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I used to use Freebsd. It was great until it wasn't. Mainly, I would recommend not using it as a desktop. It's perfect for a server or FreeNAS but the ports for

I used to use Freebsd. It was great until it wasn't. Mainly, I would recommend not using it as a desktop. It's perfect for a server or FreeNAS but the ports for common desktop applications seem to be broken fairly often which causes usability issues and some very heavy frustration. From the forums (you will use them allot), I learned that the developers mainly use Macs as their primary PC's. So this problem is not likely to change. As far as Awk over Perl. It's been quite some time but when I did awk scripts they had some pretty annoying quirks that you just had to learn. Perl was just easier. Has that changed? I know that Perl as a larger language is languishing but isn't it still perfect for this type of thing?

bachmeier 7y ago
> It's perfect for a server or FreeNAS but the ports for common desktop applications seem to be broken fairly often which causes usability issues and some very heavy frustration. I briefly tried FreeBSD. Only briefly, because that ports thing was a mess. My trial lasted only a few days before my system was an unusable mess.
- doc1623 7y ago
  Part of that is, it's just a fairly steep learning curve. I did learn to stick with one way of doing ports. I used Portmaster then you learn not to troubleshoot too much as you can really make a mess of things. You need to let the tools work for you, but again... when the ports themselves are broken (i.e. not your machine/dependency .."heck") then you can't do anything.
- throw0101a 7y ago
  > Only briefly, because that ports thing was a mess. In what way was it a mess?