[emersonrsantos]

Some reasons I could think:

- It's easier and cheaper to find Linux sysadmins than BSD ones

- There's more commercial software supported on Linux

- There's more companies offering support for Linux

- Linux is more portable than BSD

- Linux is one of the standard server OS offered by providers, BSD isn't

[chx]

- Linux is more portable than BSD - Linux is one of the standard server OS offered by providers, BSD isn't

that's the big one there. My favorite, Hetzner (not only mine, they have a ginormous amount of dedis) offers BSD but a) not all servers are compatible and for older servers you can't even know whether they are without booting into Linux first b) it's much more of a hassle like installing Linux gives you a ready-to-go system while the BSD install needs tweaking with sysctl and network both.

[redbeard0x0a]

How is Linux more portable than BSD?! NetBSD has been ported to nearly every platform known to man, even toasters.

I'm surprised that more embedded devices don't run some sort of BSD because they wouldn't have to release code. The PS4's OS is FreeBSD, which they did release a lot of code in return, but they don't have to open source or release all their code (i.e. DRM and other "Security" based stuff) if they don't want to.

[vacri]

There's platform, and then there's drivers. There's no point on having an OS on a net-enabled device if that OS can't talk to the network hardware, for example.

Linux has had a ridiculous amount of work from a variety of sources in it's drivers. I once used a git animation tool (forget the name of it, sorry) on the linux kernel source, and the area where the drivers were put was buzzing like a beehive, as people from all sorts of companies were making sure their stuff was supported on linux.

[iotku]

>I once used a git animation tool (forget the name of it, sorry)

Probably Gource I would imagine http://gource.io/

[vacri]

That's the one, thank you.

[Risthel]

> The PS4's OS is FreeBSD, which they did release a lot of code in return, but they don't have to open source or > release all their code (i.e. DRM and other "Security" based stuff) if they don't want to.

And that is a 2-way road, where some people cry on forums and maillists anyway, that companies tend to use BSD and not return to community. There is no need to paint it as a win-win situation(distribute proprietary derivate software) when it clearly has its problems too.

[tracewpearson]

Many embedded Linux vendors don't release their code. They get away with it because many are only around for a short period and enforcement resources are limited.

[pantalaimon]

> NetBSD has been ported to nearly every platform known to man, even toasters.

Linux runs on all these platforms and more - that toaster only had an ARM board sticked to it

[unsignedqword]

I'm confused by what you mean by "more portable." Do you mean that it runs on more CPU architectures and platforms? Or do you mean more driver support, etc.? BSD can run a rather diverse set of platforms: http://www.netbsd.org/ports/

[emersonrsantos]

Quantitatively speaking, Linux has a large share on diverse platforms, and is on the top usage as client (eg. Android), server, and embedded devices that run a typical computer OS.

[mjevans]

I'm not confused, I assume they mean /more compatible/ (with hardware on the shelf).

[pantalaimon]

All of these (expect for VAX) are supported by Linux too