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I installed FreeBSD on my machine about a year ago, and went so far as to buy a copy of Absolute FreeBSD (3rd ed) by Michael Lucas. Much as I admire the FreeBSD

I installed FreeBSD on my machine about a year ago, and went so far as to buy a copy of Absolute FreeBSD (3rd ed) by Michael Lucas. Much as I admire the FreeBSD ethos, I always end up coming back to Fedora for a very simple reason: the desktop experience on the BSD's has always been painful for me. First, FreeBSD didn't have the driver for my iGPU (Coffeelake), though Linux had support at least six months prior. FreeBSD devs to their credit were very helpful and welcoming when I tried troubleshooting my graphics situation, even writing a small patch for me. Then, when I installed the patched version of the driver and got video output, I had to be careful to maintain the patch. One time I accidentally upgraded all packages, overwriting the patched file and undoing the video support. Eventually I got fed up and just installed Fedora, which always works perfectly, runs like butter, and looks great. I get that the FreeBSD project is much smaller than GNU/Linux, and hardware vendors like Intel and Nvidia are not nearly as supportive in terms of contributing code/checking compatibility. I want to run FreeBSD, I really do. But at the end of the day I just don't have enough hours in the week to be troubleshooting my desktop, I'd rather spend those hours being productive (or being unproductive in a manner of my choosing). It's a great project - with a bit more love for newbies and the desktop experience I think FreeBSD could really shine. One option I think FreeBSD should consider is to offer separate server and workstation editions of each release, like Fedora does. This would help bring resources/attention to the desktop situation and provide an on-ramp for new users who want to try out FreeBSD without diving headfirst into config files and device drivers.

santoshalper 7y ago
I don't think the FreeBSD team has the resources to maintain multiple editions for personal and server use, nor do I think it really fits their ethos. Unless you are trying to immerse yourself in it, I would avoid FreeBSD on your personal computer and use it for what it is, one of the best designed server operating systems in the world.
- gautamcgoel 7y ago
  I see your point, but I'd like to make an observation: most people start of running OSS on their laptops/desktops, and only then move to server/cloud setups, usually sticking to the platform they already knew. For example, I started off installing Linux Mint on my desktop machine and college, way before I ever SSHed into a server setup. By giving up on the desktop, the BSDs are making it unlikely that the next generation of devs will ever both exploring their server offerings.
Koshkin 7y ago
I wonder if it would make sense for FreeBSD to switch to Linux as the kernel.
- jki275 7y ago
  What would be the point? The reason to use a BSD is the kernel. If you change the kernel to a linux kernel, there's no reason to use it over a Linux distribution.
- toast0 7y ago
  A large part of FreeBSD is the kernel, and another large part is userland tools that support the kernel. FreeBSD on the Linux kernel would be a lot of work and at the end of the day, I'm not quite sure Linux needs a BSD licensed ifconfig, etc? If FreeBSD wanted to use Linux video drivers, that could be useful, but there would need to be a stable interface between the kernel and the driver, and that interface would need to make sense for FreeBSD. Stable kernel apis is an anti-goal for Linux, so that's a non-starter; I wonder if Windows drivers could be more amenable, ala NDISWrapper; but that would also be a lot of effort, and if there were effort for FreeBSD video work, I'd imagine the intel drivers would get ported faster.
  - JdeBP 7y ago
    Linux needs an ifconfig with the BSD command-line syntax and output style, that can handle IPv6 stuff, but that already exists now. * https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/504084/5132 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/504084/5132
- lizknope 7y ago
  We have the opposite situation. Debian userland with FreeBSD kernel. https://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/ https://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/

santoshalper 7y ago

I don't think the FreeBSD team has the resources to maintain multiple editions for personal and server use, nor do I think it really fits their ethos. Unless you are trying to immerse yourself in it, I would avoid FreeBSD on your personal computer and use it for what it is, one of the best designed server operating systems in the world.

gautamcgoel 7y ago
I see your point, but I'd like to make an observation: most people start of running OSS on their laptops/desktops, and only then move to server/cloud setups, usually sticking to the platform they already knew. For example, I started off installing Linux Mint on my desktop machine and college, way before I ever SSHed into a server setup. By giving up on the desktop, the BSDs are making it unlikely that the next generation of devs will ever both exploring their server offerings.

Koshkin 7y ago

I wonder if it would make sense for FreeBSD to switch to Linux as the kernel.

jki275 7y ago
What would be the point? The reason to use a BSD is the kernel. If you change the kernel to a linux kernel, there's no reason to use it over a Linux distribution.
toast0 7y ago
A large part of FreeBSD is the kernel, and another large part is userland tools that support the kernel. FreeBSD on the Linux kernel would be a lot of work and at the end of the day, I'm not quite sure Linux needs a BSD licensed ifconfig, etc? If FreeBSD wanted to use Linux video drivers, that could be useful, but there would need to be a stable interface between the kernel and the driver, and that interface would need to make sense for FreeBSD. Stable kernel apis is an anti-goal for Linux, so that's a non-starter; I wonder if Windows drivers could be more amenable, ala NDISWrapper; but that would also be a lot of effort, and if there were effort for FreeBSD video work, I'd imagine the intel drivers would get ported faster.
- JdeBP 7y ago
  Linux needs an ifconfig with the BSD command-line syntax and output style, that can handle IPv6 stuff, but that already exists now. * https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/504084/5132 https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/504084/5132
lizknope 7y ago
We have the opposite situation. Debian userland with FreeBSD kernel. https://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/ https://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/