# Guys is it possible to use FreeBSD as a home server of backup, torrent, streaming and sharing



## Ahmed El Gohary (Nov 10, 2015)

I’m wondering if it's possible to use FreeBSD for home server purpose.
And I want to know which is better for that purpose: FreeBSD vs RHEL 7 VS Oracle Solaris 11?
Which one fits my purpose?
And what are the steps and tools I need to do that?
And if it's FreeBSD , I want to install Gnome! 
BTW I'm a Mac user and there's a Windows-based PC in my home and Android and iOS devices.


----------



## SirDice (Nov 10, 2015)

That's pretty much what my home server does and it's been running FreeBSD for at least a decade.


----------



## usdmatt (Nov 10, 2015)

I would expect the OS choice on here to be slightly biased towards FreeBSD...

For me the most obvious benefit for using FreeBSD would be the integral support of ZFS, which is brilliant for a storage/backup device. You get built in RAID managed directly through FreeBSD, checksumming/scrub to guarantee all your data stays in perfect condition, snapshots to store previous versions of your data, and send/recv if you want to be able to efficiently duplicate the data somewhere else.

Sharing depends on what you want to do. For file sharing to Windows/OSX Samba is probably the best bet, which would be the same on Linux. For iOS/Android there are various ports for streaming video/audio using DLNA/uPNP although I don't have that much experience with these. I've never used torrents on FreeBSD either but I'm pretty sure there are ports available.

I don't know why you'd want to put Gnome (or any GUI) on it though.
It may also be worth looking at FreeNAS which has a user friendly web interface. I do know it can have plugins although I've never used it so don't know what it's capable of in additional to the built in NAS functionality.


----------



## NewGuy (Nov 10, 2015)

I think in most situations, FreeBSD would be far better than the other two options. FreeBSD is stable, easy to upgrade, supports all the features you want and natively supports ZFS. 

Solaris is pretty much a dead platform and probably won't see use outside some enterprises that still rely on it. 

RHEL is super expensive and doesn't really offer much over FreeBSD, other than slightly longer support life for individual versions. You could use a free alternative to RHEL, like CentOS, but still you face a lack of packages and ZFS support in CentOS compared to FreeBSD.


----------



## hashime (Nov 10, 2015)

It is possible with FreeBSD or any Linux distribution. It's not rocketscience, pick whatever you like best. Asking in a FreeBSD forum whether to choose Linux or FreeBSD is pointless btw.
Steps you would need to take are pretty much the same.
Install the OS, install the packages, configure the services.
Why you would choose RHEL for your Linux distribution is beyond me, it's expensive and not really geared towards home users. Using Oracle Solaris as a home server is not even funny as a joke. Why GNOME on a server? Weird, but you can do it, sure.
As another poster pointed out, give FreeNAS a try, it offers a WebUI, has ZFS and is FreeBSD under the hood.
If you go with linux, slap Debian/stable on it, it has long support, is rock solid and has a big software repository. dpkg/apt is superior to everything else when it comes to packagemanagement, but then again ZFS is superior  to everything else when it comes to FS. If you got only one HDD in your server or don't run a (z)RAIDX that point is moot though.
Either way, you can't really go wrong (unless you choose solaris), both Linux and FreeBSD will do a very good job, it comes down to personal preference.


----------



## drhowarddrfine (Nov 10, 2015)

hashime said:


> It's not rocketscience


The BSD network stack is used to communicate with the Mars rover so, yes, it is.


----------



## hashime (Nov 10, 2015)

I stand corrected!


----------



## Beastie7 (Nov 10, 2015)

Ahmed El Gohary said:


> I’m wondering if it's possible to use FreeBSD for home server purpose.



What do you intend to serve with your home server? You've yet to specify that. Web services? File sharing? Email?


----------



## SirDice (Nov 10, 2015)

Beastie7 said:


> What do you intend to serve with your home server? You've yet to specify that. Web services? File sharing? Email?


Look at the topic:


> Guys is it possible to use FreeBSD as a home server of backup, torrent, streaming and sharing


I think that pretty much covers what he wants to do


----------



## Beastie7 (Nov 10, 2015)

Oh lord... I need coffee


----------

