alt Hacker NewsWhat does Sylve provide that proxmox doesn't?
Or better, how does it do it better than proxmox?
This isn't to say that proxmox is the best thing since sliced bread, I'm curious as to what makes sylve better, is it the API?
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Without looking at the Sylve docs, I'll conjecture that it has deeper integration with ZFS. With a foundation on FreeBSD, there is a likelihood Sylve can support ZFS-on-root rollbacks better than hacking it into Proxmox. A rollback capability is why I'm looking for Proxmox alternatives. In the Linux world, Talos Linux and IncusOS provide A/B updates which achieve a similar rollback capability. With something based on FreeBSD, your "immutable" OS and all of it's data can be treated equally as ZFS datasets. There's also a higher risk that a Linux kernel update will break ZFS.
Sylve appears to be a FreeBSD/BSD exclusive implementation of managing vms, etc.
Proxmox is Debian/Ubuntu based.
Both will have their advantages. It might not be about better or worse, the particular things you use may in some cases run better on BSD, or the security management could more fit what you are after.
I wonder why not run both :).
Proxmox is due for it's viral moment though.
> What does Sylve provide that proxmox doesn't?
A Un*x system that doesn't use systemd as an init system.
OP here. It’s less about Sylve doing something Proxmox can’t do, and more about a bunch of QoL improvements that come from us being heavy Proxmox users and building what we felt was missing.
A few concrete things:
ZFS-first UX: Not just "ZFS as storage”, but everything built around it. Snapshots, clones, ZVOLs, replication, all cleanly exposed in the UI without dropping to CLI.
Simple backups without extra infra: Any remote box with SSH + ZFS works. No need to deploy something like PBS just to get decent backups.
Built-in Samba shares: You can spin up and manage shares directly from the UI without having to manually configure services.
Magnet / torrent downloader baked in: Sounds small, but for homelab use it removes a whole extra container/VM people usually end up running.
Clustering: but not all-or-nothing, You can cluster nodes when you need it, and also disable/unwind it later. Proxmox clusters are much more rigid once set up.
Templates done right: Create a base VM/jail once and spin up N instances from it in one go, straight from the UI.
FreeBSD base: It's not really a benefit of Sylve, but rather the ecosystem that FreeBSD provides.. Tighter system integration, smaller surface area, no systemd, etc. (depending on what you care about)
None of this is to say Proxmox is bad, it’s great. This is more "we used it a lot, hit some friction points, and built something that feels smoother for our workflows."