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Comment by arghwhat

4 years ago

You do realize that Netflix uses FreeBSD, right? That a good chunk of NAS builds, diy or not, use FreeBSD? That high performance network solutions often use FreeBSD because of what is commonly seen as a better/more mature network stack?

Having a smaller user base than the world's most used kernel (Linux) doesn't mean it has a small user base in absolute terms. And being a smaller kernel in lines of code is certainly a positive thing.

This pattern repeats, with OS's smaller than FreeBSD having good reason to be chosen in production.

Fun fact: Apple used NetBSD on their Airport product series.

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arghwhat

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wink  4 years ago

I'm not sure you should plainly compare FreeBSD on a limited choice of Hardware doing server things with "a general purpose GUI desktop OS".

OP didn't say FreeBSD was bad in my reading, but as a somewhat irregular user you just notice 1000 papercuts (which are not the OS's fault per se for the most part) but which detract from the overall experience. Every nth software package you use for the first time needs a (small, 3-line) patch which is mostly because the people develop on Linux. Sometimes it's better if they develop on OSX, sometimes it doesn't matter.

  • arghwhat  4 years ago

    OP was bashing FreeBSD as having no userbase, comparing it to a hobby project with no known bugs because it has no users to find them.

    FreeBSD isn't run on a limited choice of hardware.