Netflix Open Connect Network: FreeBSD, Not Linux

[Ken Ham]

I think we can all agree: BSD sucks.

[XorEaxEax]

For the rest of us maybe it's time to look at FreeBSD again and see what Netfilx, Yahoo, Cisco, Juniper, and Apple are seeing.

Well, I'm sure hoping netflix will contribute alot back but from the statement it says they will release 'the open source components of the server' indicating that not 'all' going to be open and we will have to wait and see what actually ends up being contributed back. As for Apple, Cisco, Juniper, they see a great system which they can utilize in their proprietary products, Juniper and Cisco use FreeBSD as the base for their proprietary systems they use in their routers etc. Apple use it as part of their proprietary OSX. I'm sure they contribute back but I'm pretty certain they contribute nothing back which they feel could be of competitive advantage (particularly between Juniper and Cisco).

This is the drawback as I see it with BSD and corporate use, there is very little incentive to release code back which your competitors can use without them doing the same. This means these companies will likely fund FreeBSD development as the 'common base' on which to build their optimized solutions, optimizations which likely never make it back since that would be like handing your competitors an advantage. I think this ends up stifling FreeBSD development compared to the situation with Linux where everyone who wants to distribute Linux is legally bound to submit their enhancements.

Obviously there's room for both practices, but I'm personally not surprised that Linux is getting much more corporate code contributions than FreeBSD.

And I agree, the 'everything BSD sucks!' comments from the peanut gallery are really annoying.

[TechMage89]

I think we can all agree: BSD sucks.

No, I don't think we can.

[nslay]

I don't believe they evaluated Linux. They sound like old FreeBSD friends and they were probably using it all the time. Furthermore, their announcement sounds very strange (like attack on Linux) and makes impression they prefer to support Linux competition. While they're using MS tech like Silverlight and FreeBSD is very MS friendly I wouldn't be surprised if MS has something to do with this.

FreeBSD serving some serious data? That seems about right. HPC appliances like Panasas blades run FreeBSD to push 40 gigabit infiniband traffic. Do you really think these guys are "Good ole boys?" That would make for an interesting comparison: Lustre versus Panasas.

Yeah, MS embracing FreeBSD ... right. What about the Novell pact they have? Remember those 30 some odd Microsoft patents Linux violates (EDIT: allegedly)? If you sign with SuSE you're immune! How about Moonlight and Mono (which are open source)?

FreeBSD is very friendly in general.

[Hamish Wilson]

While I am not a fan of the BSD license or Netflix, I will say that I for one will not be joining in the BSD bashing. It is stupid and counterproductive.

[jackflap]

I would just like to point out to all those complaining about Netflix's use of Silverlight and DRM, that the reason for that is because it's mandated by the film studios.

Netflix would naturally love to be as accessible to as many customers as possible, however, there's no use supporting open platforms if they can't provide the content at all.

[kraftman]

It's not like FreeBSD doesn't work, it probably does but let's be honest here. They didn't choose FreeBSD based on technical merit alone, they chose it because of the license which allows them to do whatever the heck they want. Linux is far more mature and I'm sure would have required less work but companies like Netflix like to keep their proprietary stuff safe which the BSD license guarantees.
Anyway I'm still going to use Linux and that famous bay , I hear it has free, no DRM movies ...
Competition in general though is not bad so bring it on FreeBSD ... so far compared to Linux I'm not impressed at all.

That seems to be true according to their response:

Linux works wonderfully on EC2 for our C&C and computational tasks, FreeBSD is proving to work well on deployed hardware for serving bits. It highly maintainable, and there's an excellent community supporting it.

Arguments like maintainable and excellent community aren't used in conjunction to Linux.

[uid313]

Linux is great.
FreeBSD is great.

Linux is open source, and FreeBSD is open source.
They are both open source. So they are open source friends!

This is the drawback as I see it with BSD and corporate use, there is very little incentive to release code back which your competitors can use without them doing the same. This means these companies will likely fund FreeBSD development as the 'common base' on which to build their optimized solutions, optimizations which likely never make it back since that would be like handing your competitors an advantage.

Getting your patched merged upstreams is great, because it makes it easier to maintain since you don't have to re-patch every new release, and fix patches when they break.

[kraftman]

The same old Linux morons in this forum as usual.

And the one new BSD moron. Welcome!

[kraftman]

Netflix's decision to use FreeBSD for their CDN was based on the technical merits of FreeBSD and because the engineers in charge of that project like FreeBSD. It's a great operating system with solid performance. It just doesn't have the mindshare of Linux-based operating systems. I use FreeBSD and Linux-based distros, and each have their strength and weaknesses.

In addition, Netflix uses plenty of Linux. Just look at the job descriptions for the open positions.

Liking something or not aren't technical merits. When comes to technical merits they didn't really mention a single one. It's not more solid and faster than Linux, so their reasons must be different (like their experience in FreeBSD you already mentioned).