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Are there really more than half as many Linux desktop users as Mac users? If so, it's heartening our share increasing, even if's still tiny. FreeBSD and OpenB

Are there really more than half as many Linux desktop users as Mac users? If so, it's heartening our share increasing, even if's still tiny. FreeBSD and OpenBSD are pretty great OSs too. I wonder if their share isn't so tiny because BSD enthusiasts have an easy option of running a Mac and still have access to BSD tools under the hood.

2trill2spill 9y ago
> FreeBSD and OpenBSD are pretty great OSs too. I wonder if their share isn't so tiny because BSD enthusiasts have an easy option of running a Mac and still have access to BSD tools under the hood. Yea and the driver situation for laptops on FreeBSD doesn't help. I've never had problems installing FreeBSD on server or desktop hardware, but on laptops either the wifi doesn't work or suspend and resume doesn't work, or of course both. But this reflects the goals FreeBSD so one shouldn't really be that surprised.
- sydney6 9y ago
  I run FreeBSD on my Laptop (X230) and i can assure you that both, wifi and suspend/resume, are working perfectly fine.. edit: Typo.
  - sydney6 9y ago
    In Fact, as i think about it, there is nothing on this machine that does not work out of the box with FreeBSD.
  - nekkoru 9y ago
    Yeah, awesome, what about the tens of thousands of other laptop models on the market?
    - sydney6 9y ago
      Well, i can only account for the machines that i have, of course.. Most Business Laptops come with Intel Chipsets (Wifi, Ethernet, Graphics, etc.) throughout and at least these should be working fine.
  - 2trill2spill 9y ago
    Nice!, must not have a broadcom wifi chipset.
    - sydney6 9y ago
      Yes, but to be honest, Broadcom Hardware is a pain in the ass on every Platform.. even Macintosh.
tomxor 9y ago
I started to abandon Mac around 10.6 and ended up on Linux unintentionally. I tried really really hard to like FreeBSD, and I did like it... It's not just a server OS it's true! but omg the hardware support, that made me truly appreciate that the common denominator of an Desktop OS being useable: is hardware support... it doesn't matter how amazing the OS is abstractly, you need drivers to appreciate it. I even started going down the road of submitting driver patches, and I am no OS programmer. That's how dedicated I was to making it work - but there's just too much to do. I know if you are super careful you can buy hardware for *BSD but even then it's unlikely you will get support for everything in the BSDs, Linux just has support for so much out of popularity, and in a closed hardware world unfortunately that is what makes a Desktop OS usable (without even getting into DE/WM stuff).

2trill2spill 9y ago

> FreeBSD and OpenBSD are pretty great OSs too. I wonder if their share isn't so tiny because BSD enthusiasts have an easy option of running a Mac and still have access to BSD tools under the hood. Yea and the driver situation for laptops on FreeBSD doesn't help. I've never had problems installing FreeBSD on server or desktop hardware, but on laptops either the wifi doesn't work or suspend and resume doesn't work, or of course both. But this reflects the goals FreeBSD so one shouldn't really be that surprised.

sydney6 9y ago
I run FreeBSD on my Laptop (X230) and i can assure you that both, wifi and suspend/resume, are working perfectly fine.. edit: Typo.
- sydney6 9y ago
  In Fact, as i think about it, there is nothing on this machine that does not work out of the box with FreeBSD.
- nekkoru 9y ago
  Yeah, awesome, what about the tens of thousands of other laptop models on the market?
  - sydney6 9y ago
    Well, i can only account for the machines that i have, of course.. Most Business Laptops come with Intel Chipsets (Wifi, Ethernet, Graphics, etc.) throughout and at least these should be working fine.
- 2trill2spill 9y ago
  Nice!, must not have a broadcom wifi chipset.
  - sydney6 9y ago
    Yes, but to be honest, Broadcom Hardware is a pain in the ass on every Platform.. even Macintosh.

tomxor 9y ago

I started to abandon Mac around 10.6 and ended up on Linux unintentionally. I tried really really hard to like FreeBSD, and I did like it... It's not just a server OS it's true! but omg the hardware support, that made me truly appreciate that the common denominator of an Desktop OS being useable: is hardware support... it doesn't matter how amazing the OS is abstractly, you need drivers to appreciate it. I even started going down the road of submitting driver patches, and I am no OS programmer. That's how dedicated I was to making it work - but there's just too much to do. I know if you are super careful you can buy hardware for *BSD but even then it's unlikely you will get support for everything in the BSDs, Linux just has support for so much out of popularity, and in a closed hardware world unfortunately that is what makes a Desktop OS usable (without even getting into DE/WM stuff).