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How to escape the Linux networking stack

(blog.cloudflare.com)
148 points meysamazad | 8 comments | 17 Nov 25 15:49 UTC | HN request time: 1.18s | source | bottom
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alecco ◴[17 Nov 25 21:38 UTC] No.45958647[source]▶
Being a networking company I always wondered why did they pick Linux over FreeBSD.
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1. HumanOstrich ◴[18 Nov 25 01:09 UTC] No.45960281[source]▶
Why does being a networking company suggest FreeBSD is the "right" pick?
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2. password4321 ◴[18 Nov 25 01:36 UTC] No.45960424[source]▶
Serving Netflix Video at 400Gb/s on FreeBSD [pdf] (2021)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28584738

(I don't share this as "the answer" as much as one example from years past.)

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3. HumanOstrich ◴[18 Nov 25 01:46 UTC] No.45960480[source]▶
I think they used FreeBSD because they were already using FreeBSD. The article doesn't mention Linux.
4. victorbjorklund ◴[18 Nov 25 08:18 UTC] No.45962649[source]▶
To be honest, I think when I heard them speak, they're kind of saying yes, FreeBSD is awesome but that the main reason is that the early people there liked FreeBSD so they just stuck with it. And that it's a good choice, but they don't claim these are things that would be impossible to do with optimizations in Linux.
5. alecco ◴[18 Nov 25 09:35 UTC] No.45963102[source]▶
Because FreeBSD is known for having the best network stack. The code is elegant and clean. And, at least until a few years ago, it was the preferred choice to build routers or firewalls.

AFAIK, they were the first to implement BPF for production ready code almost 3 decades ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Packet_Filter

But all this is opinion and anecdotal. Just pick a random network feature and compare by yourself the Linux and the FreeBSD code.

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6. HumanOstrich ◴[18 Nov 25 14:09 UTC] No.45966234[source]▶
> But all this is opinion and anecdotal.

Exactly.

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7. alecco ◴[18 Nov 25 18:41 UTC] No.45970232{3}[source]▶
> But all this is opinion and anecdotal. Just pick a random network feature and compare by yourself the Linux and the FreeBSD code.

Why did you take out of context my self-criticism and omitted the second part of the line showing how you can see this by yourself?

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8. HumanOstrich ◴[18 Nov 25 20:57 UTC] No.45971943{4}[source]▶
"Go research it yourself" does not back up your claim that FreeBSD is the "best" for networking.