February 22, 2026
Nostalgia vs Docker: Popcorn ready
Back to FreeBSD: Part 1
Is FreeBSD making a comeback? Fans cheer, skeptics shrug
TLDR: A nostalgic piece says FreeBSD led the way on app isolation and remains a clean, cohesive alternative to today’s Linux setups. Comments erupted into 'FreeBSD ideals vs Docker convenience,' with fans cheering, skeptics demanding a real reason to switch, and one jokester blocked by 'failed to verify your browser.'
FreeBSD nostalgia just crashed the party, and the comments went feral. Old-school admins cheered the reminder that FreeBSD pioneered “jails” (safe app boxes) while we all fumbled FTP uploads and shared servers. One fan simply swooned: I love intros to FreeBSD. Another flexed: they ran a whole company on it and even skipped Windows to chase Bitcoin. But the mood shifts fast: a skeptic sighs that Linux and Docker now run their life — and switching back needs a killer reason.
The real spark? The article’s swipe at Linux’s “overengineered” container stack. One commenter called that value judgment out, and the thread split like the Red Sea. A sharp reply framed the win for Docker in plain English: it wasn’t the isolation tech, it was the goodies — easy recipes (Dockerfiles), a big public store (registry), and one-click vibes (Compose). Translation: plug-and-play beats purity. Meanwhile, comic relief: someone only saw a wall — “failed to verify your browser.” Classic internet. Verdict from the crowd: FreeBSD’s tidy, coherent vibe is cool, but Docker’s convenience and network effect rule today. Unless FreeBSD brings the ecosystem magic, this comeback is a heartwarming reboot — not a takeover. For now, the popcorn stays hot.
Key Points
- •Early server deployment often used manual file transfers via FTP clients or UNIX tools like scp and rsync.
- •Shared Apache deployments caused multi-site failures and resource contention during traffic spikes.
- •Sysadmins automated tasks with shell scripts but lacked standardized versioning and rollback methods.
- •Two core problems were identified: deployment reliability and process isolation between apps and the system.
- •Isolation evolved from chroot (1979) to VMs (late 1990s via VMware), with a notable shift around 2000 on FreeBSD; FreeBSD’s integrated OS model contrasts with Linux’s kernel-plus-distro approach.