From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 28 19:51:55 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3A28816A405 for ; Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:51:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from howie@thingy.com) Received: from mail.thingy.com (wotsit.thingy.com [212.21.100.67]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2DAC13C4A7 for ; Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:51:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from howie@thingy.com) Received: (qmail 73069 invoked by uid 0); 28 Feb 2007 19:51:52 +0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.13?) (howie@thingy.com@212.21.124.49) by wotsit3.thingy.com with AES256-SHA encrypted SMTP; 28 Feb 2007 19:51:52 +0000 Message-ID: <45E5DD42.10108@thingy.com> Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:51:30 +0000 From: Howard Jones User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (Windows/20061207) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Dwight Smith References: In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.1.1 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: [freebsd-questions] Future of FreeBSD 7.0 and up X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:51:55 -0000 Dwight Smith wrote: > Good morning, > > My name is Dwight Smith, and I only had a question or two in terms of > the future useability of FreeBSD. I have used it on and off and found > it to be a great UNIX operating system for servers, but my only major > concern was the amount of time it takes to prepare a server such as an > Apache Server with PHP and MySQL support as opposed to a Linux system > which is what I am currently using now as well as my company. I guess > my question is that will the ease of building or installing software > for FreeBSD ever streamline to where you do not have to do as many > steps and text config file entries? I built a new server just like you describe yesterday morning, from scratch, to replace a dying Cacti server. The whole process took about an hour, I guess. All the text files I had to alter were /etc/rc.conf.local and the apache httpd.conf and MySQL my.cnf. Since the last two are the same on any Unix system, I guess I'm confused about which files you need to edit that you don't need to on a typical Linux system... My complete install was: FreeBSD 6.2 scripted with install.cfg to a standard spec, freebsd-update, portsnap, install portupgrade, then portinstall apache , php5 and mysql-server... substitute Kickstart for install.cfg and yum/apt for portinstall and it's the same on CentOS. I used to feel the same way about FreeBSD, but if you stick to the straight and narrow and use ports where possible, you can streamline the initial install and upgrade process quite a bit. If you don't need any special kernel support, then freebsd-update covers the basic system updates, too. If you install a lot of servers, then look into install.cfg and the sysinstall manpage too - we go from blank server to running system with our standard customisations and packages in about 8 minutes with one keypress, using standard tools. Have fun, Howie