From owner-svn-doc-all@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 12 17:11:46 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: svn-doc-all@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52D9F1065716; Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:11:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from issyl0@FreeBSD.org) Received: from svn.freebsd.org (svn.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::2c]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3C8528FC15; Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:11:46 +0000 (UTC) Received: from svn.freebsd.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by svn.freebsd.org (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q5CHBkum065525; Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:11:46 GMT (envelope-from issyl0@svn.freebsd.org) Received: (from issyl0@localhost) by svn.freebsd.org (8.14.4/8.14.4/Submit) id q5CHBkL5065521; Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:11:46 GMT (envelope-from issyl0@svn.freebsd.org) Message-Id: <201206121711.q5CHBkL5065521@svn.freebsd.org> From: Isabell Long Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:11:46 +0000 (UTC) To: doc-committers@freebsd.org, svn-doc-all@freebsd.org, svn-doc-head@freebsd.org X-SVN-Group: doc-head MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Cc: Subject: svn commit: r39033 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy X-BeenThere: svn-doc-all@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "SVN commit messages for the entire doc trees \(except for " user" , " projects" , and " translations" \)" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 17:11:46 -0000 Author: issyl0 Date: Tue Jun 12 17:11:45 2012 New Revision: 39033 URL: http://svn.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/39033 Log: - SGMLify the wiki's 'Why Use FreeBSD?' article into a new article in the advocacy section of the website. - Add the new article to the Makefile. - Add a link to it and some description of it to the advocacy index.sgml. Submitted by: users on -stable, via theraven SGMLified by: issyl0 Reviewed by: gabor Approved by: gabor (mentor) Added: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/whyusefreebsd.sgml (contents, props changed) Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/Makefile head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/index.sgml Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/Makefile ============================================================================== --- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/Makefile Tue Jun 12 13:31:13 2012 (r39032) +++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/Makefile Tue Jun 12 17:11:45 2012 (r39033) @@ -11,5 +11,5 @@ DOCS= index.sgml DOCS+= myths.sgml - +DOCS+= whyusefreebsd.sgml .include "${DOC_PREFIX}/share/mk/web.site.mk" Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/index.sgml ============================================================================== --- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/index.sgml Tue Jun 12 13:31:13 2012 (r39032) +++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/index.sgml Tue Jun 12 17:11:45 2012 (r39033) @@ -24,6 +24,12 @@

Web resources

    +

  • Why Use FreeBSD?

    + +

    Explanations given by existing users as to why FreeBSD should + be used.

    • +
+

  • *BSD Myths

    Describes and debunks some of the myths that surround the *BSD Added: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/whyusefreebsd.sgml ============================================================================== --- /dev/null 00:00:00 1970 (empty, because file is newly added) +++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/advocacy/whyusefreebsd.sgml Tue Jun 12 17:11:45 2012 (r39033) @@ -0,0 +1,207 @@ + + + + + +]> + + + &header; + +

    Why Choose &os;?

    + +

    Why would you consider using &os;? We think that there are + lots of reasons. Here is a selection of reasons that some of + our existing users gave for their choice of operating system.

    + +

    The Community

    + +

    &os; is a community-driven operating system despite it being + sponsored corporately. &os; has active mailing lists, + forums, and IRC channels where experienced users and + developers are always willing to help the less + experienced.

    + +

    The community is largely driven by technology, not ideology, + and is focused on building the best possible system and making + &os; as widely used as possible, not on pushing any other + agendas.

    + +

    There is no dictator—benevolent or + otherwise—for the project. The Core Team is elected and + is nominally responsible for overseeing the goals of the project, + but this is a very light touch. Core mediates disputes between + developers, but rarely needs to take an active role in + development, beyond their separate contributions as individual + developers.

    + +

    Stability

    + +

    Stability means many different things. &os; very rarely + crashes (and when it does it is usually due to hardware + faults), but while that was a great boast a decade ago, now it + is an expected feature for any operating system.

    + +

    Stability in &os; means much more than that. It means that + upgrading the system doesn't require upgrading the user. + Configuration interfaces do change over time, but only when + there is a good reason. If you learned how to use &os; in + 2000, most of your knowledge would still be relevant.

    + +

    Backwards compatibility is very important to the &os; team, + and any release in a major release series is expected to + be able to run any code—including kernel + modules—that ran on an earlier version. The entire base + system is developed together, including the kernel, the core + utilities, and the configuration system, so upgrades are + usually painless. Included tools like mergemaster help update + configuration files with little or no manual intervention.

    + +

    Early Adoption and Collaboration With Other Projects

    + +

    &os; has been one of the first adopters of the LLVM + infrastructure, including the clang compiler and the libc++ + stack. The entire &os; 9.x system, including kernel and + userspace, can build with clang, and from &os; 9.1 both clang + and the permissively-licensed libc++ are included, giving a + modern, BSD-licensed C++ stack. Several &os; developers are + also active contributors to LLVM, ensuring that both projects + thrive together.

    + +

    This same collaboration works downstream, with projects like + PC-BSD and pfSense building on top of the &os; base to provide + desktop and firewall oriented distributions, respectively. + These projects are not forks, they base their work on the + latest version of &os; and customize the system for specific + uses.

    + +

    Simple Configuration

    + +

    &os; service initialization is very simple. Each service, + whether part of the base system or installed from a port, comes + with a script that is responsible for starting and stopping it + (and often some other options). The /etc/rc.conf file + contains a list of variables for enabling and configuring + services. Want to enable ssh? Just add sshd_enable="YES" to + your rc.conf file. This system makes it easy to see at a + glance everything that will be started when your system + boots.

    + +

    The rc system that reads this file understands dependencies + between services and so can automatically launch them in + parallel, or wait until one is finished before starting the + things that it needs. You get all of the benefits of a modern + configuration system, without a complex interface.

    + +

    Ports

    + +

    The ports tree contains a large collection of third-party + software, including older versions of some things where the + userbase is divided about the benefits of upgrading, and a lot + of niche programs. The chances are that anything you want to + run which works on &os; will be there.

    + +

    Unlike some other systems, &os; maintains a clean division + between the base system and third-party ports and packages. + All third-party software goes in /usr/local, so if you want to + repurpose a machine then it's trivial to simply delete all + installed packages and then start installing the ones that you + want.

    + +

    The upcoming pkgng tool makes working with binary packages + even easier, although source installs are still supported for + people who want the level of configurability that this + implies.

    + +

    Security

    + +

    Security is vital in any network-connected machine. &os; + provides a number of tools for ensuring that you can maintain a + secure system, such as:

    + +
      +
    • Jails, allowing you to run applications or entire systems + in a sandbox that can't access the rest of the system. With + tools like ezjail and ZFS you can instantly create a new + jail with a clone of an existing system, using a tiny amount + of disk space, and run untrusted code inside it.
      • +
    • Mandatory Access Control, from the TrustedBSD project, + allowing you to configure access control policies for all + operating system resources.
      • +
    • Capsicum, from &os; 9 onwards, allows developers to easily + implement privilege separation, reducing the impact of + compromised code.
      • +
    • The VuXML system for publishing vulnerabilities in ports, + which integrates with tools such as portaudit, so that your + daily security email tells you about any known + vulnerabilities in ported software.
      • +
    • Security event auditing, using the BSM standard.
      • +
    + +

    And, of course, all of the standard features that you'd + expect from a modern &unix; system including IPSec, SSH, and so + on.

    + +

    ZFS

    + +

    Cheap snapshots, clones, end-to-end checksums, deduplication, + compression, and no need to decide partition sizes on install. + Using ZFS for a few days makes going back to a more + traditional volume manager painful. If you want to test + something with ZFS, then it's trivial to just create a + snapshot and roll back if it didn't work.

    + +

    If you're using jails, then ZFS lets you clone an existing + jail in under a second, irrespective of how big the jail + itself is.

    + +

    GEOM

    + +

    Even without ZFS, &os; comes with a rich storage system. + GEOM layers providers and consumers in arbitrary ways, + allowing you to use two networked machines for + high-availability storage, use your choice of RAID level, or + add features like compression or encryption.

    + +

    Working Sound

    + +

    &os; 4.x introduced in-kernel sound mixing, so that multiple + applications could play sound at the same time even with cheap + sound cards with no hardware mixing support. &os; 5.x + automatically allocated new channels to applications, without + any configuration.

    + +

    Now, &os; has low-latency sound mixing with per-application + volume controls and full support for the OSS 4 APIs out of the + box. There's no need to configure a userspace sound daemon. + The same audio APIs that were used a decade ago still work on + &os;, including some compatibility modes to allow + applications that try to manipulate the global volume to only + change their own. If you want to watch DVDs with 5.1 surround + sound, just install your favourite media player and press + play.

    + +

    My System, How I Want It

    + +

    &os; gives you an easy-to-use, working, &unix;-like system. + This base system can then be extended easily. If you want to + run KDE or GNOME, then just install the metapackage for the + version that you prefer. If you want a headless server, then + it's equally easy to install the server tools that you want.

    + +

    It's easy to run the &os; installer via a serial port and to + configure the entire system from the terminal. It's also easy + to install and use an existing desktop environment. The + decisions about the kind of system you want to use are left to + you.

    + +

    If you're deploying &os; in a corporate environment, then + it's very easy to customise both the base system and the set + of installed packages for your specific requirements. The + build system provides numerous tuneable variables allowing you + to build exactly the base system that meets your needs.

    + + &footer; +