News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux (2020) by nix23 on Sunday August 07, 2022 @04:32AM (#32374895)
> Linux supports higher throughput for a while now

Really that's new...because netflix thinks otherwise.

Re:Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux (2020) by atmosx on Sunday August 07, 2022 @11:53AM (#32377399)
> Really that's new...because netflix thinks otherwise.

That is true[^1]. Doesn't say much the two TCP stacks in 2022 though.

Netflix has built expertise around FreeBSD for years. Not just TCP stack optimisations. There's deployment, management, maintenance, etc. I don't expect them to jump ship easily, especially if the tool is good for the job - which obviously is.

However, even they reckon that FreeBSD _might_ be faster for _a specific_ workflow. Fifteen years ago there would be no comparison between the two in terms of top speed achieved on same hardware or latency, FreeBSD was far superior.

The trend is what's important here. Netflix choose FreeBSD in 2012, in 2022 it is certain that they would have gone with Linux and by 2032 my guess is that they'll be serving using Linux. I hope I'm wrong, the more the merrier.

[^1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28584970

Re:Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux (2020) by rawoke083600 on Sunday August 07, 2022 @05:43AM (#32375167)
agreed ! Also i think throughput might be moving/dynamic values ?

i.e this year Lamborghini might be faster than a Ferrari... Next year they might swap. But no one will say Lamborghini or Ferrari are slow.

My humble point,unless absolute throughput (Then you looking at userland tcp-stack anyway) is your absolute goal. Things like tools,skillset, environment, community might play a bigger role. Yea i still love Freebsd but uses Linux on Desktop daily. Freebsd just kinda 'fits-in-your-head'

Linux: I miss the simple days when you could edit files like /etc/resolv.conf for nameservers :)

These days i see quite a few "don't edit this file manually it is auto-generated messages" :/

Re:Technical reasons to choose FreeBSD over GNU/Linux (2020) by Rediscover on Sunday August 07, 2022 @06:09PM (#32380412)
Thanks for the comment.

> ... /etc/resolv.conf ... ...

> ...don't edit this file manually it is auto-generated ...

I have been trying not to comment on any of this discussion, but You just hit a nerve for me (in a good way!).

resolv.conf: near and dear to my heart

Don't edit manually...: if it is cattle (most servers and IoT) - ok, I move on. If it is a pet (any of my main laptops), whoa. Stop what I'm doing and track down the software that did this. Purge it or re-write the offending code to not mess with stuff. Track down what was relying on this behaviour and purge. Rinse, repeat.

FWIW, I am running Slackware, OpenBSD, and sometimes FreeBSD on my pets (they are all installed it's just that I mostly live in the first two). Also, I find it hard to not have all the different man pages always available (no, I don't have a constant Internet connection - Security policies).