3 ms·

FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD are for servers, appliance servers and embedded devices mostly. You can use them as a desktop, but that's not where their strengths

FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD are for servers, appliance servers and embedded devices mostly. You can use them as a desktop, but that's not where their strengths are. If you want to learn or use FreeBSD in this case I strongly suggest setting up a home server and learn as much as possible.

SoftTalker 4y ago
I've used OpenBSD as my desktop OS for the last 10 years or so. I agree it's probably not the ideal desktop OS for everyone, but I think your dismissal may be a bit too strong. You do need to be sure your desktop machine is well-suited for OpenBSD. This means supported Intel or AMD graphics (Nvidia won't work well if at all, and not all AMD will either) and network/wifi card.
- sicp-enjoyer 4y ago
  Do you do a lot of customization, or use a special desktop environment, or do you stick with the base stuff?
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    I use awesome for a window manager. Other than that and a few color/font tweaks, it's pretty much stock. https://awesomewm.org/ https://awesomewm.org/ Most of what I do happens in a browser, terminal, or emacs.
beezle 4y ago
If the user has run of the mill hardware, that only is true in the sense that FreeBSD does not offer to install a desktop environment at time of initial install/setup. Nothing precludes you from installing Gnome, KDE, or any of the many others. IE pkg install gnome. The only place FreeBSD (or any of the other BSDs) is less robust is driver support, though most common stuff is available. In any event, those needing support for the latest greatest of hardware are probably better of with Windows.