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I'm trying to figure out which OS to put on two new servers that I'm building and I think I've got it down to Slackware or FreeBSD.. FreeBSD is my main choice due to excellent documentation.
But, my question is how well does FreeBSD run on AMD Athlon XP 2000+ processors? What platform does the Athlon XP's fall under?
Any help on this situation would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I don't know much about hardware. I'm now being forced to learn though since I've out grown my 1 dedicated server and instead of shelling out $300/month to lease 2 servers I'm going ahead and buying 2 new servers and colocating them locally.
The main thing is I am confused with the whole 'platforms' thing on the FreeBSD site. x86 is the most common.. and then you've got the AMD64, alpha, sparc something or other.. All of those with different levels of OS support.. so I was just wondering if the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ is going to run nicely or not.. I guess.
Distribution: OpenBSD 4.6, OS X 10.6.2, CentOS 4 & 5
Posts: 3,660
Rep:
AMD Athlons are all "x86". Unless you get one of the new 64-bit AMD CPUs (which have weird numbering systems, I must say) then you don't have to worry about it.
when u compile the kernel though it will not take advantage of 3dnow or 3dnow2 or see1 or 2 instructions, just x86 ones (common across amd and pentium)
Originally posted by slackMeUp With Linux it does... I have a 1600+ and my kernel is compiled for all of this....
fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
...
i know, the linux kernel compiler will tell u that if u pick the general x86 options it will not take advantage of cpu specific instructions.
there is not that option in bsd
Why would you need multimedia/3D extensions on a server?
Anyway, his question was already answered by chort.
BSD is more stable/reliable than Linux, which is what most people want in a server; Linux is more bleeding edge, which is what most people want in a workstation. The main reason being their different development methodologies.
Distribution: OpenBSD 4.6, OS X 10.6.2, CentOS 4 & 5
Posts: 3,660
Rep:
Quote:
Originally posted by Gill Bates i know, the linux kernel compiler will tell u that if u pick the general x86 options it will not take advantage of cpu specific instructions.
there is not that option in bsd
That's sort of an odd statement to make... OpenBSD reports this so it definitely recognizes the extended instructions:
cpu0: AMD Duron(tm) Processor ("AuthenticAMD" 686-class) 1.11 GHz
cpu0: FPU,V86,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,MMX,FXSR,SSE
On some archs it definitely takes advantage of them, such as the built-in encryption engine on the new VIA CPUs, that is supported by OpenBSD and used for encryption off-loading.
So can you confirm that the AMD64 version is working on an Athlon XP 2000?
Does freeBSD 4.9 exist for AMD? and where can I download it? On FTP i only find 5.1 and higher but am hesitating to install it. We're installing a new mailserver and we'd like to use freeBSD. On freeBSD.org I read that it's not recommended to use a product from the CURRENT branch, and would like to try 4.9. Or can I trust the 5.1 / 5.2 / 5.2.1 ?
I believe that comment to be true. Either way though, I got all the parts for my servers yesterday. I bought a copy of FreeBSD off eBay since I'm still on dialup and it was easier, but those CDs were junk, so I had to run out to Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of 'FreeBSD Unleashed' with a copy of FreeBSD 5.0 included.
Everything went very smoothly and still is going smoothly with the Athlon XP 2000+
Originally posted by hypodermic "AMD Athlons are all "x86".
I bought a copy of FreeBSD off eBay since I'm still on dialup and it was easier, but those CDs were junk, so I had to run out to Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of 'FreeBSD Unleashed' with a copy of FreeBSD 5.0 included.
For software concerns, unless you can't proceed another way (for many reasons) the best is to get your copies from the official web site or a retailer if you can find one. This is definitively the better choice.
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