FreeBSD 14.4-Release Announcement

14.4 is a maintenance release. If you're installing FreeBSD today, use 15.0

Why FreeBSD ?

- Well manicured OS, excellent docs. More performant than OpenBSD in every way and approaches Linux performance in some areas (e.g. Networking)

- FreeBSD tends to have fewer features in almost all areas compared to Linux which makes it more approachable and more difficult to mess up.

- Though it has fewer features, it still has a lot of features -- many big companies (Netflix most famously) still use it today for critical functions.

- FreeBSD Kernel and Userland developed together -- it has got that undefined "cohesive" feel

- Has less layers of abstraction than Linux, gets the job done. Because there are fewer layers it's easier to understand what is going on and potentially easier to fix.

- FreeBSD is great if you want to learn pf, zfs, ...

- Worth your while if you are bored of the Linux monoculture and just want to try something a bit different (but not tooo different)

- Changes slowly, so good for setting up on a server that you want to just leave running without too much maintenance

- Will increase your Linux skills because diversity always helps the human brain

- Very simple daemon configuration via /etc/rc.conf

- FreeBSD `bectl` controlled zfs boot environments are just so life changing and amazing. (this is possible via snapper on Linux + btrfs but needs complex installation and is not so integrated).

- FreeBSD will accept (smallish) PRs via GitHub if you find a minor bug. Otherwise it uses the decent Phabricator interface at https://reviews.freebsd.org . This is much better IMHO than the mailing list workflow of Linux. The barriers to contribution are lesser than Linux !!

- FreeBSD still has that warm fuzzy small "community" feel which I like

My next rebuild is likely to move from Debian to openSUSE Tumbleweed or FreeBSD. They fit better with what I want in an OS used for development purposes (needing newer versions than provided by Debian stable).

However... the lack of Docker on BSD is a deal breaker for some of my uses, jumping through hoops is possible, and moving to Podman might work but looks complicated to set up.

On the other hand, Debian 14 will remove GTK2 which breaks other things.

There's always a compromise.

Congratulations to the FreeBSD team! FreeBSD will always have a special place in my heart.

> Bhyve virtual machines can now share a filesystem with the host via the new p9fs

Nice!