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My desktop is a Threadripper 2990WX running FreeBSD-current with Nvidia graphics. Its pretty usable as a desktop. I recently switched from KDE/Plasma5 to LXDE
by drewg123 6y ago
My desktop is a Threadripper 2990WX running FreeBSD-current with Nvidia graphics.
Its pretty usable as a desktop. I recently switched from KDE/Plasma5 to LXDE, mostly to avoid rolling-release related churn. Eg, I don't want my UI to change everytime I update firefox.
I tried and failed to use it for Google Meet quite a while ago. The problem I had was something to do with the AMD USB chipset. I need to try it again.
What doesn't work natively is anything with DRM. There are workarounds, like running Linux chrome in a linux jail (think WSL), or running spotifyd for Spotify.
- MacsHeadroom 6y agoHow much trouble is getting Nvidia to work on a BSD? I'm considering switching but I have a similarly high-end set up and it would be a shame to let that hardware go to waste.
- magic_quotes 6y agoNvidia is completely boring and predictable.
- bromonkey 6y agoWhich is exactly what you want for a reliable compute box.
- adrian_b 6y agoNVIDIA provides drivers for FreeBSD, like they do for Linux. The NVIDIA drivers work fine for graphics applications. Nevertheless NVIDIA CUDA is available only for Linux, so NVIDIA GPU compute applications do not work directly, but maybe only using the Linux compatibility layer (I have not tried that).
- drewg123 6y agoIts far less work than AMD or Intel drivers which depend on a massive Linux KPI shim layer. The nvidia drivers are a binary blob surrounded by a FreeBSD src-based shim layer. If you're running a -release branch, you just install the nvida driver pkg and you're done. If you run -current like I do (with no KBI guarantees) you re-build the nvidia port every time you update your OS. All in all, the nvidia drivers "just work" and are very boring. I'll pay a premium for boring.