!
No, I've never screwed up anything on my own web pages, and even if I had,
You can all just kizmiaz!
... And they're OK, but our 2Us don't have hot-swap drives and the redundant powersupplies are fed by a single power cord instead of one cord per supply like Compaq's 1850R.. Kinda important if your datacenter has 2 separate power mains running into each rack and you want to remove a SPOF... Kinda pricey to blow those options IMHO, and for 1 extra U I'm quite tempted to stick with Compaq and its 6 hotswap drives..
:p ) I'm leaning towards IBM, Compaq or VA (or HP's LPr, but I think they're kinda, uh, ugly).. Any other suggestions for an enterprise buyer?
btw: telenet won't play nice with our financing dept (lease terms) so we're switching linux/bsd server vendors. Our purchaser wants us to go with Dell but I refuse because of questionable RAID drivers (and an aversion to Dell by nature), so I've got them down to selecting a preferred linux/bsd server vendor.. Any experience outside of VA? (apparently penguin can't do the terms we want either
Your Working Boy,
We have large numbers of both FreeBSD and Linux (and Solaris) boxes in production.
... but when I worked there last year not a single Linux box was in production use. In fact the only machine I saw running it was a Sparc sitting unused at the Santa Clara offices.
I assume you mean Yahoo
The European server farm was running nothing but FreeBSD (version 2.2.7 as I recall), altough I assume stuff like the personalisation database was running on Solaris.
So where have Yahoo started using Linux (if you're allowed to say)? I was always told David Filo considered Linux to be crap, based on his brief encounter with it - and FreeBSD was now too entrenched to be replaced.
Chris Wareham
The USB code is nice, which is why, of course, I run NetBSD on my laptop. :)
I think the turning point was around the time when bus_space got integrated. Drivers have come out faster since then.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I don't see how this counts as "buying" the competition. BSDi wasn't in the hardware business before. :)
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Interesting. As one of the support staff, I actually *prefer* email; I generally have much better luck troubleshooting via email, because people cut and paste. Exact error messages are very useful.
;)
:)
This is probably less of a problem with experienced techies, but with the newer sysadmins, it's almost impossible to understand problems from the descriptions you get.
I do like to think we're fairly knowledgable, though. Glad to know we give a decent impression to the customers.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
Keep in mind, the entire *company* isn't in that little building. There are at least four of us in Minneapolis/Saint Paul, and I know a number of other people who are distributed around the world; we even have an engineer in Norway.
Telecommute rocks.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
"em>Although I suppose that another merger between two internet companies is the best example of competition."
It isn't competition that causes mergers, buyouts and takeovers. It publically traded corporations. When you put your business up for sale to any and all comers, don't be surprised or angry when it's gets purchased. And that's what a public corporation is, a company perpetually up for sale.
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I worked for an ISP that was acquired by an electric company. The IT department was filled with old school pro IBM staff. The guys in the suits wanted accountability and support. I often got the impression no one wanted to take the blame and they did not want to work very hard so they strived for support contracts and having someone else to blame. Enter the ISP...
For the aforementioned reasons, the overseeing manager picked BSDi and their somewhat heafty support contract. I believe the contract was around $2500 a year. And since BSDi recommended servers from Telenet, the same manager went with Telenet servers.
A struggling startup ISP would have gone with FreeBSD and a put-together-yourself Intel Box and had similar performance for a lot less money. The BSDi contract was somewhat useless as you have to go through the usual ticket troubleshooting que or wait for an email response. It is just too difficult to troubleshoot problems through email.
Now having said that. I must say that the help staff at BSDi were very knowledgeable when you did get a hold of one of them. Also, the systems from Telenet were of good quality. And they were very responsive to RMA's and getting replacements shipped overnight. Back when we ordered systems from them, they also put pre-installed Linux and Windows NT on their boxes.
Remember when Linux was small and it was run by people? Before all the IPO crazyness, the shelves full of distributions, and all the crazy hype?
Now look at which free *nix's still keep a small and tight distribution.
RedHat, you'd think they invented the buffer overflow.
Mandrake, wait. i already mentioned RedHat.
Corel, windows with a linux kernel. riiiight.
SuSe, not even gonna comment.
FreeBSD, not yet. but its bound to end up like those above.
so whats left? Slackware, Debian, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and a handful of others.
Sure the big distro's are pushing free *nix forward, but why'd we start it all in the first place? To have a unix-like system that everyone could get. Not to sell out to the big companies, not to sell t-shirts, not to sell mugs or shot glasses either. Microsoft was a little grass roots company once too. So i'm not too happy for all these buy-outs and mergers. You're supposed to make companies, not buy them. You're supposed to beat the competiton, not buy them. blah blah. im done
Chaos, Mayhem, and Destruction: Not
Here's a funny little story: I hit "post", looked at the clock here (4:18 AM I think), went to sleep. Woke up at about 11:00, and thought, "Hey, I wonder if my post has any replies!"
Come into my server room, the WAN light on my poor little Cisco is convulsing uncontrollably; my site is down (of course)...
Anyway, from one simple four o'clock in the morning post, I got one flame, one joke, one post trying to justify the aforementioned joke, a denial-of-service attack, and one real, honest-to-goodness actual response! Pretty good, hunh?
And to think that some people say the *BSD "community" is just a bunch of 'leet snobs...I haven't the foggiest where they'd get that idea. ;-)
Anyway, I think I'll try to run the Slash code on OpenBSD... hopefully if I have problems, I can find people (like Les) who can help. Thanks again!
Free music from Jack Merlot.
Although I suppose that another merger between two internet companies is the best example of competition. But the competition between Linux and FreeBSD will probably benefit both. Just like the competion between M$ and Linux could bring out the best of both.
This is just a vague generalizing post. I just felt the need to quote Q-Tip.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
I like the fact that there are several strong players in this market, not to sound like the republican pig, but it will strenghen the products overall, help hold the costs dwn and most of all give us some additional realistic choices. I'm happy for BSDi, there are some really top notch folks over there and it's nice to seem them conitinuing to be a strong player in the field. Not to mention how good this is for Colorado Springs, which although seems like "South Denver" it's actually not, it's still a small town and needs the employers to be strong to keep the local economy going.
Two very obvious reasons leap to mind:
;-).
1) the free-er BSD license -- do whatever you want
with the code, just give credit where it's due
2) superior networking performance -- I'm an admin
for one of the 10 largest sites on the web. We
have large numbers of both FreeBSD and Linux (and
Solaris) boxes in production. To be perfectly
honest, FreeBSD is the fastest, most reliable,
most configurable OS I have encountered so far.
I run Linux at home for no particular reason other
than I'm too lazy to switch; however I have found
that FreeBSD offers so many compelling advantages
as a single-purpose server that I deploy mostly
FreeBSD boxes where there is not a compelling
application forcing us to use Linux or Solaris.
And I'll probably switch over to FreeBSD at home,
too, maybe waiting until 4.1 comes out to be safe.
On laptops and such it makes sense to run Linux;
on a firewall, OpenBSD. But for maximum performance on web and mail servers, FreeBSD rocks
the house. Don't take my word for it -- try it
yourself. Many of the Apache and Qmail developers
run FreeBSD as their primary platform, and that's
not an easy bunch to impress.
FreeBSD is to Linux as Postgres is to MySQL
(which would bring us next to Solaris -> Oracle)
Remember that what's inside of you doesn't matter because nobody can see it.