Everyone (and their mother) have been trying to convince me that I should use one of my less loaded servers to be a Fediverse node. However, all Fediverse software packages I checked only support being installed on complicated systemd + Docker machines. My servers don’t have either of those, because neither systemd nor Docker even exist on OpenBSD and illumos.

I know that it would be possible to manually install (e.g.) Lemmy, assuming that I won’t ever need official support, but I wonder why the world outside a limited subset of the Linux ecosystem is - at most - an afterthought for Fediverse developers.

How can I help to change that?

  • Danny M@lemmy.escapebigtech.infoEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    That’s an interesting question. The percentage of servers (with the exception of routers, and other consumer appliances) that run OpenBSD (and variants) is actually extremely low when compared to the amount of servers running Linux. That being said you CAN set it up yourself, rust can easily compile to a binary that works with openbsd by using the target x86_64-unknown-openbsd.

    As another commenter said here, *BSD is very far behind the developments of Linux, when compared to developer experience. And realistically, unless you’re a huge organization that can dedicate a team of engineers just to manage your system, perhaps because your business is one of those antiquated companies that hate the GPL, or you’re someone who likes getting into the weeds, there is no reason to ever use *BSD in a modern system.

    • rhabarba@feddit.deOPEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      And realistically (…) there is no reason to ever use *BSD in a modern system.

      In my very personal opinion, there are a few not entirely unimportant advantages to using OpenBSD over Linux (and I suppose users of the other free BSDs have similar lists, but I no longer use any other free BSD):

      • Culture. Basically, “shut up and hack”. Not wasting the time of project members with dissolute thoughts about social interference, but devoting themselves exclusively to improving the technology so far, leads to the fact that (much like NetBSD) all sorts of technical achievements came out of OpenBSD, including OpenSMTPD, OpenSSH and LibreSSL. Linux to me often seems more like a support group than a technical project.
      • Predictability. The Linux community seems to constantly need new completely different approaches to everyday things. The systemd debacle with numerous reports of computers no longer starting (or shutting down) is not yet over, and there is already debate about the now-but-really future of the desktop. Many Linux distributions do not know anything like an “upgrade”, the normal approach to a new version is “download the installation DVD and start it”. In OpenBSD it is essentially three commands (sysupgrade, reboot, sysmerge) - and it has never happened to me that after rebooting I was suddenly sitting in front of a completely different system. Yes, all this may not be cool - but predictability seems to me to be a not entirely irrelevant feature (also and especially for large companies).
      • History. Linux is a clone of Minix, which is itself essentially a clone of BSD, which was not yet free software in 1991. You might as well use the original, right? ;-)

      edit: See also my previous answer for further advantages.

      To quote Linus Torvalds:

      If 386BSD had been available when I started on Linux, Linux would probably never had happened.

      The GPL licence is not a free licence, rather the opposite. But let’s assume that the licence debate is actually relevant: Why should a company that needs to make money selling software be “antiquated” simply because (for example) some of its algorithms are trade secrets?

    • meteokr@community.adiquaints.moeEnglish
      0·
      1 year ago

      there is no reason to ever use *BSD in a modern system.

      Pfsense/OPNsense has been running on my router for… I can’t even remember how long ago I built it. The BSD family of OSs are great pieces of opensource software and they absolutely have niches they excel at. Use the best tool for the job, and don’t fall prey to marketed loyalty.