slabber

I settled on a Fujitsu Q920 with 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD. Runs FreeBSD 14.1 and each service has its own Jail.

Services:

DNSmasq - local DNS and adblocker Wireguard Navidrome MPD - Media server Vaultwarden - password save Radicale - cardav and caldav server TinyRSS - RSS aggregator Zabbix - server and service monitoring Postgresql Gitea - git repository Emby - jellyfin alternative Mariadb Bhyve VM with Debian running 2 apps (invoiceplane and leantime) which use a quite old php version and I never had time to port to Freebsd.

A second machine that starts daily and creates a backup of machine 1 by using ZFS autobackup.

Nothing fancy but it does what I need.

That’s one of my dilemmas. Due to using BSD and relying on jails I have a hard time using lots of possibly nice apps being released nowadays because they only offer the docker way of installing.

OK. Thanks for clarifying. :)

Am I reading this correctly. 799 pln for entrance?

Most likely corner of Rondo ONZ. Office building popped out there like mushrooms in the last 10 years. Warsaw has changed so much since I moved there 12 years ago. Definitely worth visiting.

My feeling is that there is. I think it all started with the speed I can login over ssh. Debian always seems to have a short delay but FreeBSD feels instant. When it comes to rating FreeBSD as a better OS for servers I may be biased as Debian has served me so well over the years. I was never a Docker fan but instantly liked Jails for isolating services. Then we have native ZFS support which simplifies my backup needs. A simple zfs send | zfs receive and you have an exact copy of your service instance on a remote node. Everything feels integrated and not stacked. Again, just a personal opinion.

Yes yes yes. It’s great to see other FreeBSD fans here with the same opinion.

I was using Debian as a server OS for more than twenty years with short escapades to other distros but then I discovered FreeBSD and there was no way back. ;)

I’m a long time user of Debian myself too. No cutting edge fuzz, just a working, stable OS all of the time. What else do you need for a server? It always did the job.

But then I stumbled on FreeBSD, and man, that’s a server OS. Simple design and blazing fast. No Docker but I never liked it anyway. My Docker is called Jails and in my opinion is they’re superior. Service isolation on the next level.

On my laptop? Debian due to hardware and software support. And I’ll stick to that for now. I feel home on that distro.

I can’t say anything about OpenBSD as I never tried it but it sure is a perfect fit for a server as well depending on your needs and preferences. BSD just rocks!

Second that. Been with them for a year now. Good price and performance.

I was debating between getting myself a NAS or some PC to setup my homelab. I decided for a PC as it gives me more freedom to install and personalize it the way I want.

At the moment I’m running FreeBSD with jails on a Q920 with an i5 processor, 16 GB of RAM, one internal SSD with 512 GB and 2 external USB SDDs with each 1 TB which costed me around 300 Euros.

Seems more than enough for the services I want to provide to myself which are the following.

Navidrome > serves all my music locally and remotely.

Zabbix > to monitor my servers

DNSMasq > ad blocking and local dns

gitea > repo for code and other docs

Transmission > torrenting

Radicale > webcal and webdav

Photoprism > local photo gallery

Vaultwarden > Password manager

SearXNG > search

HAproxy > to serve my public content easily to the web

Mastodon

Emby > local media server

And I run a Linux VM on bhyve to serve 2 tools that I was not able to make work easily on FreeBSD.

Besides that, the node replicates some data from my VPS as a backup solution.

And I can’t complain at all. That PC is doing its job just fine. No need for any rack that uses huge amount of electricity.

Lucky them. In Spain the standard is 7%.

Da liefen doch heute einige Sketches im Ersten. Jetzt verstehe ich warum. :)

What about Contabo? I have 2 VPS running for a year now and can’t complain. Good pricing and performance. https://contabo.com/en/vps/

I will object on this one. Even if the majority of user does not care about privacy they do care about ransomware , viruses, speed of the system and in my opinion Linux / BSD is secure, fast and speed remains after time not like Windows where I felt that after 6 months I had to reinstall to get a performant system. I guess it is all about convincing your family and friends about those benefits.

There was no special reason for switching 25 years ago. A friend of mine used Debian and I tried it out. Not being a gamer must have helped because if you like playing, chances to encounter a game that only runs on Windows are quite high.

Now the reason why I never changed back. Once the system runs, which may take some rime depending on how customized you want it, it always runs the same way. I never had a slowing down due to updates. Another reason may be not having to think about viruses or malware. Never had it and most likely never will. Antivirus? They may exist for Linux but I have never used them.

In a few words. It just works.