When the recent Netflix FreeBSD kernel optimization article was posted, all I could think of was why they didn't use a POWER machine for its higher memory throughput. Same would be true for SPARC, but that hardware is even less available and I wouldn't trust Oracle with my money or engineering effort.

Then I checked to see FreeBSD's POWER port and it didn't look as readily supported as Linux is, so I assumed that's one reason. Contrary to SPARC, POWER servers can be had from more than the main vendor and it's the only high performance server where you have a chance to get the source code for the microcode and firmware in auxiliary mainboard chips, leaving just the GPU and NIC. This alone I would think would be a reason for safety-conscious users to consider and buy it instead of trying to disable Intel ME.

I still think Netflix ought to evaluate POWER9 (POWER10) and possibly improve the FreeBSD port, and would love more industry support so that little teams like mine stand a chance to get reasonably priced POWER9+ servers.

The completely free aspect is one reason I believe Kollab is using it for their servers.