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<DIV><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Greetings To DragonFlyBSD
Users,</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>In response to the call for input from <A
href="mailto:ipc@peercorpstrust.org"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>ipc@peercorpstrust.org</FONT></A> -- here's an overview of why
and how I'm using DragonFly (DF).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Followed by an offer.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial><STRONG><EM>Why I'm Using
DragonFlyBSD (DF)</EM></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>After a long and arduous search for both a web
hosting service provider (it's a jungle out there <STRONG>!!</STRONG>) and for
an operating system to use (ditto <STRONG>!!</STRONG>), I have settled
on:</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
<LI><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><STRONG>Elastic Hosts
(EH)</STRONG> </FONT><A href="http://www.elastichosts.com"><FONT
size=2>www.elastichosts.com</FONT></A><FONT size=2> as provider of cloud
virtualized QEMU / KVM server(s):<BR> </FONT></FONT>
<UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>the EH support team is remarkably literate,
knowledgeable, interested and helpfully accessible 24/7 via
email;</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>rock-solid server resource availability and
functionality (although I haven't yet put much demand on the EH VMs for
functionality and workload);</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>good pricing;
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>5-day free trial;<BR> </FONT></LI></UL>
<LI><STRONG>DragonFlyBSD</STRONG> <A
href="http://www.dragonflybsd.org">www.dragonflybsd.org</A> operating
system:<BR>
<UL>
<LI>run as a guest os under EH QEMU / KVM virtual machine(s);
<LI>the EH Support team had already suggested FreeBSD as one alternative for
me to consider;
<LI>the DF BSD variant first came to my consciousness when
I discovered the same "thread about this [DF usage] on the FreeBSD
forums: <A
href="https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/who-uses-dragonfly-bsd.22274/"><FONT
size=2
face=Arial>https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/who-uses-dragonfly-bsd.22274/</FONT></A>" mentioned
in the email by DF user <A
href="mailto:ipc@peercorpstrust.org"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>ipc@peercorpstrust.org</FONT></A>;
<LI>I chose DragonFlyBSD because:
<UL>
<LI>DF is the product of the sustained leadership over many years of one
single talented mind, evidently able to attract quite a team of open
source collaborators;
<LI>HAMMER file system is reputed to be more resource efficient than ZFS,
with similar capabilities;
<LI>DTrace (?);
<LI>closely tied with FreeBSD functionality (e.g. the ports
collection);
<LI>thriving open source community apparently free from constraints of a
dominant corporate sponsor;
<LI>DF installed painlessly under the EH VM (compared to one
competitor os) and has given absolutely no trouble (although I haven't yet
put DF under much stress);
<LI>DF seems to be less picky about hardware compatibility (than at least
one competitor os) -- I'm a big fan of "commodity" grade servers albeit
well-chosen ones, because "commodity" servers can simplify website
hosting provider selection effort and also reduce server rental
cost;</FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><FONT size=2
face=Arial></FONT></LI></UL></LI></UL></LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial><STRONG><EM>What I'm Using
DragonFlyBSD (DF) For</EM></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I have developed (using XAMPP on Win XP) a new
website (not yet online) dedicated to a new technology concept of my invention
-- Expressway Traffic Optimization (ETO) -- for preventing traffic congestion on
expressways (freeways, motorways, controlled access highways).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The ETO website (not yet online) has 18 static
pages and two PHP SQL applications: (1) visitor contact message form, (2) Club
ETO membership admin & exclusive content for members. Before the website
goes online I plan to switch it to PostgreSQL from MySQL .</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The ETO technology concept (and it's still
"only" a concept) uses pavement-embedded signal lights to guide individual
expressway / freeway / motorway / autobahn drivers in real time, to use best
headways (speed and spacing) for safe, fast, smooth traffic flow with much less
lane changing and almost no braking.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Please see the attached PDF rendition of the home
page for this new website (not yet online):</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial><<FONT color=#0000ff>eto_home -
20140812.pdf</FONT>>;</FONT></LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>(And please -- don't choke on your Cheerios -- when
you see the text-heavy "funky-klunky" page design style -- it's intended to give
maximum page response time of 10 seconds for even those poor / frugal / backward
website visitors still using their browser over a slow dial-up landline
telephone Internet connection. Know any of those people <STRONG>??</STRONG> I do
<STRONG>!! :)</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Prior to installing the new website, I am presently
working to customize the DF environment on the EH VMs, with three
tools for productive use (one constraint is that I do not have a very fast
Internet connection so high-resolution GUI consoles are out of the
question):</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>#1 fish shell</STRONG> <A
href="http://www.fishshell.com">www.fishshell.com</A> the Friendly
Interactive Shell (emphasises: ease of use, intuitivity, simplicity,
productivity, programmability):<BR> </FONT>
<UL><FONT size=2 face=Arial>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>it is the powerful console colourization in fish
shell that originally attracted me (but the horrors of using tcsh as a
scripting language also encourage me to believe that I will enjoy scripting
in fish much more);</FONT>
<LI>I'm building two tcsh scripts -- fishy ("fish yes") and fishn ("fish
no") -- that integrate fish shell into the DF environment, while retaining
tcsh as the default and still fully available shell for all users (keeping
tcsh as the most advanced shell registered in the DF passwd database
file, and no mention of fish there at all);</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>the fish shell community was very responsive in
providing a simple patch to one fish C source code module, so I could
rebuild the current official release of fish shell to work under DF
(although I subsequently upgraded to the latest devl branch version of fish
shell, which also cured the problem);</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The pain I am experiencing in learning and
working with tcsh shell scripting only add to the trauma I suffered earlier
while I went digging into the tcsh C source code to try to figure out how to
improve tcsh to colourize command output content in the console window
(not being a masochist-type progremmer, I abandoned this idea of modifying
tcsh, and fled to fish shell);<BR> </FONT><FONT size=2
face=Arial> </FONT></LI></UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>#2 tmux</STRONG> tmux.sourceforge.net
(virtual terminal / shell UI session / window manager): <BR> </FONT>
<UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>server sessions & windows & panes
all persist and can dynamically attach / detach terminal (e.g. SSH);</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>window conferencing / sharing;</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>high quality appears programmed into
the source code;</FONT>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial>productivity booster when connection to server
prone to breakage (e.g. dial-up, e.g. wireless) while admin / devl
person in the middle of complex work with many active logins and shell
processes open;<BR> </FONT></LI></UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG>#3 vim</STRONG> <A
href="http://www.vim.org">www.vim.org</A> source / text file editor
(can vim be <U>worse than</U> vi <STRONG>!! ??
:(</STRONG></FONT></LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=center><FONT color=#0000ff face=Arial><STRONG><EM>An
Offer</EM></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Once I get <STRONG>fish</STRONG>,
<STRONG>tmux</STRONG> and <STRONG>vim</STRONG> settled in under
<STRONG>DF</STRONG> on my <STRONG>EH QEMU / KVM</STRONG> machines, I will be
coming back to DF Users to follow-up on an incomplete earlier thread started
on 10 December 2014 by <A
href="mailto:nans_nans1@yahoo.de">nans_nans1@yahoo.de</A> who was
disappointed in DF performance on a VPS , as compared to Debian Lnux. Here
are quotes (<EM><FONT color=#0000ff><U>emphasis</U>
added</FONT></EM>):</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A href="mailto:users@dragonflybsd.org"><FONT
color=#000000>users@dragonflybsd.org</FONT></A> 10 December 2014
</FONT>"<EM><FONT color=#0000ff>I installed DF4.0 on my vps (with ssd). I
realize that the <U>file system performance ist much lower (ca. 80MB/sec)
compared to my previously installed debian-linux (ca 500MB/sec)</U>. Are
there any configuration parameter in DF which affect the i/o performance? [...
In Proxmox the storage is configured as "virtio0.]</FONT></EM>";</LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>After queries from other DF users, <A
href="mailto:nans_nans1@yahoo.de">nans_nans1@yahoo.de</A> parked the thread
on the same day with this parting question:</FONT></DIV>
<UL>
<LI><FONT size=2 face=Arial><A href="mailto:users@dragonflybsd.org"><FONT
color=#000000>users@dragonflybsd.org</FONT></A> 10 December 2014 "<FONT
color=#0000ff size=3 face="Times New Roman"><EM>So the reason for the low i/o
performance is the <U>insufficient virtio-pci
driver?</U></EM></FONT>";</FONT></LI></UL>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>If the DF VirtIO drivers could use some work
to increase their performance -- since I too am using DF VirtIO on a
VPS (QEMU / KVM in my case) -- I would be interested to contribute to such
an effort on the DF VirtIO front.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><STRONG>Steve</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>----- Original Message ----- </FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>From: "PeerCorps Trust Fund" <</FONT><A
href="mailto:ipc@peercorpstrust.org"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>ipc@peercorpstrust.org</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>To: <</FONT><A
href="mailto:users@dragonflybsd.org"><FONT size=2
face=Arial>users@dragonflybsd.org</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial>></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2014 7:16
AM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Subject: DragonflyBSD use cases</FONT></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><BR><FONT size=2></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT size=2
face=Arial>> Dear All,<BR>> <BR>> I recently had an opportunity to
listen to Justin Sherril's interview on an older episode of BSDNow series. It
was quite nice to listen to discussion surrounding HAMMER and other aspects of
DragonflyBSD. One of the things that I've noticed missing from the DragonflyBSD
website is an example of the types of users that currently deploy the Dragonfly
systems and what they are using them for. Basically use case scenarios that are
real.<BR>> <BR>> What I am referring to is something similar to the
following for OpenBSD: </FONT><A href="http://www.openbsd.org/users.html"><FONT
size=2 face=Arial>http://www.openbsd.org/users.html</FONT></A><FONT size=2
face=Arial> <BR>> <BR>> I think it would be very helpful to newcomers to
see just what the system can be used for. Not that newcomers don't have an
imagination, but that its nice to see examples of things done elsewhere.
<BR>> <BR>> There was also a thread about this on the FreeBSD forums:
</FONT><A
href="https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/who-uses-dragonfly-bsd.22274/"><FONT
size=2
face=Arial>https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/who-uses-dragonfly-bsd.22274/</FONT></A><BR><FONT
size=2 face=Arial>> <BR>> I don't know if the OP got his answer on that
thread, but I think it would be great to hear from even those on this list what
you are using your Dragonfly systems for?<BR>> <BR>>
Thanks!<BR>></FONT> </BODY></HTML>