15 karma · joined November 8, 2013
If you run your own servers, especially ones that you physically have to maintain the hardware on, FreeBSD is a very reliable choice and the upgrade paths on it are fantastic. I now run some services in Azure and use docker, but all my "on prem" stuff, is still freeBSD powered.
Lets say you have a server, it runs a mail server, database server, web server (proxy) and application server.
If they all run without containers, if one service gets compromised, and a root exploit is found, that's it game over.
If you have a service that starts eating up memory, with proper configuration, it can't overload the root server. Basically each jail/container can only see itself and any exploits cannot effect the host system, or other jails/containers (when configured correctly).
It also allows for easy expansion, when one jailed/containered service gets to large for the server, just move it to another server easily and quickly.
It also allows for speedy deployment, with docker you can bundle everything on your laptop, create an image, then ship this straight to an external host like EC2/Goole Cloud (for example), with the addition of pre built containers for Django/Rails/Postgres/MySQL etc, it creates a ready working environment for developers who might not be to hot on configuring systems. The "shipping" ability to docker is a by product of the container which is another added benefit. There are loads more features than what I have stated here, this is just a very brief summary.
Building basic sites ans blogs is easy, but say someone asked you to read data from an old database or connect to a payment backend that doesn't have a django plugin, could you write your own? You also need to be able to support every plugin you use if/when that plugin gets dropped by the author.
If your going to freelance I would get very familiar with your own cms and blog system so you know it inside out, or best yet, write your own from scratch, then you aren't maintaining other people's code.
My $0.02