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  1. #1
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    The FreeBSD vs. Cent OS Debate

    I am about to buy a server to lease... and I was wondering FreeBSD or Cent OS?

    I wanted to go with FreeBSD because it is known for the best uptime; but, are there drawbacks?
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  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by WHC - Travis View Post
    I wanted to go with FreeBSD because it is known for the best uptime; but, are there drawbacks?
    Can't imagine many, other than driver support. But, if the provider offers to install FBSD, than driver support shouldn't be an issue.

    Some major COTS software may not work on FreeBSD or at least be harder to get to work. Everything else probably has a port or can be compiled.

    Many people consider xBSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and otherwise) to have a superior development model and release process vs. most Linux distributions. Stability itself and robustness seems to me less of a factor, though perhaps 5+ years ago you could have said that.

    I won't get into the religious side of the debate (kernel, filesystem, and ports superiority, etc.). FreeBSD is a fine operating system and I don't think you'd do yourself wrong using it.

  3. #3
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    Drawbacks?

    I suppose you could get bored without having to patch your kernel every other week and all the time you'll save from having to dick around with RPM's and stale dependencies!

    Let the debate begin!

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat H View Post
    Drawbacks?

    I suppose you could get bored without having to patch your kernel every other week and all the time you'll save from having to dick around with RPM's and stale dependencies!

    Let the debate begin!
    Or you could deal with an OS that has sketchy hardware support at best for new hardware

    But you'd be more secure, thats for sure.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by RyanD View Post
    Or you could deal with an OS that has sketchy hardware support at best for new hardware

    But you'd be more secure, thats for sure.
    What new hardware would that be?

  6. #6
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    Will you be the person managing the machine?
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat H View Post
    What new hardware would that be?
    I dont have the specific models handy right now but there are a few new raid cards that have issues on FBSD.
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  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steven View Post
    I dont have the specific models handy right now but there are a few new raid cards that have issues on FBSD.
    The RAID cards that you would want to run, run fine on FreeBSD (3ware, Areca, etc...).

    It's the RAID cards you don't want to run that tend to have problems. Mostly, because they are unwilling to release documentation, as it exposes all the horrific hardware bugs that they're riddled with, and thus stick to binary blobs *cough, cough, Adaptec*

    Besides, once drivers hit FreeBSD-STABLE, you at least know they are complete and will work properly. There are way too many half-baked drivers that make it into production releases in the Linux world.
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  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by hhw View Post
    The RAID cards that you would want to run, run fine on FreeBSD (3ware, Areca, etc...).
    I would caution you to check compatibility on specific cards before assuming they will work with FreeBSD.

    For example, we found that the 3Ware 9550 is well supported under FreeBSD but the newer 9650 card was not supported or was bleeding edge (this info was from a few months ago).
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by WHC - Travis View Post
    I am about to buy a server to lease... and I was wondering FreeBSD or Cent OS?

    I wanted to go with FreeBSD because it is known for the best uptime; but, are there drawbacks?
    The only real drawback for most people is they are not familiar enough with FreeBSD. If you are comfortable with FreeBSD and research issues before you install software you will find it is a nice system to use and admin.

  11. #11
    Do you plan on running any software or services that are platform dependent? If you plan on running cPanel forget about BSD.

    Each OS has a learning curve, but there are many more factors for server uptime beyond the OS. In addition to the OS choice, I would focus on making the system more redundant. I.E. raid mirror, ECC ram, solid network, etc..

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by volumedrive View Post
    If you plan on running cPanel forget about BSD.
    What?!

    cPanel and FreeBSD work beautifully together!

  13. #13
    Just stating that it seems that cPanel and RHEL are the defacto standard in the industry, and therefore has a much more abundant community support. Nothing against BSD ; )

    Another thing to consider would be ports vs. yum..

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by volumedrive View Post
    Just stating that it seems that cPanel and RHEL are the defacto standard in the industry, and therefore has a much more abundant community support. Nothing against BSD ; )

    Another thing to consider would be ports vs. yum..
    cPanel and Linux are the defacto standards in this industry because they are "easier" to use for most people and more known, which doesn't necessarily make them better. I started out with Linux (Slackware) many, many years ago and made the switch to FreeBSD and haven't looked back in regards to ease of use, reliability and security.

    I think if more people were aware of FreeBSD or at least gave it a shot while "learning the ropes" of all things *NIX, they would probably find FreeBSD has a much lower learning curve with better results in the end.

  15. #15
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    I have dealt with FreeBSD, CentOS and Fedora Core in my various internet hosting ventures over the years. If you are comfortable doing your own admin, or have other sources you can get the information you need from, then FreeBSD is an excellent way to go. It is incredibly stable, and decent to secure. cPanel runs JUST fine on it. The ports system was easy enough to learn. File locations are a bit different, but if one has learned CentOS, then it is a fairly easy move over to FreeBSD.

    Currently I am on a CentOS 5 server and it runs just fine with no downtime yet. I was just as happy on a FreeBSD 6.2 server. If you prefer FreeBSD, I don't see any reason not to use it.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Pat H View Post
    cPanel and Linux are the defacto standards in this industry because they are "easier" to use for most people and more known, which doesn't necessarily make them better. I started out with Linux (Slackware) many, many years ago and made the switch to FreeBSD and haven't looked back in regards to ease of use, reliability and security.

    I think if more people were aware of FreeBSD or at least gave it a shot while "learning the ropes" of all things *NIX, they would probably find FreeBSD has a much lower learning curve with better results in the end.


    Good point. If you take the time to master anything it becomes more clear and understood. So to each his own. At the end of the day, I'm still a Debian fan : p

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by AFerrier View Post
    Will you be the person managing the machine?
    Not likely, why would that be a factor?
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  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mystikk View Post
    I have dealt with FreeBSD, CentOS and Fedora Core in my various internet hosting ventures over the years. If you are comfortable doing your own admin, or have other sources you can get the information you need from, then FreeBSD is an excellent way to go. It is incredibly stable, and decent to secure. cPanel runs JUST fine on it. The ports system was easy enough to learn. File locations are a bit different, but if one has learned CentOS, then it is a fairly easy move over to FreeBSD.

    Currently I am on a CentOS 5 server and it runs just fine with no downtime yet. I was just as happy on a FreeBSD 6.2 server. If you prefer FreeBSD, I don't see any reason not to use it.
    I am very familiar with Cent OS because I trust it. I would be running cPanel. I have plenty of resources since I have been in IT since I was born... so if your question is about adminstration only then I guess the answer is: no problem.

    Where the issue lies is remote administration. Is it harder to add new software / new applications to a BSD environment vs. a linux environment?
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  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by WHC - Travis View Post
    Where the issue lies is remote administration. Is it harder to add new software / new applications to a BSD environment vs. a linux environment?
    I personally believe adding new software to a FreeBSD server is much easier, but again that's just my opinion. When you add software to a FreeBSD server you have 3 common options, 2 of which are incredibly easy.

    Just for demonstration purposes, I'm going to pretend we're going to install the wget software:

    Using the package system which is the easiest method of adding new software. If you wanted to add wget, it would be as simple as typing pkg_add -r wget and FreeBSD will download the latest package along with any required dependencies then install them.
    Using the ports system which requires a single command line (but can also be split up into several commands) and the requirement that you know exactly where the port is located on the system.

    cd /usr/ports/ftp/wget/ && make install clean

    or

    cd /usr/ports/ftp/wget/
    make install clean
    With any *NIX OS, you always have the option of manually downloading the source code, configuring it, compiling it and then running a make install. This method offers more flexibility for configuration options, but it is the least user-friendly.
    If you take a look at the FreeBSD handbook they explain the package and ports system in more depth, along with other configuration options and where you can go to browse the ports system.

    FreeBSD Handbook:
    http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ooks/handbook/

    FreeBSD Handbook (Applications & Ports):
    http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ook/ports.html
    Last edited by Patrick; 02-27-2008 at 08:44 AM.

  20. #20
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    I manage a lot of linux servers during 1998-2006 (redhat, slackware, debian). Now I transfer everything to freebsd. It's the easiest OS for server I work with so far. Some of the things I like:

    1) Powerful ports system
    2) Easier to patch server
    3) Easier to configure firewall
    4) Good documentation

  21. #21
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    Thanks guys! FreeBSD it is. I did some research last year but I wanted to check with some admin experts before I bought a server.

    Also a few other questions:
    How to setup a good spam filtering system?
    Best way to protect root password?

    Again, I will be doing all monitoring remotely from my desktop PC which will likely be running Cent OS and will be behind multiple hardware and software firewalls.
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  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by hhw View Post
    Besides, once drivers hit FreeBSD-STABLE, you at least know they are complete and will work properly. There are way too many half-baked drivers that make it into production releases in the Linux world.
    I would say that something working, even if it doesn't have a full feature set, is better than something not working... FreeBSD's USB support is still terrible, can't boot it off a USB CD-ROM on most boxes, taking YEARS to support USB CD-ROMs and USB keyboards in general, etc. As I said, working is better than not, and you can NEVER count on FreeBSD supporting newer hardware anytime soon.

    Overall, if you're managing the box and you're more comfortable with Linux definitely go with Linux. If you're more comfortable with FreeBSD go with FreeBSD. It all comes down to the administrator, if you can't properly run and secure a FreeBSD box it is going to be worse than a CentOS/Linux box.
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  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by WHC - Travis View Post
    Thanks guys! FreeBSD it is. I did some research last year but I wanted to check with some admin experts before I bought a server.

    Also a few other questions:
    How to setup a good spam filtering system?
    Best way to protect root password?

    Again, I will be doing all monitoring remotely from my desktop PC which will likely be running Cent OS and will be behind multiple hardware and software firewalls.
    The best way to setup spam filter is using your firewall to block blacklisted IP's along with services built into your control panel.
    The best way to protect your root password is to change it often and keep it different from any other password you use. If you are going to login via ssh as root use ssh keys or create an account and su to root and disallow root logins in the sshd_config.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pat H View Post
    I personally believe adding new software to a FreeBSD server is much easier, but again that's just my opinion. When you add software to a FreeBSD server you have 3 common options, 2 of which are incredibly easy.
    And to install software on a CentOS box you run "yum install softwarepackage" So how is FreeBSD easier than running one single command? Then updating all the packages, "yum update"...
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  25. #25
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    The current release (6.2) works fine with USB KVM (our KVM/IP's are USB based). You might want to enable "Legacy USB" in your bios for older releases to see if that helps.

    Booting from USB CD-ROM, I would not consider important for everyone if it is indeed true what you say.

    Example, we boot/install from PXE network and have no need for CD/Floppy drives at all, and FreeBSD is perfectly happy with this.
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