Transitioning from FreeNAS to FreeBSD

David Fullard <dave@fullard.ca>

The ways many users discover and adopt FreeBSD has seen some changes recently; my story is one of beginning as a novice FreeNAS user, progressing to become a well-known FreeNAS power user, and then ultimately transforming into a FreeBSD user. This highway, however, has a few tolls. In this presentation, we explore some of the social and technical details of my transformation, with particular attention to the interesting challenges and learning opportunities along the way. There will be more coming after me as FreeNAS begins to speak more and more to its functionality as a user appliance, and less as a veneer over FreeBSD. While the subject of the talk is certainly applicable to those many users considering the same transition, perhaps more importantly it demonstrates how our recruitment ecosystem may scarcely resemble its former self.