[talk] So Netgate bails on FreeBSD

[Izaac]

On Wed, May 23, 2018 at 04:05:40PM -0400, James E Keenan wrote:
> > FreeBSD is incapable of either -- in both present and future.
> 
> Ooooh, them's fighting words!

Them's a realistic assessment of the technical and market limitations.

> Care to elaborate?

AWS is either wrapping up or has already completed its conversion to
Nitro (aka Linux KVM) for EC2.   Unless FreeBSD specifically directs
resources to maintaining the kinds of optimizations which come "for
free" with Linux both now and in the future, it will always
underperform.  Netgate realizes this and is betting on the horse without
a limp.

Manufacturers direct driver development resources and support to make
their hardware function for the largest number of customers.  Twenty
years ago, this meant Windows in consumer products and probably SCO for
embedded.  Today, it still means Windows for consumer products (consumer
devices for Apple products are practically their own industry) and Linux
for embedded.  FreeBSD will never be a target; which means drivers have
to come from the community and will underperform.  Netgate realizes this
and is betting on the horse without a limp.

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