What I think what we need to do to keep FreeBSD relevant (2019)

Quick summary:<p>- Port several container and virtualization systems (OpenStack, OpenNebula, oVirt, CloudStack, Kubernetes, Docker, Podman, …) to FreeBSD.<p>- Improve linuxolator, and run Linux tests on linuxolator as part of FreeBSD CI.<p>- Make kerberos work.<p>- Port more SDN software to FreeBSD and improve the documentation for it.<p>- Add interfaces to hardware sensors (fans, voltage, temperature, etc.)<p>- Add an implementation of Multipath TCP.<p>- Make SecureBoot work.<p>- Support writing kernel modules in C++ or Rust.<p>- Improve end-user HOWTO docs on how to use specific 3rd party software (mail server, web server, display server, etc.) with FreeBSD.<p>- Review existing docs and remove outdated information.<p>- Add a &quot;cloud&quot; section to end-user docs.<p>- Use doxygen or a similar system to generate additional developer docs from source code.<p>- Polish and improve DTrace.<p>- Make default options for ports packages consistent.<p>- Create &quot;meta-ports&quot; for specific use-cases (webserver, database, etc.)<p>- Revise default settings to target improved performance on modern machines.<p>- Add fuzzers and Clang sanitizers to FreeBSD CI.<p>- Make the CI system more visible.<p>[I&#x27;m not the author, just a guy reading the post. Add a comment if I missed anything important]

It seems to me like a list of things the Linux community is working on; and I think that&#x27;s a bit of the problem with FreeBSD. For a long time, it was known as the &quot;high-reliability &#x2F; high-performance server OS&quot;. But Linux has mostly taken that crown now, for quite a few years. Where does that leave FreeBSD? I wouldn&#x27;t be able to define FreeBSD&#x27;s identity at the moment; but granted I&#x27;m more a OpenBSD user.<p>It&#x27;s easier to define OpenBSD, beyond the obvious stuff (security). It&#x27;s a system that does not really want to deviate too much from old-school Unix, and a community that firmly rejects any fad or fashion and embraces simple, and indeed sometimes simplistic solutions. That doesn&#x27;t make it the best system for everything, but at least we know where it stands: the best old-school Unix OS. It&#x27;s almost as if it lives in a parallel universe where time has stopped in 1990, and the OpenBSD developers are asymptotically converging to the perfect Unix system of that era. I&#x27;m not saying that as a criticism at all.<p>And NetBSD and Dragonfly BSD are also, more or less explicitly, research operating systems where individual developers can come and try stuff.<p>FreeBSD is still a very impressive project but I think they can do better than being just-like-Linux-but-five-years-later.

As long as FreeBSD has sustainable interest among cooperate usage it should be fine, but I am not sure if the number of FreeBSD client &#x2F; cooperate user are growing or shrinking.<p>WhatsApp moved away from FreeBSD to Linux. And last time there were a few Netflix employees mentioned FreeBSD were used on Open Appliance for historical reason, not technical. So I would not be surprised if someday they move to linux as well. ( Once it offer similar performance )<p>Mellanox loves FreeBSD, but I am not sure if the same could be said for their new owner Nvidia.<p>OpenBSD and NetBSD are both an easy sell, one focus on Security and the other on Embedded. I am not sure how to sell FreeBSD, and it needs focus and direction. May be aiming for Network Appliance which is what the majority of its cooperate customer are using it for, where it could offer greater value.

&gt; Another item we should have a look at is to provide means to write kernel code in different languages. Not in the base system, but at least in ports. If someone wants to write a kernel module in C++ or Rust, why not?<p>Having the development of OS modules in a safe language like Rust as one of the strategic goals, would likely attract some eyeballs and dev hands. Long term it would result in a more stable and safe system and possibly lead to increase in the market share.

I&#x27;m a veteran of Windows and Linux, but I&#x27;ve never used a *BSD (unless you tenuously count MacOS).<p>Why or when would I want to use BSD over Linux? Is it more performant? Does it use less resources? What real differences are there?<p>I&#x27;ve tried to find out myself, but it mostly seems to come down to philosophical reasoning and personal preference.

FreeBSD could get a boost by switching to building with a C++ compiler, beginning to modernize their ancient codebase (red-black trees, really?), and inviting people with modern ideas to implement them.<p>The exokernel people know how to write good kernel-grade C++. Much of the code just needs to go; kernels can&#x27;t keep up with the I&#x2F;O needs of user-space programs, and need to learn to get out of the way. Linux has its io_uring thing which is vastly overcomplicated. FreeBSD could lead the way with universal kernel bypass, with only authentication, resource allocation, and permissions handled in ring zero.<p>Much more likely, though, is that somebody new will need to start from scratch.

Yes. That list is pretty good. LXC or Docker Integrated with jail and bhyve would be awesome. Even just finishing BBR would be awesome.<p>ZFS is totally awesome. Iscsi can&#x27;t yet do dual path and dual controller magic well I believe which is a bit of a shame.

God damn, I wish I read more articles like that one. That guy is objective and not a fanboy even with him working on FreeBSD.<p>We need more such critical thinking and insight. Kudos to him.

Good article, but FreeBSD top-managers don’t want(or can) to change anything.<p>So, where FreeBSD can be used nowadays: 1) Desktop&#x2F;Mobile - no, drivers&#x2F;sensors problem. 2) Network&#x2F;Web service in SOHO? Linux is much way better. 3) Network&#x2F;Web in medium&#x2F;large company? May be, for special network services. Well-tuned FreeBSD can beat well-tuned Linux easily, but requires skilled staff.<p>There is a very little chance for FreeBSD to come up Linux and be useful for the masses.<p>P.S. Worked with FreeBSD since 1996 as default OS, in 2008 switched to Linux(RH&#x2F;Debian&#x2F;Ubuntu).

In that list, nothing strikes me as a killer feature that I would leave either Linux or Windows for. I&#x27;ve actually gone from Windows (about 10 years) -&gt; Ubuntu (6 years) -&gt; Clear Linux (a few months if that) -&gt; Windows 10 in the last week or so because I realized that I value convenience and performance over whatever else is on offer from Linux, even though there are a few good tools I immediately missed from Linux (grep firstly, but at some point I&#x27;m going to setup WSL anyway). There&#x27;s nothing compelling enough to even bring me back to Linux any time soon, why would I bother with FreeBSD?<p>I develop software, and just want to get things done and the OS to stay out of my way. Windows 10 LTSC does that amazingly well. Sorry if I sound like a shill, I&#x27;m really not, I just grew tired of fighting silly little fights to get Ubuntu&#x2F;x-distro to do what I want.

FreeBSD can hold its own well against Linux. You can now use it as a fully functional desktop OS, no worries (GhostBSD for the uninitiated). Best part is the ports tree, works better and easier than the AUR.<p>Take your pick: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.phoronix.com&#x2F;scan.php?page=search&amp;q=FreeBSD" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.phoronix.com&#x2F;scan.php?page=search&amp;q=FreeBSD</a><p>tl;dr optimised freeBSD performs as well as and even faster than Clear Linux on lots of benchmarks - easily faster than most distros then.

I, personally, and my businesses, have a tremendous amount of time and money invested in FreeBSD as a platform.<p>JohnCompanies[1] was started on FreeBSD, rsync.net runs FreeBSD exclusively, and Oh By[2] runs on FreeBSD.<p>FreeBSD is an operating system by, and for, the FreeBSD developers.<p>You may choose to deploy, and invest in, FreeBSD for your own purposes (as I have) but you need to understand what the development process is and how FreeBSD is &quot;released&quot; if you want to make meaningful investments <i>of actual money</i> into adopting it.<p>In short: the official position of FreeBSD is that -RELEASE is the only production release of FreeBSD and, technically, -STABLE and -CURRENT are not production ready. <i>Yet at the same time</i> all investment and development of FreeBSD by the actual developers is done with -CURRENT.<p>The result is your legal, contractual, fiduciary, and even moral obligations to the customers you serve <i>demands that you run only -RELEASE</i>. And yet, any issues you have with -RELEASE will be difficult to resolve because the entire community is already 1-2 major versions ahead of you in their development, their workspaces, and even their personal machines. You will be met with incredulity when you insist that you need to run only production code and your &quot;current&quot; problems with the &quot;current&quot; -RELEASE will not be addressed.<p>This makes it very difficult (although not impossible) to make any kind of long-term investments in FreeBSD.<p>Pointing to the big name firms that run FreeBSD, like Netflix, is a bit disingenuous as only they have the resources to, essentially, run their own forks of FreeBSD (which they do).<p>I have written about this in detail, twice:<p>First, in 2012[3] and then later in 2014[4]. The 2014 posting is probably more succinct and relevant here, but if you really want a deep dive in the culture and tendencies of FreeBSD development, read the 2012 thread.<p>[1] JohnCompanies, started in fall of 2001, was possibly the first &quot;VPS&quot; provider as we now think of it, although we called them &quot;Server Instances&quot; and did not coin the term &quot;Virtual Private Server&quot;.<p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;0x.co" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;0x.co</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.freebsd.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;freebsd-hackers&#x2F;2012-January&#x2F;037294.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.freebsd.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;freebsd-hackers&#x2F;2012-Jan...</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.freebsd.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;freebsd-hackers&#x2F;2014-June&#x2F;045319.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;lists.freebsd.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;freebsd-hackers&#x2F;2014-Jun...</a>

Heh I just had a chance to mention this in another thread but I think the biggest thing holding the BSDs back is they repackage all the solver.<p>Who said 1 distro, 1 kernel?! I fully believe NixOS&#x2F;Nixpkgs should be able to support non-linux kernels, <i>and the philosophies of their communities</i>. We are always trying to bake in future assumptions, this is a great opportunity to do that.<p>Coalition without compromise. Truely.

It&#x27;s a good TODO, and it&#x27;s worth pointing out that those things are being gradually put into place. Great example is the Continuous Integration, <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ci.freebsd.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ci.freebsd.org&#x2F;</a>. (Shameless plug: it actually runs Linux Test Project Linux binaries too!)

First thing I would do is to merge the bsd distros and have an installer that could pick configurations like hardened or not. Add a cool name.<p>No reason so few folks should be pulling in different directions.

io_uring

I noticed that Alexander had to grind his axe on his rejected bikeshed project.Re:Sensors.<p>PHK is one of the developers who have made FreeBSD great. The more you grind your axe the more you get discounted.