Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2015 10:49:20 -0700 From: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> To: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> Cc: svn-doc-head@freebsd.org, svn-doc-all@freebsd.org, doc-committers@freebsd.org, Eitan Adler <eadler@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: svn commit: r46401 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall Message-ID: <B271C947-5D61-48DA-9518-14779A60A438@bsdimp.com> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.20.1504010953260.97048@wonkity.com> References: <201504010517.t315HflE048223@svn.freebsd.org> <alpine.BSF.2.20.1504010953260.97048@wonkity.com>
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--Apple-Mail=_8654CD5C-D89F-41DE-818B-8E82DCBFCB88 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > On Apr 1, 2015, at 9:16 AM, Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote: >=20 > On Wed, 1 Apr 2015, Eitan Adler wrote: >=20 >> Author: eadler >> Date: Wed Apr 1 05:17:40 2015 >> New Revision: 46401 >> URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/46401 >>=20 >> Log: >> Minimum Hardware Requirements: installation instructions >>=20 >> reduce the total amount of text and make it more explicit what the = minimum and >> recommend. Don't include a difference between graphical and = non-graphical >> systems since these days, RAM is cheap. >=20 > Most consumer machines still come with less than 8G, and this can be = read as implying that FreeBSD will not run well with less. That could = discourage people from trying FreeBSD. Even PCBSD recommends a minimum = of 4G. >=20 > I suggest: >=20 > RAM requirements depend on usage. A minimal FreeBSD system can run = in > 64M, but is limited. 1G or 2G of RAM is adequate for small servers. > If ZFS or desktop environments are used, at least 4G is recommended. Just FYI based on my experience: 32MB possible with extremely tuned system. Lots of effort. Experts only, = and even then it is hard. 64MB possible with tuning and turning things off. Fair amount of effort, = not so hard, but far from easy. 128MB works reasonably well, some tuning needed. A little bit of effort, = but not too hard. 256MB is easy without a GUI, but still too small to rebuild FreeBSD = with. Tuning is helpful, but not needed. 512MB with good local disk can rebuild. Takes a while. The absolute = minimum for ZFS. 1GB smallest with modern tripped down GUI. ZFS possible with tuning and = works well on small data sets 2GB decent performance with modern GUI so long as you don=E2=80=99t over = do it. ZFS works w/o tuning, but works better with tuning. 4GB decent performance GUI. ZFS no brainer. The low end embedded gear still matters for RAM, but with the latest = rounds of armv6 hardware it matters less. In the mips (32-bit) space = memory still matters a lot, and the above list is partially the result = of listening in on people deploying it. I=E2=80=99d recommend the addition of one sentence: Specialized FreeBSD systems can run in as little as 128MB RAM. which keeps it short enough to make it easy to read, but is specific = enough to not shut the door for other deploys that people might be = considering. I know that=E2=80=99s 4x bigger than the absolute smallest = system, but that=E2=80=99s really about the spot where the current = system starts to become hard to push smaller. It will be a good cutoff = through 11.x to give system integrators guidance that keeps our options = open. The rest looks good as is. So while RAM is cheap in the desktop and server market, it is still a = significant BoM cost in embedded deployments where you ship out hundreds = or thousands of boxes. Warner --Apple-Mail=_8654CD5C-D89F-41DE-818B-8E82DCBFCB88 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=signature.asc Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: GPGTools - https://gpgtools.org iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJVHC+hAAoJEGwc0Sh9sBEAzBkP/0TVUjNnThq9K8yOKBQEzGkP jOZU3G0LMlrS06SY/lqp8ExtWFLwKeQArL+/+mVnZENUP9+AGxO+UyO7Mq/uiIsM YZLM3Tiq8UPuU1UafVAhYA402Qbui6J05iTx9EXqq2r6YIHrAbUOG3Nt5q/UQXii aZSCnOj7sGlOpDKghsI2RThrsRJvHvQ+pZNabCfesS4VXEbWC5Plm14ZeVtC66SG zG5jeryl2tsGk3bytlSf8mygcD/KKSIDJt5+aTebJM3Dolp2fvpf7y5Xob9YlFN4 NOxuho36oJJ5fcKRoRCOPyhiFfOEQyU7dsujoGzTKT9duB1lNIN0UWtaMr3M/Iyt z4cv1TEbAHVnBWKD3hOSx9wkjwXg8kp/JzajJD82697sJg7uObJ80CdfhA4qhf72 eSgENp4lmwpuaQT9JL+rIXi3hwc4uyCwh0Ck1AH+zxs0VxySVIakad+AW5sKGGfJ a7zPRtqHvkPj1kkXGjTZcVtyUjkjJp35QEtH9WENLv69RDVPUi+UdzHZeAvehnvh tyPjlLdGJWwhr9l5JnTO7PSK59fKxobNN2SuylpH9Q1KymiI8NmiO/QkN6RrQj1k doOFtfjV+2XvRqBOcHMHB6KlwmfhZtWjFUATovrtcQjXQfcwdZTuZrKqZkkPiBZD sVO+Dhc36rXtdEP0HzJt =mvY6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Apple-Mail=_8654CD5C-D89F-41DE-818B-8E82DCBFCB88--
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