tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935874269355433120.post6483879187528643622..comments2022-11-30T03:54:00.412-05:00Comments on by: Brandon, the Random Man: FLPR vs LAMPGB Hoythttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01305484602935707261noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935874269355433120.post-28907629533707787502010-10-01T22:23:44.129-04:002010-10-01T22:23:44.129-04:00I'm with you as far as the philosophy of not w...I'm with you as far as the philosophy of not worrying about os admin while programming. That's one reason why I've concentrated so hard on Ubuntu. I also want to make sure that I can do some sysadmin type stuff though, I believe both of us can agree that specialization is for insects. The point of developing and deploying in the same environment is a design and security choice. <br /><br />I know what you mean about using the best tool, I have political reasons for not using MySQL, they are in jeopardy, http://bit.ly/cJgKIo for a year old optimistic take on it. Oracle is not trustworthy. Apache vs Lighttpd is not such a big deal, Lighttpd will run on less, and is BSD licensed, that's the only reason I have behind the choice, so no biggie.<br /><br />Now ruby on the other hand, has little room for compromise. I have discovered a guy who builds ruby off the svn nightly, and installs his gems via rubygems, so I now know it can be done. I'm going to try and figure some things out. <br />As far as your three options are concerned, I've been seriously considering option 3. i've been following some of the BSD ruby developers lists online, and in the next month or so I plan on flipping through the developers and porters handbooks.<br />Right after I get FreeBSD 8.1 working on a machine here!GB Hoythttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01305484602935707261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7935874269355433120.post-69878809063593291292010-10-01T14:19:13.611-04:002010-10-01T14:19:13.611-04:00Well, you know where I stand on this as far as the...Well, you know where I stand on this as far as the underlying operating system goes -- FreeBSD FTW! -- but what's best for me isn't necessarily best for you. When you aren't getting your hack on and you are seriously thinking about a money-making venture, you need to spend more time on your money-making app than on the OS administration. If you are equally comfortable with administration of Ubuntu and FreeBSD then we can move on.<br /><br />If we leave acronyms aside and choose the tools best for the job (and that you already know, for extra points), then you can kill the lighttpd hurdle by sticking with Apache. Likewise for MySQL vs. PostgreSQL. If there is some compelling feature of an unknown tool that makes learning said tool worth the effort then by all means do it, else sticking with a capable tool you already know allows you to (again) focus on your app dev.<br /><br />Now the hard part -- Ruby, and specifically Gems. You already know how the FreeBSD ports system works and you have a need (or just desire?) to build your app using the latest available tools which aren't yet in the ports tree. Your options here are to either...<br /><br />(1) Develop on the versions of Ruby/Rails/Gems in the ports tree, forsaking the latest available features for the stability of mature code (which ironically is kind of what FreeBSD vs. LINUX boils down to (licensing wars aside)). Can you dev your app on what's available in ports?<br /><br />(2) Completely ignore the ports tree and build your Ruby (and friends) from their respective project sources and keep track of the library & other dependencies manually (this takes away from money-making app dev time!)<br /><br />(3) Team up with the Ruby (and friends) ports' maintainer(s) and assist them in keeping the ports up-to-date and perhaps also collaborate on a better way to manage Gems. It's possible that the ports' maintainers will have a really good answer for why the Gems are managed the way that they are in ports, else you can put forth a good argument for change. Again, this takes away from app dev time.<br /><br />If you have the time it takes then option #3 would be the most valuable to you and the wider FreeBSD ports user community, otherwise #1 is the best option. Since #2 would require as much time investment as #3, not to mention that you would be bearing this burden alone, I would only consider this in the absolute worst case scenario. So, what killer feature does the latest Ruby have that the FreeBSD port doesn't? Take the answer(s) so that question and honestly label 'need' or 'want' next to each one within the context of what's required to build your app (not what you require to hack and be on the knife's edge for the sake of fun).<br /><br />All of the above is written as if your ease of OS administration is equal between FreeBSD and LINUX. If these two values are not equal then you need to start at the OS level and build up with what you know. Like I said, this is all about maximizing the time you spend developing the app that will put food on your table and keep your servers running.<br /><br />One final thought is about licensing. I don't know the nature of what you are developing and whether the differences between the licensing schemes for the two operating systems would impact your app, so this may be a non-issue. Just keep in mind how free and unencumbered the BSD license is compared to everything else.<br /><br />I am sure we will be discussing this more in the coming weeks and months.Mike Oliver, KT2Thttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04412583514560072749noreply@blogger.com