FreeBSD

I am not sure that I am posting this in the right area. If I am not, please let me know where I should post it. We are currently redesigning our website to allow for ecommerce. We are working with a new web developer and our long time computer consultant (who currently hosts our website). The developer provided me with the host specifications for the website and identified FREEBSD as the operating system. My computer consultant is not against using this operating system, however he has some concerns that it is not supported and if we encounter issues with the software, the only place to go is a forum to discuss your issues and see, if maybe someone can help solve them. Because I know nothing - I am not really sure where to look for information concerning this particular operating system. I went to the website, but didn't really know what I was looking for. Is anyone out there familiar with this free software and know anything about its performance? I appreciate any information on the topic. Thanks

FreeBSD is a Unix like operating system. It has some of the same concepts as Linux but also has many differences. FreeBSD uses a different kernel than Linux does but can still run almost all of the same software. FreeBSD and all BSD's in general are very concerned about security and stability. Things don't get added to the OS without alot of scrutiny. FreeBSD will perform very well and will be very secure and stable. If you are worried about performance as far as transactions/second or pages/second. It would be right on par with Linux. Linux will have better driver support on some systems so this area may require some tweaking/planning. If you could post all the requirements I could better say that FreeBSD/Linux/Windows will be better for the setup.

Keith

Keith

Thanks for answering so quickly. When you say all requirements, I hope you mean hosting requirements. In additions to Operating System FreeBSD 5.4, Under environment they have Apache 2, PHP 5, PostgreSQL 7.4 or above. Other requirements are Secure Shell access (SSH), TCP/IP, SSL enabled for PostgreSQL, log file access for Apache, PostgreSQL, PHP, PHP - allow sessions. For security they have Host based default as per ipfw - Deny All.
For FreeBSD - Security Level 0 or above, Appropriate UNIX processes "sandboxed" i.e. non-root users. And finally for PostrgeSQL - Deny all, add IP as per pg_hba.conf

Go figure - all greek to me. I appreciate all your help and input.

Karen Ross
Director of Administrative Services
Child Care Resources of Rockland

All of these requirements will work great under FreeBSD. I wouldn't get too hung up on the FreeBSD part. Chances are, if you have a problem it will be with one of the services, such as Apache, PHP or Postgres. And these function the same under FreeBSD as they do under Linux or Windows. If your server admin isn't comfortable with FreeBSD maybe he and the developer could discuss using Linux instead. It's more popular and has more support options.

Keith

You don't say how your site is hosted now, or what your requirements are for ecommerce. When I see "PostgreSQL", I'm thinking I smell geek....?

The solution that is being proposed to you may be fine, but if you have other doubts and questions, I suggest that you get a second opinion somewhere on what is being suggested.

BSD is good and is known for being even more secure than Linux, but is that what you need?

And even if you are going to be runing on Linux or Windows, you still need to have access to support. BSD is supported, you just have to find someone and pay them unless you want to count on the public support system, which may be good enough in general.

I'd be just as concerned about support for the PosgreSQL.

A good consultant should take into consideration what a client has, and try to make use of that as much as possible unless it makes good business sense to change or replace.

In my opinion, ecommece-enabling a web site should generally NOT require that the site be moved to a different OS platform, unless it happens to be currently runing on something like OS2...!