Running open source 'unix' services via MacPorts on macOS is no longer feasible for me

[chilli.namesake at gmail.com]

> On Nov 29, 2022, at 06:55, Gerben Wierda via macports-users <macports-users at lists.macports.org> wrote:
> 
> Before Monterey I was running Mojave and that worked very well. I skipped Catalina and went straight for Monterey so I would have a long period of 'no large migrations'.

I'm running file servers on Snow Leopard, Mountain Lion and Mojave, and I'm seriously considering taking the Mojave machine back to High Sierra, except Mojave works well and my need to compile to 32-bit hasn't yet materialized. Mojave does eat RAM doing nothing in a way that Mountain Lion simply doesn't, and I am curious about High Sierra, so the consideration remains. 

Running a mail server, presumably exposed to the Internet, I suppose you'd have deeper security concerns.

Maybe something changed with email that I'm not aware of like the way the Web keeps breaking older browsers, but if you upgraded without consideration of precisely which security enhancements you needed or which new features you could not live with out, then, as it always is, we do it to ourselves. Once upon a time, servers were rarely, if ever, upgraded. They stayed up so long the new hardware and software passed them by, but they kept working, so they were left running.  It was a dark day that macOS users began treating their systems like Windows, feverishly updating and upgrading production machines as soon as patches were available. But Windows security is scary, and the risk of updates and upgrades on Windows less scary than not. I don't think we're there yet with macOS. 

But Linux has more in common with Windows than macOS. Linux's first best reason for existing was fixing things Microsoft broke. There was no great reason Linux took over the datacenter. IMO, it was fanaticism alone that caused this. And now Linux has become a larger target, increasing need to keep current and patched when facing the Internet, and jeopardizing production with every patch.

If you feel you have to leave macOS, no one would find fault (perhaps fault could be found choosing macOS as a server in the first place, though ;) But Linux is not required. I'd choose NetBSD over Linux all week long and twice on Sundays. FreeBSD is also fantastic, and its ports system far, far, far more secure than any Linux repository. If security is your concern, you should also consider OpenBSD. With any BSD, you can profoundly relax your update trigger finger and take your sweet time in consideration of why you should or should not upgrade, and research every angle, then wait a decade if you wish, and then decide.