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I'm a FreeBSD desktop users since 2015 (and 1998->2007 before that), having used Ubuntu LTS as a desktop 2007->2015. What I miss most from Linux is apt/dpkg.

I'm a FreeBSD desktop users since 2015 (and 1998->2007 before that), having used Ubuntu LTS as a desktop 2007->2015. What I miss most from Linux is apt/dpkg. I think Ubuntu (debian really) does a fantastic job of packages. I love the stable set of packages + ppa's for when you need the latest version. FreeBSD basically has rolling release packages (even the quarterlies are rolling release). I've been screwed over so many times by some conflict on upgrade that the solver cannot satisfy, and this has left me without a working DE several times. Eg, the solver decided to delete kde because some package had a conflict. I may just be "lucky", but I never had these problems with ubuntu, even on distro upgrades. EDIT: The 7 years on Linux was due to a ports update leaving me without a working window system in 2007 or so. I gave up and just installed Linux. The pkg system has matured a lot since then, and I never, ever, do source based ports upgrades these days

eredengrin 5y ago
As a FreeBSD user I am always very frustrated with how out of date the ubuntu packages seem to be (particularly on the lts versions). There's also a surprising number of packages I use that are in FreeBSD repos by default that I have to go find an alternative for (ppa, appimage, compile from source myself, etc). I almost never have to do that on FreeBSD. That said, I hear you on the upgrades. I've never had an issue with FreeBSD pkg removing my DE (perhaps because I only use a basic window manager) but the video drivers have a habit of breaking across minor OS upgrades forcing me to compile myself from ports, and often not properly documented. Not too often but often enough to be an annoyance, and one of the reasons I'm considering a linux (certainly not ubuntu though, probably fedora or void).
- drewg123 5y ago
  I came back to FreeBSD when I started at Netflix. Given my "once burned, twice shy" feelings about the ports system, I came back only because FreeBSD has ZFS boot environments, which makes rolling back from a bad update trivial. I also ran PC-BSD at the time. They packaged stuff I cared about (eg, Firefox) with all dependencies, similar to how I understand NixOS works now.. This eventually faded out and became more like normal FreeBSD, and I finally converted to normal FreeBSD

eredengrin 5y ago

As a FreeBSD user I am always very frustrated with how out of date the ubuntu packages seem to be (particularly on the lts versions). There's also a surprising number of packages I use that are in FreeBSD repos by default that I have to go find an alternative for (ppa, appimage, compile from source myself, etc). I almost never have to do that on FreeBSD. That said, I hear you on the upgrades. I've never had an issue with FreeBSD pkg removing my DE (perhaps because I only use a basic window manager) but the video drivers have a habit of breaking across minor OS upgrades forcing me to compile myself from ports, and often not properly documented. Not too often but often enough to be an annoyance, and one of the reasons I'm considering a linux (certainly not ubuntu though, probably fedora or void).

drewg123 5y ago
I came back to FreeBSD when I started at Netflix. Given my "once burned, twice shy" feelings about the ports system, I came back only because FreeBSD has ZFS boot environments, which makes rolling back from a bad update trivial. I also ran PC-BSD at the time. They packaged stuff I cared about (eg, Firefox) with all dependencies, similar to how I understand NixOS works now.. This eventually faded out and became more like normal FreeBSD, and I finally converted to normal FreeBSD