FreeBSD and SSD drives

[Odhiambo Washington]

On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 10:38 AM, Chad Perrin <perrin at apotheon.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 07:12:08PM +0300, Odhiambo Washington wrote:
> >
> > I fail to understand why manufacturers would let people install SSDs on
> > machines when their life is so much in question.
>
> I fail to see why a manufacturer would *not* want your hardware to wear
> out faster, since that would mean you would have to buy replacement
> hardware sooner.
>
>
> >
> > Can someone please enlighten me on the dangers faced by those who opt to
> get
> > their laptops installed with SSDs?
>
> In many cases, particularly where there is quite a lot of RAM installed
> in the system and where people use a netbook the way it was intended to
> be used when designed (typically involving a lot of Web browsing and not
> much else), SSDs might be the best option -- especially given the rapid
> obsolescence of low-performance, ultra-portable units.  If you expect
> your hardware to last a long time, overrun "physical" RAM into swap space
> a lot, and (as you might with FreeBSD) compile code an awful lot, the
> heavier storage-write load might make more of a difference in the
> expected lifetime of the hardware.
>
> With FreeBSD, installing everything from binary packages can help
> mitigate the possible problems of shortening the life of your SSDs.
>
> Of course, if you care about having lots of storage, it's worth keeping
> in mind the fact that SSDs still cost a lot more per gigabyte of storage
> than rotating magnetic media (HDDs).
>
>
> >
> > I personally have one, with a Toshiba 128GB SSD (THNS128GG4BAAA-NonFDE).
> I
> > am running Windows 7 on it.
> >
> > Should I stop and buy a SATA disk?:)
>
> Probably not.  You already have the SSD storage, and its improved
> performance for many operations (as well as improved durability under
> stress in the short term) can still be of benefit.  Just be sure you know
> when the usable lifespan of your SSD approaches, keep good backups (as
> you always should anyway), and be happy.
>
> You'd surely be happier with a better OS on it, though -- right?
>

Hehee,

Chad, on the "Desktop", I'd rather run the ratware from Redmond than try
FreeBSD! The second choice would be Linusware (not that I know much about
it, but just because "it" seems to support certain aspects which would
otherwise be painful to get to work with FreeBSD). Third option is PC-BSD
(which is what you mean with "better OS"). All my servers run FreeBSD
though. The "better OS" is not so better at the Desktop, hence the choice of
ratware:-)

-- 
Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223
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Damn!!