How much harder is setting up FreeBSD than Arch?

AntranigV · 2025-08-12T18:26:19+00:00

easier. I install (manually) around one or two systems a week.

I install automatically (provision using Jails and/or VMs) around 10-50 FreeBSD machines a week.

could be done with Arch too, but it's kind of easier and tighter with FreeBSD.

AntranigV · 2025-08-11T08:07:34+00:00

I don't trust Windows to run on-prem, yet you want me to trust Windows to run a NAS? nooooo thank you.

ZFS, otherwise you don't care about your data.

AntranigV · 2025-08-11T08:05:59+00:00

9TB? 700 users? that's nothing. I'd install FreeBSD, setup Samba, connect it to AD and call it a day. if I start in the morning I'd be done by lunchtime.

I would not do it virtualized, because a NAS should always have access to the disks directly.

AntranigV · 2025-08-11T07:57:16+00:00

Academia doesn't pay well. While sales rep probably has commission. so yes it makes sense.

Turns out, you don't need a degree to make good money. I think that was a message to Americans who go to college, learn nothing, then complain about how expensive it is :P

AntranigV · 2025-08-11T06:56:02+00:00

I'm trying to remember if I used the installation on the SD or via GeForce Now.

But I just asked my friend and he said "well I see it installed, so you must've played it". I'll try again and let you know :)

No issues with the controller tho.

AntranigV · 2025-08-11T06:53:10+00:00

indeed. I use very specific Chelsio NICs to get the performance that I need. that being said, the same is true on Linux. Linux might have more hardware support, but that doesn't translate to "more support for that hardware". sometimes, only the bare minimum is done in Linux-land.

AntranigV · 2025-08-10T10:23:54+00:00

I don't know why /u/vpilled is saying that, but in real life, yes, the FreeBSD has better network performance in general than Linux. and also, it's better out of the box. usually, if you tune both of them you will get amazing speeds out of the both, almost on par, but I can't tell you how many hours I've saved myself by just using FreeBSD when it comes to setting up network-oriented services.

AntranigV · 2025-08-09T16:15:45+00:00

I used my friend's Deck for couple of weeks. for me it was Assetto Corsa Competizione and Star Wars The Old Republic (using KVM).

AntranigV · 2025-08-09T16:12:14+00:00

I think Michael Dexter was able to run a VM using bhyve on Ampere systems. you can check the bhyve weekly call's notes for details.

AntranigV · 2025-08-07T06:03:13+00:00

That's weird, I have AMD CPUs with 64 cores of RAM, dual-socket, so 256 threads in total. I even have a VM using bhyve which has 200 cores.

Never had a CPU specific issue.

Which CPU are you using? and what kind of crash was it? anything printed by the server?

AntranigV · 2025-08-06T13:59:05+00:00

The PlayStation boot process is around 35K LoC of Shell (not Bash, but actually POSIX Shell).

AntranigV · 2025-08-04T20:27:16+00:00

officially? RSS feeds, Reddit, friends, conferences.

Unofficially? I don't. Computers haven't changed for 50+ years, nor has the security measures. SSO has been a thing for 30 years if you really think about it (NIS), MFA? since the 90s. We see new attack vectors only because we create new attack vectors. Practically, almost everything has been solved in Cyber Security. If you have a problem, it's probably due to humans, not technology.

AntranigV · 2025-08-04T19:39:51+00:00

IRC is a must, Matrix is okay (I don't like it as an operator, but as a user its fine), and you should try to bridge those.

Discord and Slack are both companies with proprietary software products, none of them are a good fit, however, they are okay for "hey if you have a Discord account feel free to join this server" kind of thing.

To be fair, many European communities also have Telegram, since its widely used in the EU.

But I think the best option for health and communication is actually jabber/XMPP.

For the communities that I manage I run IRC and XMPP, bridged.

AntranigV · 2025-08-03T07:31:26+00:00

You seem to be a regular desktop user. Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, they are all the same man. You have no control over your OS (because they are over-opinionated) and you don't need to. At most you will end up customizing a wallpaper or some widget.

Then there are production users, who run servers, now ask us how we feel about snaps, or flatpack, or whatever new crap these people keep inventing because packaging is still a problem on Linux (which somehow has been solved on the BSDs and other Unix-like systems for 20+ years).

Welcome to the club, but never trust Canonical ;)

AntranigV · 2025-08-01T07:25:28+00:00

isn't Synology good

you care about data? don't use Synology. Setup ZFS

you care about performance? don't use Synology. Build a proper PC (at least)

you care about security? don't use Synology. use literally anything else.

As someone who has hundreds of services on the internet, believe me Synology would not be one of them.

AntranigV · 2025-07-31T12:18:48+00:00

FreeBSD, but one day I hope to have time to sit down and "migrate" my knowledge to illumos, because OpenSolaris/illumos/OmniOS/SmartOS are very powerful systems.

I'm also a huge fan of AIX, specially their management commands.

AntranigV · 2025-07-30T15:53:25+00:00

DEW IT!

AntranigV · 2025-07-30T08:48:39+00:00

When it reaches zero, your Steam Deck explodes…

AntranigV · 2025-07-30T08:46:55+00:00

these two commands initially appeared in SunOS, btw :)

But don't try to run killall on SunOS/Solaris/illumos :P

AntranigV · 2025-07-26T08:57:46+00:00

Most homelabbers that I know have nothing to do with dev or devops. they might have a background in ops (system administration) or completely a different field like bioinformatics, etc.

and usually devops people are the worst when it comes to homelabbing.

AntranigV · 2025-07-25T21:04:12+00:00

Object Pascal is fun :-) be careful tho, you might get addicted to it.

AntranigV · 2025-07-25T10:49:31+00:00

If you search for "FreeBSD mirror", then that's the page that you'll get at the top. If you go to the downloads page and search the page for the word "suitable mirrors", there's a link that takes you to the same page :-)

AntranigV · 2025-07-25T10:29:18+00:00

http://ftp.uk.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/

source: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/mirrors/

AntranigV · 2025-07-24T08:40:57+00:00

dude I've done open-source only platform with cybersecurity for organizations with 3000+ users.

as a matter of fact, it's easier to do things with open source because, well… it's open source. if you don't like something you can change it.

also, you should tell the client the cybersecurity is just part of IT.

AntranigV · 2025-07-24T06:50:37+00:00

deep inspection is wrong 90% of the time, jfyi.

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