Using FreeBSD to make self-hosting fun again

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Spark of learning vs convenience

  • Several comments echo the article’s theme: switching stacks can be worthwhile purely to rekindle curiosity.
  • People contrast “figuring it out” with convenience layers (Docker, Flatpak, etc.), arguing that wrappers often teach you the wrapper, not the underlying stack.
  • Others note that for most users “it just works” is still the priority, and modern packaging already makes self‑hosting “easy-ish enough.”

Why FreeBSD appeals for self‑hosting

  • Praised for stability, conservative changes, and less corporate influence compared to Linux.
  • Strong ZFS integration, jails, good documentation, and a coherent “whole OS” design are recurring selling points.
  • Some enjoy running it as a daily desktop and as the base for routers, NAS, and homelab services.
  • People like that the base system is stable while ports/packages can be relatively “rolling.”

Pain points and limitations

  • Hardware gaps: big.LITTLE scheduling, newer Wi‑Fi, Apple Silicon, CUDA/GPU acceleration are cited as blockers.
  • Some found firewalling (especially PF/IPFW) and process supervision/logging surprisingly hard without good templates; others counter that FreeBSD now ships basic firewall presets and that PF is a joy once fundamentals are understood.
  • Complaints about needing to “reinvent the wheel” for common server tasks drove some back to Linux.
  • Docker‑only distribution patterns make modern apps harder to deploy natively on BSD; OCI-on-FreeBSD and Linux emulation help but feel wrong to some.

Jails, containers, and orchestration

  • Many highlight jails as a powerful, lightweight alternative to containers; Bastille and vm‑bhyve are mentioned as quality tooling.
  • Some want Swarm/Kubernetes‑like multi‑host orchestration and consider the lack a reason to stay with Linux.
  • Others argue home self‑hosting rarely needs containers or HA at all; business patterns are being cargo‑culted into homelabs.

Self‑hosting vs cloud and time/aging

  • A number of people are offloading blogs and smaller services to managed platforms, keeping only high‑storage workloads (e.g. Jellyfin with tens of TB) at home.
  • Upgrades breaking services, hardware quirks, and acting as your own on‑call are cited as draining; some say they no longer want to “LARP as a sysadmin.”

OpenBSD, culture, and ecosystem debates

  • OpenBSD is praised for simple, text‑file configuration and strong documentation; some run it as the core of their network.
  • Discussion of “toxic slug” strategies and codes of conduct sparks a back‑and‑forth: some see CoCs as necessary guardrails, others as ideological weapons.
  • A minority dismiss BSD as niche or “behind the times” with “no relevant software,” which is strongly disputed by others citing networking and server workloads.

Software availability and tooling

  • FreeBSD ports/pkg are described as large and up‑to‑date, with the ability to customize build options—contrasted with Debian’s older but “stable” packages.
  • Desktop apps (PDF viewers, office suites, IDEs) are said to exist, but Flatpak isn’t central; some see that as a positive.
  • Rust support is debated: one commenter avoids FreeBSD due to perceived gaps; another says Rust development works better there thanks to the OS’s facilities.

Meta: learning, docs, and nostalgia

  • People suggest using man pages plus LLMs as a powerful combo on slow‑moving systems like BSD.
  • Several reminisce about long‑uptime FreeBSD boxes from decades ago.
  • The site’s retro design, web rings, and 88x31‑style badges trigger fond nostalgia for the early web.