Apart from ZFS, the big draws for me (compared to Linux) are:
1) There is a clear separation between the base system and the extra software. On a typical Linux distribution, everything gets installed into /usr, /etc, /var, etc. On FreeBSD things that aren't part of the base system go into /usr/local.
2) The base system is designed as a whole cohesive system. The kernel and userland are kept in sync through the update process.
3) The documentation is fantastic.
It would be unfair to Linux if I didn't mention some downsides though:
1) Upgrades are more painful than Linux, and more painful than they need to be. On my OpenSUSE boxes, an upgrade is literally "sudo zypper dup; shutdown -r now". On FreeBSD, the same task requires multiple reboots[0]. Then you need to update any extra software as a separate step.
If you have a custom kernel (because you needed IPSEC and/or NAT-T), it's even more painful.
2) The base system is fairly sparse. You want to use bash? That's an extra package. Want sudo instead of su? That's an extra package. Don't get me wrong, the base system is very usable, but it does lack a lot of things that Linux users take for granted.
1) There is a clear separation between the base system and the extra software. On a typical Linux distribution, everything gets installed into /usr, /etc, /var, etc. On FreeBSD things that aren't part of the base system go into /usr/local.
2) The base system is designed as a whole cohesive system. The kernel and userland are kept in sync through the update process.
3) The documentation is fantastic.
It would be unfair to Linux if I didn't mention some downsides though:
1) Upgrades are more painful than Linux, and more painful than they need to be. On my OpenSUSE boxes, an upgrade is literally "sudo zypper dup; shutdown -r now". On FreeBSD, the same task requires multiple reboots[0]. Then you need to update any extra software as a separate step.
If you have a custom kernel (because you needed IPSEC and/or NAT-T), it's even more painful.
2) The base system is fairly sparse. You want to use bash? That's an extra package. Want sudo instead of su? That's an extra package. Don't get me wrong, the base system is very usable, but it does lack a lot of things that Linux users take for granted.
[0] https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/updating-upgrading-free...