FreeBSD or Linux for a web server?

[TheOverlord]

hope you dont mind but to keep things simple im linking to my main thread:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=33&threadid=302208

 

[TheOverlord]

ttt

 

[FOBSIDE]

i dont have any personal experience with either suse or bsd but my friend raves about bsd. he tells me its a fortress when it comes to being a server.

 

[Damaged]

Nothing like being able to make files immutable on FreeBSD.

 

[jsm]

Any of the BSD flavors would be better, in my opinion. Of course, there is a lot of hype surrounding Linux right now, especially since it is number 2 in server shipments. And there is also tons of documentation and people to help you out with setting up Linux.

I have yet to find any companies that offer BSD classes, but there are more and more that are offering Linux classes. If anyone knows of companies that are offering BSD classes, please let me know.

I will recommend BSD, but be prepared to do some serious learning. Even installation is not simple.

 

[rahvin]

Linux is probably better just from the fact that it is more documented. But of course you are going to do the right thing and put a firewall (BSD excells at this) between the webserver and the net, right?

 

[SuperDaveDCF]

I'm partial to Free BSD myself. My previous employer only had about 15 employees. In '99, I built a multi-purpose Free BSD box for them. This one machine did the following: firewall, NAT, Apache web server and Sendmail. I had no *nix experience prior to this and it was a piece of cake as long as you have a static ip. You can d/l the image & burn a cd for the software but I really recommend buying the Complete Free BSD Manual or the Free BSD Handbook as well as freebsddiary.org's site.

 

[goldboyd]

freebsd, definately. while as the above people said there is more documentation about linux, there is still a bunch about freebsd. their website is great, the whole handbook is online, and there are a few very active newsgroups and mailing lists dedicated to freebsd.

 

[Supergax]

freebsd, or solaris over that if ya got $75 bucks to spend.

 

[Damaged]

Gack no! Not Solaris. FreeBSD or Linux any day over Solaris. No offense.

 

[SteveMazza]

Got direct experience with FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris. I'd pick FreeBSD; it's the most secure and stable out of the box. But whatever you select, run Apache.

 

[goldboyd]

damaged, why did you come out so strongly against solaris? i have very little experience with it, but from what i've read i thought it was good in the web server department

 

[flashbone]

I would agree with those who have posted before this. Any BSD derivative is going to better than Linux.

At work I've got the firewalls and bridges running on OpenBSD (dedicated to providing a very secure OS), and the web servers running on FreeBSD. FreeBSD has actually put some good work into their drivers for network cards, and comparitively beat any other OS in benchmarks when ran as a webserver.

Overall, it comes down to what you need to do. For security (firewalls, etc.) I choose OpenBSD. For webservers, I choose FreeBSD.
For workstations, Linux or Solaris work fine.

 

[TheOverlord]

thanks guys this will help me out...ive got the iso burned for freebsd already but i'll probably have to break down and pick up a good book on it since im so green at this...one other question: is qmail better to use than sendmail...seems like sendmail has so many vulnerablilities that qmail would be the better choice...thanks

 

[Supergax]

I've used both Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD direclty, I would say from my experience Solaris has been the best overall, with FreeBSD a close second, and Linux kinda dying off in a distant third.

oh yeah... qmail.

 

[Damaged]

Sheesh Supergax. Solaris AND qmail? Oh well, to each his own.

 

[Supergax]

What is so wrong with Solaris and qmail?

 

[Sunner]

Goldboy'd, I'd guess thats cause Solaris on a PC aint that great.
It works fine and all, but it just doesnt compare to Solaris+SPARC.

Solaris is, IMO, made for SPARC's.