I use openbsd on two of my server, but am considering netbsd for a fileserver. Would you think it might fit such an easy task?

I wouldn't consider NetBSD for a file server. It does not have notably fitting features.

(01-07-2017, 09:54 AM)jkl Wrote: I wouldn't consider NetBSD for a file server. It does not have notably fitting features.

Could you develop? NetBSD has an NFS package, can connect to any VPN, so it should be fine.
What would you suggest instead? (and why?)

(02-07-2017, 04:48 AM)z3bra Wrote: NetBSD has an NFS package, can connect to any VPN, so it should be fine.

This applies to most BSDs AFAIK. I was actually wondering why you pick NetBSD and not (e.g.) FreeBSD or DragonFly BSD (the latter of which having the perfect file server FS).

So you mean that no BSD would fit the job of being a fileserver? What would you advise instead?

I chose NetBSD because I would like to discover it. pkgsrc seems to be a funny experiment in package management. I already use openbsd, freebsd is targetted for desktops in my mind, and drangonfly, well, I have no idea which purpose it would serve...
Openbsd started as a netbsd fork iirc, so I'm curious to see the design it features.

(02-07-2017, 01:01 PM)z3bra Wrote: drangonfly, well, I have no idea which purpose it would serve...

Large file servers (and clusters), mostly.

(02-07-2017, 01:01 PM)z3bra Wrote: Openbsd started as a netbsd fork iirc, so I'm curious to see the design it features.

The notable NetBSD user Hubert Feyrer compared them 12 years ago and I'm sure that things have diverted even more from there.

I read the page about HAMMER, it seems great indeed. I don't have the need for all these features though (history, undo/redo, ...).

I'll stick with netbsd for now. I plan to run a cubox-i at home to act as a home fileserver. This way the setup will be the same for both servers so it will be easier.to manage

Ended up installing FreeBSD on my server. Currently hosting my website and a cgit instance via nginx. I wanted to try httpd out, but I couldn't get it to compile. I'm also a few ports away from syntax highlighting and markdown-to-html in cgit, but that isn't anything important.

I'll be trying OpenBSD on either my laptop or the next server I have parts for, though.

I just installed FreeBSD on my Raspberry Pi and will be testing BSD there for the first time. If everything goes well I might switch on this laptop or if I get a new machine.

FreeBSD currently, although I wish I could use OpenBSD instead. I don't have a personal preference when it comes to any of them anyway.

I see a lot of OpenBSD, and few NetBSD and FreeBSD and DragonflyBSD... The latter three are very cool too!

NetBSD has its own in-kernel virtual machine, but unl/ike OpenBSD's vmm(4), it uses qemu as a front-end (it is a qemu "accelerator"). It has ability to test kernel code in userland (rump kernel), great for drivers debugging. Instead of using Perl (OpenBSD) or Lua (FreeBSD) or anything, it uses sed, awk and make to get around. And its package manager is in C. Not to forget that nowadays, Minix is a kernel for NetBSD userland and libraries and network stack.

DragonflyBSD can run an entire kernel on userspace (no less!) and its upgrade model is "git pull; make"!
And of course, HammerFS...

FreeBSD has support for a LOT of things (including Linux binaries!) and has its own bhyve hypervisor in addition to jails. It also uses the same style of concise /etc/rc.d/ service scripts as OpenBSD.


Ahem... I use OpenBSD. *blushes*

My history and choice of OpenBSD is more personal than technical.

I started to code actual programs for Unix (until then I have only written school stuff and exercises) in 2020. I'd took advantage of my free time (pandemics) to learn new stuff. I first used GNU/Linux manpages to understand the library and system functions, but quickly noticed that some of them are too verbose, others are too shallow, and all of them lack cohesion and do not fit together. Then someone told me about OpenBSD manuals, so I started to use them as learning material.

Right after that I discovered that the code of OpenBSD core utilities was very readable. So I used them to learn and re-implemented those utilities (like indent(1), expand(1), vis(1), etc) just for learning (and for fun). By studying their code, I spotted a bug in one of those utilities, and it was, iirc, my first bug report and contribution to an open source project. (And I think that at that time I was not even using OpenBSD, I was just studying their code on Linux).

Then I gave OpenBSD a chance. I continued studying the code, and spotted a few more small bugs. One may think that discovering bugs (even being small bugs) in an OS is a red flag to avoid it. But in my case, it made me more interested in the system and to explore it. And for the first time I feel myself part of the development of a FOSS project.

happy to read these words!

(23-05-2022, 08:52 AM)seninha Wrote: Then I gave OpenBSD a chance. I continued studying the code, and spotted a few more small bugs. One may think that discovering bugs (even being small bugs) in an OS is a red flag to avoid it. But in my case, it made me more interested in the system and to explore it. And for the first time I feel myself part of the development of a FOSS project.

It's rare to find somebody getting genuinely interested in a F/OSS project with the purpose of learning, and choosing it out of real understanding and sincere appreciation. This comment was a lovely read.

Speaking for myself, my choice for an operating system is, likewise, mainly based on curiosity, discovery, and eagerness to learn, its community (friendliness, diversity, inclusiveness, ease at getting in contact with the staff and eventually contributing) . Also, I have a weak spot for lightweight, oldschool/vintage computing, modularity, scriptability, portabilty, anykernels, filesystems (ZFS mainly), virtualization.

I chose NetBSD because somehow it manages to meet all these requirements to an acceptable degree, without getting in the way. I loved what I discovered using the most niche of BSDs and I decided to stay.