Intel Macs and FreeBSD?

[John Cruz]

Mark Edwards wrote:
> At the risk of digressing on this topic, I want to add that I am 
> actually at this point deciding between FreeBSD for the migration 
> (i.e. 4.x on an old Gateway to 6.x on a Intel Mac Mini) and Ubuntu.
>
> The idea of moving to Ubuntu is that it might be simpler and less 
> time-consuming to maintain a package-based system rather than building 
> so much from source as I end up doing on FreeBSD.  And that the fact 
> it is a GUI-focused distribution might simplify things a bit (the idea 
> being that Ubuntu has a very set design, less open-ended than FreeBSD, 
> perhaps easier to upgrade?).  The GUI might also help when others who 
> are less unix-savvy than I have to or want to work with the server.
>
> I considered migrating to OSX on the mini, and I do maintain an OSX 
> Server machine at work, but I don't like the lack of a port system.  
> Everything has to be built and fitted in manually, and all monitoring 
> of updates is also manual labor.  Fink has its usefulness for desktop 
> software, but the server packages are lacking.
>
> For the record, this server runs apache/php/mysql, exim, cyrus-imapd, 
> proftpd, netatalk, samba, spamassassin, clamav, squirrelmail, mailman, 
> and DNS.  Stuff like that.  It has about 20 users, it isn't super busy.
>
> So, how about it?  Is the concept of running this off of Ubuntu being 
> easier than FreeBSD just a pipe-dream?  I have messed with Debian and 
> Ubuntu, but never tried to run a server off of either.  I would love 
> to hear from people who have been down both roads, whether there is 
> some sense to it, or if I should just stick with FreeBSD.
>
> Thanks for any insight, and thanks for the responses to this thread 
> thus far...
>
> -- 
> Mark Edwards
>
Ubuntu has a pretty good package manager system, open the little window, 
find the program you want, and it installs it. It's nice, much better 
than that RPM stuff. No ports system like freeBSD, but still nice.

The GUI should not be an issue. You should take a look at DesktopBSD 
http://www.desktopbsd.net/ which is freeBSD configured for the GUI right 
off the install , much nicer on an environment where others may be using 
it. Aside from these desktop friendly configurations, it's exactly the 
same as any other freeBSD. This is the route I would go if I wanted GUIness.

-John