Why I run FreeBSD for my home servers (2024)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Home server use cases and “do you need one?”

  • Common workloads: media (Plex/Jellyfin/Navidrome), ebooks/comics (Calibre/Kavita), backups (UrBackup, ZFS snapshots, offsite sync), file sharing (Samba/NFS/Syncthing), RSS, Home Assistant + MQTT, solar/EV telemetry, game servers (Minecraft), private Git, photo hosting, VPN/exit node, DNS/adblocking, cameras/NVR.
  • Some run personal “cloud” equivalents (Netflix/Kindle/Google Photos/Comixology) for privacy, piracy, or to keep niche/non‑US media.
  • Several emphasize fun/tinkering; others stress you “really don’t need one” and that commercial cloud/NAS is simpler for most people.

FreeBSD vs Linux, with ZFS as a central draw

  • Many run FreeBSD mainly for first‑class, integrated ZFS (including root-on-ZFS, boot environments, tight tooling, no DKMS/module churn).
  • Counterpoint: OpenZFS is shared with Linux; several report years of trouble‑free ZFS on Debian/Ubuntu and see little “jank” beyond out‑of‑tree modules and slower Ubuntu packaging.
  • Some note behavioral differences (e.g., ARC vs Linux page cache interaction, OOM behavior, bootloader complexity) and consider FreeBSD’s ZFS experience still smoother overall.

Systemd: kitchen‑sink vs cohesive platform

  • One major thread attacks the article as essentially a “systemd rant.”
  • Pro‑systemd comments:
    • Consider it the single biggest improvement in Linux administration.
    • Praise unified units for services/timers/mounts/networking, good logging (journalctl queries), portability across distros, and strong fit for large fleets and automation.
  • Anti‑systemd comments:
    • Object to scope creep (journald, networkd, timesyncd, homed, etc.), tight coupling, opaque behavior, and brittle components (journald corruption, DHCP and NTP quirks).
    • Argue it breaks the “do one thing well” ethos and makes basic tasks (DNS, NTP, central logging) harder than classic (r)syslog + ntpd.
  • Some note that non‑systemd Linux distros exist, so avoiding it doesn’t require BSD.

Jails, containers, and deployment style

  • FreeBSD jails are praised for simplicity and longevity; some use them with ZFS datasets and VNET for neat, low‑churn isolation.
  • Others prefer Docker/Compose/Kubernetes:
    • Reproducible environments, easy upgrades, per‑app DBs, and trivial migration between hosts.
    • For some, containers make a home cluster far easier to manage than “pet” hosts.
  • Critics of “Docker everywhere” dislike apps shipping only as containers, bundling their own DBs, and making bare‑metal installs harder; a few deliberately “de‑dockerize” services by reading Dockerfiles.

FreeBSD strengths highlighted

  • Perceived as cohesive, “designed” system: clear base vs ports/pkg split; consistent tools (ifconfig, pf, jails) that don’t churn.
  • Handbook and man pages are repeatedly praised as high‑quality, stable documentation.
  • Changes are slow and conservative, which many see as ideal for long‑lived home servers.

FreeBSD weaknesses and practical blockers

  • Hardware support is a recurring pain point, especially Wi‑Fi (modern 802.11n/ac), some SATA/USB NICs, and laptops; several report installs that won’t even boot where Linux works fine.
  • Desktop/laptop UX lags: more manual setup for X/Wayland, brightness, suspend, and Wi‑Fi compared to Linux and OpenBSD.
  • Ecosystem gaps: weaker Docker story, fewer third‑party docs/blogs, many modern apps distributing only Docker images or Linux packages.

Ease of self‑hosting and “normal people”

  • Multiple commenters argue the real barrier isn’t Linux vs BSD but complexity: non‑admins won’t maintain jails, pkg upgrades, or compose files.
  • Docker + simple web UIs (Portainer, etc.) or turnkey NAS devices are seen as the only realistic path for small businesses and families.
  • Some see the article as a personal preference piece that doesn’t address this usability problem.