Static Web Hosting on the Intel N150: FreeBSD, SmartOS, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux Compared
a day ago
- The article benchmarks static web hosting with nginx across multiple operating systems (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Debian, Alpine, SmartOS) on an Intel N150 mini PC, using default configurations.
- For plain HTTP, all native hosts and jails achieve roughly 63–64k requests per second, with negligible overhead from FreeBSD jails and SmartOS native zones, and a slight drop for SmartOS LX zones.
- HTTPS performance varies more: FreeBSD, Debian, and Alpine form a fast group (62–63k req/s), with FreeBSD using significantly less CPU (60% idle). SmartOS, NetBSD, and OpenBSD reach 40–52k req/s at full CPU utilization.
- FreeBSD jails are extremely efficient, matching bare-metal throughput with minimal CPU cost, while Docker containers and LX zones show higher CPU overhead despite similar peak speeds.
- The practical takeaway: for static HTTP, OS choice matters little; for HTTPS, FreeBSD or modern Linux distributions offer better TLS performance, but the final decision should also consider team expertise, tooling, and maintenance needs.
- Benchmarks are only one input; real-world factors like network limits, CDNs, and operational skills often outweigh these performance differences.