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Preparing for the Worst in FreeBSD

LiquidPC writes "In Part I of this series, Michael Lucas, from ONLamp.com, goes over preparing your FreeBSD computer for the worst in case of a system panic."

19 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Well I thought by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    FreeBSD was already the worst so you don't need to prepare for it.

  2. FreeBSD has serious problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    For one there is a major lack of good hardware support for FreeBSD. Linux tries hard to support new hardware and less common dveices. FreeBSD only seems interested in suppporting the most common hardware. Also Sun seems to not want to allow BSD to distribute native binary support for Java. FreeBSD may have negotiated something but I guess Sun can change there mind. So Java support continues to only be available through a variety of hacks in the ports.

  3. Stephen King, author, dead at 54 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


    I just heard some sad news on talk radio - Horror/Sci Fi writer Stephen King was found dead in his Maine home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.

  4. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Netcraft officially confirms: *BSD is dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and *BSD's long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    *BSD is dying

  5. meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    If you've got FreeBSD installed, you've already got the worst.

  6. Re:Nice article, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    So why now? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD s fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Effortsto resuscitate *SD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  7. Re:What? by Synopsis+Troll · · Score: -1, Troll
    Synopsis: most FreeBSD users are actually brown.

    Details: FreeBSD is only widely used in Third-World nations whose populations are too poor to afford pirated copies of Windows, and too stupid to realize that using a SysV-derived freeware OS such as Linux will give them experience that will be valuable in the event that they are able to illegally emigrate to Europe or the US.

    These countries are truly the lowest of the low -- even the Chinese are rich enough to use Windows, and even Iceland is evolved enough to use GNU/Linux. Who would ever use FreeBSD, for anything?

    --

    --
    "Negative One, Troll."
    A golden badge of honor,
    worn on my penis.

  8. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll
    Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying

    Yet another crippling bombshell hit th beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking extremely bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    *BSD is dying

  9. Re:Too Complicated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    So why now ? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BS is fragmented between a myrad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *SD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  10. Daemon Omen *BSD: The End Times by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    So why now ? Whydid *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is frgmented btween a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. W all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  11. Re:Who cares? by Synopsis+Troll · · Score: -1, Troll
    Synopsis: You can be forgiven, because your computer is probably older than you are.

    Details: Yes, FreeBSD is an excellent solution for people who can't afford modern hardware. I mean, back when you bought that machine, your choice in operating systems were thus: Windows 3.1, Netware, SCO, and FreeBSD. So we can't blame you. It's not as if you're running a dual-processor Athlon MP, or a quad-processor Pentium 4 Xeon, in which case using FreeBSD would be akin to buying a Mercedes and then ricing it up with a cheap aftermarket spoiler and "loud pipes." Even GNU/Linux, the operating system of third-world communist terrorists, would be a better choice than FreeBSD!

    --

    --
    "Negative One, Troll."
    A golden badge of honor,
    worn on my penis.

  12. Queen Mother dead at 101 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I just heard some sad news on talk radio - England's Queen Mother was found dead in her London home this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss her - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying her contributions to popular culture. Truly a British icon.

  13. Re:Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    The question is ``why now?'' Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  14. Re:Who cares? by Synopsis+Troll · · Score: -1, Troll
    Synopsis: you're an idiot.

    Details: Microsoft uses FreeBSD for parts of Hotmail because the folks from whom they aquired the original software were Unix-wannabe hippies. It doesn't necessarily pay to needlessly port software that works, so Microsoft left the original b0X0rs intact, expanding the software only enough so that they and the new Windows 2000 boxes would be able to work together seemlessly. The FreeBSD boxes -- of which there are still many, since Hotmail wasn't a small service even before Microsoft bought it -- are replaced with Windows boxes as load and need warrant.

    And it isn't Microsoft's fault at the original developers were BSD losers.

    --

    --
    "Negative One, Troll."
    A golden badge of honor,
    worn on my penis.

  15. Re:Who cares? by Synopsis+Troll · · Score: -1, Troll
    You poor, poor little boy. You truly have drunk the purple kool-aid, and I'm going to have to add you to the list of people who will die in my Really Final Solution. The only thing you can do is shut... your big, stupid mouth... right now. Step away from the keyboard, and jump off the building like a WTC roofdiver. Splat on the ground like Mohammed's intestines as the US slices his stomach open with the Christian sword of justice. You are a communist. You are a terrorist. Open Source is lame. You are lame. FreeBSD is dying. You are already dead. Your only consolation is that we took the time notice your ignorance. You shall be crushed. Like a bug, only less aware of his true environment like a bug. What is the Matrix? Will you take the blue pill, or the red pill? Take the red pill, and you'll get drowsy. Take the blue pill, and you're in for a tasty treat. The red pill is a Tylenol and the blue pill is a Skittle. Yes, I'm fucking with you. Close your eyes bend over and open wide you're in for a big surprise IN YOUR ASS. I love you. I hate you. Please shut up. Please stop using your Slashdot account. Change your password to something random and format your fucking Linux partition away. Turn on, tune out. This is the way.

    This.

    This is the way.

    --

    --
    "Negative One, Troll."
    A golden badge of honor,
    worn on my penis.

  16. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Now Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered *BSD community when recently IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long trm survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    *BSD is dying

  17. Daemon Omen *BSD: The Final Days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    Yes, *BSD is dying. But why? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  18. Re:Too Complicated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    We've all heard the facts: *BSD is dying. So why? Why did *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BSD are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  19. Linux users can't deal with real engineering by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    If you dont like kernel panics, and don't want
    to buy compatible hardware, don't run FreeBSD
    on your mission-critical machines.

    Run Linux instead. Then your systems will never
    let you know when something has gone wrong. They
    will just silently decay to a state of waste
    and malfunction, and you'll never have to deal
    with it again.