Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

November 11, 2011

Common BSD Distros For Server Use

We don’t know you at all, but we’d be willing to bet a week’s pay you’re using either a Linux-based operating system on your dedicated server, or you’re still plugging away at proprietary Windows. This isn’t a point of shame: In fact, if you are using either of the aforementioned giants, you’re quite in the norm. However, have you stopped recently to consider that other unsung hero within the server hosting world? Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, we mean BSD.

For the uninitiated, BSD (or Berkeley Software Distribution) is a typically open source, Unix-like operating system that can be used for both desktop and server computing. It’s been around for ages—easily as long as Mac, Windows, and Linux—but its original code is hardly used anymore. That being said, BSD isn’t dead in the water, as there are several descendants left kicking. Each of these brings something interesting to the table, and to spare you any more discussion, we’d like to run you through the three most common flavors of BSD for server use. The first being:

1.  FreeBSD: This is by and large the most popular operating system that comes with a BSD ensemble. As stated, this distribution is completely, 100 percent free for you to use. Not only that, but this distribution also comes in several of its own derivatives: DragonFly BSD and PC-BSD are two worth mentioning. However, Apple’s Darwin kernel, which forms the root of Macintosh, is also a derivative of FreeBSD.

2.  NetBSD: This is another BSD derivation that’s been streamlined specifically to offer improved portability, stability and, overall, cleaner design.

3.  OpenBSD: This one originated as a sub-variation of NetBSD and has been engineered from the ground-up to provide the safest and securest computing experience around. The guys behind OpenBSD are also responsible for OpenSSH, OpenBGPD, and OpenNTPD.

That’s by no means a complete list, but each of the three listed above are commonplace BSD variants you’re likely to find in the wild. It’s worth noting that cocky BSD web masters are very proud of their server’s up-times, some of which can go years without needing a reset. If that kind of stability sounds like it might interest you, we encourage you to give one of the distributions listed above a test drive.

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