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.

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.

Same here. I’m using mainly FreeBSD on my servers so docker is a no go due to lack of support. I have to stick with Photoprism for now as it offers a install without docker and it does the job for me. Anyhow, I’m not happy with the trend that most FOSS projects today limit the deployment on docker and do not offer a way of a plain install on you *nix system of choice.

Nice one. Downloaded and will try it soon. Using Ultrasonic at the moment so eager to see differences between the apps. Happy new year by the way. ;)

If I would have been asked to choose one really useful piece of software on Windows it would be Agent Ransack. I use it to find strings in a bunch of files, even compressed ones. I believe it can do much more but I use it for this purpose on daily basis. There’s a paid version but the light one is free and does all I need. https://www.mythicsoft.com/agentransack/

Do you have a list of products / companies they own? I would happily make use of that list.

My native language is German but I lived in Spain for a long time and there they call them “nubes”, clouds.

A service to remove paywalls.As far as I remember,it doesn’t work with the NYT but does a good job with a bunch of other sites.

I have settled with Navidrome. It is not a native app but is quite fast and responsive and I can combine it with Ultrasonic to stream my music from anywhere to my phone. And you browse your collection by album covers which you mentioned as your preference.

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.

I have been using Debian for about 20 years now. Server and desktop. But I recently migrated all my server stuff to FreeBSD and I don’t think I will move back. Jails are great and provide me a convenient way to isolate my apps. On the desktop side I will stay with Debian.