From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 29 17:16:53 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16D3B1065670; Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:16:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C26B28FC25; Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:16:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from TEDSDSK (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.13.8/8.13.8) with SMTP id m1THGpvp049557; Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:16:52 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "Chris" Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:17:57 -0800 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1914 In-Reply-To: <3aaaa3a0802290744x25a81d68vf0ff101f6b7a819e@mail.gmail.com> Importance: Normal X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.192.90]); Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:16:52 -0800 (PST) Cc: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: RE: FreeBSD bind performance in FreeBSD 7 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: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:16:53 -0000 > -----Original Message----- > From: Chris [mailto:chrcoluk@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 7:45 AM > To: Ted Mittelstaedt > Cc: Sam Leffler; freebsd-performance@freebsd.org; Oliver Herold; Kris > Kennaway; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Subject: Re: FreeBSD bind performance in FreeBSD 7 > > A weakness of freebsd is its fussyness over hardware in particular > network cards, time and time again I see posts here telling people to > go out buying expensive intel pro 1000 cards just so they can use the > operating system properly when I think its reasonable to expect > mainstream hardware to work, eg. realtek is mainstream and common as a > onboard nic but the support in freebsd is poor and only serving > datacentres to shy away from freebsd. If the same hardware performs > better in linux then the hardware isnt to blame for worser performance > in fbsd. > Device drivers and hardware are a cooperative effort. The ideal is a well-written device driver and well-designed hardware. Unfortunately the reality of it appears to be that it costs a LOT more money to hire good silicon designers than it costs to hire good programmers - so a depressing amount of computer hardware out there is very poor hardware, but the hardware's shortcomings are made up by almost Herculean efforts of the software developers. I should have thought the invention of the Winmodem (windows-only modem) would have made this obvious to the general public years ago. Unfortunately, the hardware vendors make a lot of effort to conceal the crappiness of their designs and most customers just care if the device works, they don't care if the only way the device can work is if 60% of their system's CPU is tied up servicing a device driver that is making up for hardware shortcomings, so it is still rather difficult for a customer to become informed about what is good and what isn't - other than trial and error. I hardly think that the example I cited - the 3com 3c905 PCI network adapter - is an example of poor support in FreeBSD. The FreeBSD driver for the 509 worked perfectly well when the 309 used a Lucent-built ASIC. When 3com decided to save 50 cents a card by switching to Broadcom for the ASIC manufacturing, the FreeBSD driver didn't work very well with those cards - nor did the Linux driver for that matter. This clearly wasn't a driver problem it was a problem with Broadcom not following 3com's design specs properly. 3com did the only thing they could - which was to put a hack into the Windows driver - but of course, nobody bothered telling the Linux or FreeBSD community about it, we had to find out by dicking around with the driver code. If datacenters want to purchase poor hardware and run their stuff on it, that's their choice. Just because a piece of hardware is "mainstream" doesen't mean it's good. It mainly means it's inexpensive. Ted