NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
DigitalOcean adds FreeBSD OS to its cloudy mix
Cloud hosting provider DigitalOcean has added the option to run the FreeBSD operating system in its cloud, and is also considering throwing Windows Server into the mix at a later date.
The availability of FreeBSD was widely requested by developers using the DigitalOcean platform. The firm said it was able to make it happen due to a recent update to its data center’s backend codebase, specifically the release of its meta data service that was built to compliment CoreOS. The new service allows for faster progress with all future distributions.
“DigitalOcean will continue to give developers more options,” said Moisey Uretsky, DigitalOcean’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer. “FreeBSD differs from Linux in its history and philosophy; we want to continue shipping products our users are asking for.”
FreeBSD is described as a Unix-like OS that can be deployed on desktops, servers and embedded computer platforms (its core underlies Darwin, which sits at the heart of Apple’s Mac OS X), and some believe it offers a number of advantages over Linux systems. For example, FreeBSD can execute most Linux binaries, but most Linux distros are unable to execute BSD code. In addition, FreeBSD licensing is often more attractive, and it’s also a very mature codebase now.
BSD also has its own answer to Linux containers. “FreeBSD jails” provide very similar isolation characteristics for resources – for example, each “jail” can house its own network stack, interfaces, addressing and routing tables. They’re not quite as sophisticated as Linux containers yet though, as these have tons of extensible APIs and vendor buy-in.
While it’s likely that most developers have never used FreeBSD before, the ability to spin up a cheap as chips $5 VPS on DigitalOcean to test it out should help it to get some more wind behind its sails.
Next up for DigitalOcean could be the addition of Windows. Speaking to The Register, company co-founder Mitch Wainer said the firm is “exploring” ways it can obtain Windows license so it can throw Microsoft’s OS into the mix. DigitalOcean is also planning to open a new data center in Germany in the not-too-distant future, though Wainer refused to elaborate on the details.
photo by Tamara Beck with NY POST
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