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I love FreeBSD. Been using it in a server context for going on 20 years now. Trying to use it on a desktop takes me back to, well, trying to use Linux on the d

I love FreeBSD. Been using it in a server context for going on 20 years now. Trying to use it on a desktop takes me back to, well, trying to use Linux on the desktop 20 years ago. Recently started shopping different distros because I’m not comfortable with the direction Ubuntu is going and rather than upgrade my 18.04 when it’s EOL’d, I’m looking at just hopping to something else for my work laptop. Took hours to get X working with my laptop’s graphics card (though most resources I found online said it wouldn’t work at all, so that was a nice bonus). Not “get accelerated graphics working” just “get X to start”. Spent another couple hours screwing around trying to get the trackpad working. And not just “get it working to my liking” but get it working at all. Turns out it’s entirely not supported as a lot of modern laptops uses a I2C connection rather than USB/PS2/etc, and there’s just no driver support for that. Never did get that resolved. A lot of desktop apps that I use are either unavailable or require a lot of dicking around to use at all. There is no Slack desktop client. You cannot run Docker natively, and instead I ended up setting up a Debian guest OS under bhyve, which harkens back to how Docker is run on Windows/OSX and all the caveats that entails. You’ll pry my FreeBSD servers from my cold dead hands, but it’s certainly not my go-to for a desktop OS.

andoriyu 6y ago
I don't know what century you've tried freebsd, but trackpad works nearly otb and otb in new xorg. Accelerated graphics works fine with intel (YMMV depending on the chip), nvidia (if you install driver from nvidia and not opensource one), amd. > There is no Slack desktop client. There is no Slack desktop client for any platform. It's just a web browser. You can make "desktop client" yourself. > You cannot run Docker natively, and instead I ended up setting up a Debian guest OS under bhyve, which harkens back to how Docker is run on Windows/OSX and all the caveats that entails. Actually, this setup works MUCH better than Docker on Mac. Which is good enough for developer. Looking at 3 laptops right now: mac, windows and freebsd. Docker user experience goes linux (non-rhel based) > linux (rhel based ) > windows > freebsd > mac. That being said, FreeBSD isn't "Oh, I will try running freebsd on this machine", FreeBSD is "I'm buying this specific machine because it runs FreeBSD". I use it both on my desktop and laptop.
toast0 6y ago
I've had some success with running Linux binaries with the Linux emulation layer, that could possibly work for the Slack client? It tends to fall down with things that are native binaries mixed with shell scripts though, like I recently tried to run Steam and gave up, because I hit my (very low) limit of munging other people's shell scripts; they were calling a program and FreeBSD has the program, but the output is different, and the arguments are different, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to run the thing I wanted to anyway, so I cut my losses early. It turns out, the thing I wanted to do doesn't (easily?) work on Linux Steam anyway, so I made a good choice. :)
- drewg123 6y ago
  The linux layer does not work for electron apps, sadly. I run a FreeBSD desktop, and I have a linux VM to run electron desktop apps. My understanding is that the core issue is a lack of support for the linux sandboxing syscalls that chromium (the basis for electron) uses.
loeg 6y ago
I agree that the DRM/i915/amdgpu experience leaves something to be desired. (?)Ironically, the nvidia drivers are rock solid and just get out of the way, which has also been my experience on Linux. The only real fault I have with nvidia on FreeBSD is that they don't ship CUDA/NVENC/NVDEC. With a stable GPU, the desktop experience is more or less identical to Linux, IMO. (I've been using Linux desktop since the mid 2000s and FreeBSD desktop since mid 2010s.)
agapon 6y ago
Just for information, this what everyone uses for I²C connected HID devices: https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/iichid https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/iichid Works perfectly well.
agapon 6y ago
And ScudCloud (net-im/scudcloud) is a Slack client.

andoriyu 6y ago

I don't know what century you've tried freebsd, but trackpad works nearly otb and otb in new xorg. Accelerated graphics works fine with intel (YMMV depending on the chip), nvidia (if you install driver from nvidia and not opensource one), amd. > There is no Slack desktop client. There is no Slack desktop client for any platform. It's just a web browser. You can make "desktop client" yourself. > You cannot run Docker natively, and instead I ended up setting up a Debian guest OS under bhyve, which harkens back to how Docker is run on Windows/OSX and all the caveats that entails. Actually, this setup works MUCH better than Docker on Mac. Which is good enough for developer. Looking at 3 laptops right now: mac, windows and freebsd. Docker user experience goes linux (non-rhel based) > linux (rhel based ) > windows > freebsd > mac. That being said, FreeBSD isn't "Oh, I will try running freebsd on this machine", FreeBSD is "I'm buying this specific machine because it runs FreeBSD". I use it both on my desktop and laptop.

toast0 6y ago

I've had some success with running Linux binaries with the Linux emulation layer, that could possibly work for the Slack client? It tends to fall down with things that are native binaries mixed with shell scripts though, like I recently tried to run Steam and gave up, because I hit my (very low) limit of munging other people's shell scripts; they were calling a program and FreeBSD has the program, but the output is different, and the arguments are different, and I wasn't sure that I'd be able to run the thing I wanted to anyway, so I cut my losses early. It turns out, the thing I wanted to do doesn't (easily?) work on Linux Steam anyway, so I made a good choice. :)

drewg123 6y ago
The linux layer does not work for electron apps, sadly. I run a FreeBSD desktop, and I have a linux VM to run electron desktop apps. My understanding is that the core issue is a lack of support for the linux sandboxing syscalls that chromium (the basis for electron) uses.

loeg 6y ago

I agree that the DRM/i915/amdgpu experience leaves something to be desired. (?)Ironically, the nvidia drivers are rock solid and just get out of the way, which has also been my experience on Linux. The only real fault I have with nvidia on FreeBSD is that they don't ship CUDA/NVENC/NVDEC. With a stable GPU, the desktop experience is more or less identical to Linux, IMO. (I've been using Linux desktop since the mid 2000s and FreeBSD desktop since mid 2010s.)

agapon 6y ago

Just for information, this what everyone uses for I²C connected HID devices: https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/iichid https://www.freshports.org/sysutils/iichid Works perfectly well.

agapon 6y ago

And ScudCloud (net-im/scudcloud) is a Slack client.