[Hendrikto]

A week ago, I decided to set up my home server with FreeBSD, after the HDD failed, just to try it out. The setup was quick and easy and everything works fine so far.

I am just not sure it is worth leaving the Linux ecosystem. What if I want to run a Docker container? Do I have to trust random people for ports of software that runs natively on Linux, or port it myself?

FreeBSD seems good so far, but community and ecosystem are important.

[vermaden]

No one prevents You from installing Linux in a Bhyve VM and running Docker there.

Overhead of FreeBSD Bhyve Hypervisor is about 0.5% (measured in benchmarks) so You loose nothing.

Here You have easy and complete jumpstart into Bhyve in FreeBSD:

- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/08/18/freebsd-bhyve-virt...

Regards, vermaden

[ComputerGuru]

Isn't that no longer necessary? Doesn't linuxulator + podman suffice?

[sidkshatriya]

> Doesn't linuxulator + podman suffice?

No it is not reliable enough. Some syscalls not implemented, there are edge case issues with procfs etc. Best to execute in a Linux VM.

[c-c-c-c-c]

it’s exceedingly rare that programs dont work with linuxulator, i use vivado daily and you can play games through linux steam and proton that way.

[elcritch]

Unfortunately podman on freebsd is pretty early stage. I was only able to get very simple containers to run.

[shevy-java]

I can not answer the other questions; for me Linux worked and works better. But that statement here:

> Do I have to trust random people for ports of software that runs natively on Linux, or port it myself?

This is a bit problematic in my opinion because ultimately we have to trust all who write open source code. This works well for the most part but there are malicious actors too. See the xz backdoor as example. Or various state actors who want to sniff after people. Age verification is the current attempt to sniff for people data, trying to push legislation by claiming "this is only to protect children" (while it has some interesting side effects, e. g. becoming a stepping stone for anyone wanting to sniff user data and relay this).

> FreeBSD seems good so far, but community and ecosystem are important.

Well, there are many more Linux users. Whether that is better or worse ... but it is a fact too.

[0x457]

> I am just not sure it is worth leaving the Linux ecosystem. What if I want to run a Docker container? Do I have to trust random people for ports of software that runs natively on Linux, or port it myself?

You already trust random people in linux, you have to trust even more random and more people when you run docker.

Ports are quite large collection already. If you port yourself it's either up to 20 minutes plus compilation time or major nightmare. More and more software today assumes you run on linux only.

I think FreeBSD is great for setup and forget. If you have to interact with it regularly it's not worth it. Definitely not worth it for desktop.

[fridder]

You can run oci containers via podman.

[mghackerlady]

it isn't anywhere close to the convenience of docker, but if you just need containerised OS-level virtualization FreeBSD has Jails which are really cool

[cess11]

If you just want to run a Docker container casually, perhaps do it on your personal computer instead of the home server. If there is some service you really can't manage to get running with jails or right on the BSD, bhyve and guest Linux should be easy enough.

[Gud]

You should avoid Docker, is the obvious answer, and grow to love FreeBSD jails.