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Comment by octix | Hacker News Reader

I'm not an expert, but based on my experience I can tell you following:

1. it is not a Linux, it is a Unix system; 2. it used mostly on servers, stable as centos/red hat/other solid linux; 3. can be used on desktop too; 4.it has a great support for ZFS

I personally used it for a few years, but when I started to develop using java, had to switch to linux...

I'm sure people with more experience can tell you more... but I personally like some parts more on FreeBSD than on Linux (like directory structure, device naming (no eth1,2...)) it just makes sense. IMHO

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". it is not a Linux, it is a Unix system;"

I've (often) wondered - what does this mean for practical purposes?

It means you get a POSIX interface without GNU- and Linux-specific extensions or the GPL.

I understand the theoretical implications - but, reading from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX, Windows 2000 was Posix-1 compliant, so Posix doesn't really have much in the may of practical implications.

What are the practical implications of being "Unix" - i'm of the belief there really are none.

It's a tool which is used by engineers, computer scientists and researchers. Focusing on your question for the /practical/ meaning of 'it's not linux...' outside what I explained in a previous comment that it's Berkeley UNIX unencumbered, though we do have the "one true awk"; Another diff would be that it's not a pure clean room implementation like the GNU operating system. BSD is over 35 years old and served us all well.

If you haven't had an opportunity to explore FreeBSD it's worthy to explore your options and toolsets if for any reason to be a well rounded hacker and also to understand the freedom and choices you have to make your own educated decision on the tools which you find practical for your own purposes.

I'm very familiar with OpenBSD, the BSDs in general, and Linux. I'm really interested in the statement, "It's not a linux, it's Unix" - and I'm wondering if that statement really has any meaning.

I completely agree with you that understanding the licensing, the freedoms you chose, the wonderful documentation and great integration you get from the BSDs are all important - but that's really a question of "What is the practical difference between choosing an OpenBSD versus a Linux System" - which is somewhat different than making the blanket statement, "It's not a Linux, it's Unix."

For the end user this means: different command line parameters for commands; more consistent userland; consistent documentation; less drivers; slightly less applications

> when I started to develop using java, had to switch to linux...

May I ask why?

No FreeBSD JVM here: https://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

Windows/Mac/Linux/Solaris only.

OpenJDK is available in the ports tree though, and will work just fine!

Does anyone use OpenJDK? I was never able to get the Atlassian suite running on that, and it was the last time I tried using anything other than the Official Java JDKs.

Yup, used it for years, if not with a particularly large selection of software (Solr, Elasticsearch, JRuby and Subsonic off the top of my head).

Ah - perhaps OpenJDK has a larger presence in the open source community than in the pure-play commercial software community - makes sense, thanks.

I had JIRA running under OpenJDK on OpenIndiana without issues.

I couldn't get it working - just checked, still not supported.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAKB/OpenJDK+Not+...

That's the problem - you KNOW that the Oracle JDK will work, and it's free - but it's a crapshoot with OpenJDK - so why bother?

Well, there's OpenJDK, but to use the standard one from Oracle you need to run it under linux emulation layer.

https://www.freebsdfoundation.org/java

http://www.freshports.org/java/openjdk7/

http://www.freshports.org/java/linux-sun-jdk17/

I thought that Oracle's JDK7 was based on OpenJDK?

Been able to run java on FreeBSD as long as I can remember. Maybe this link will help you: http://www.freebsd.org/java/

Be able is one thing, but be up to date is another... Also the lack of Oracle/Sun version may be a show stopper for some.

Sure, at that time(a few years ago) it was a hassle to install jdk(had to download binaries to install openjdk).

Also, I don't think Oracle has BSD version.

PS: Thanks for asking, since this made me want to try it again :)

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