4 ms·

> I would recommend FreeBSD to anyone wanting to jump out of the Linux bandwagon As a desktop OS?

by zvmaz 3y ago

doublerabbit 3y ago
Totally, it's my daily driver. I now only reboot to Windows if I feel like gaming. Proton is available too. I use Xfce and Nvidia drivers on a 3060 but AMD worked too when I was using an 5700 XT. Processor: Ryzen 5950X - no issues Sound, I'm using a PreSonus via USB Ethernet (realtek) too works nicely. WiFi I've not attempted but probably would. Can't fault it.
- jasaldivara 3y ago
  What advantages do you find over Linux?
  - torstenvl 3y ago
    You know how there's a constant stream of weird things Linux does that annoy and confuse you? Like .sudo_as_admin_successful showing up in your home directory with no way to turn it off and nothing really documented anywhere? Or being afraid to upgrade because you don't know which method won't clobber your custom kernel modules? That stuff happens a lot less on FreeBSD.
    - BirAdam 3y ago
      You can get rid of a lot of unexpected behavior just by using Slackware. I like the BSDs, but I also like having broader hardware and software compatibility.
      - torstenvl 3y ago
        Sure. I'm not married to the FreeBSD kernel, but to the BSD approach generally. If someone did the opposite of Debian/kFreeBSD I would be interested. FreeBSD/kLinux?
        yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
        Chimera Linux?
      - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
        > Since its first beta release in April of 1993, the Slackware Linux Project has aimed at producing the most "UNIX-like" Linux distribution out there. - http://www.slackware.com/info/ http://www.slackware.com/info/ A person could reasonably argue that Slackware was always a BSD that happened to use the Linux kernel:)
    - 79a6ed87 3y ago
      I've only seen that in Debian-based or Ubuntu-based distributions
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    It's not Linux. I have more than one gripe with Linux and FreeBSD free those. Yes Linux can do all those things but that's not the reason here. The kernel feels solid and bHyve is a goddess. Jails are great for running isolated browsers with sound.
    - livrem 3y ago
      > bHyve is a goddess Does it work well with graphics? I just started using FreeBSD and one of the first thing I did was to follow the Handbook instructions to set up a minimal Debian in Bhyve that I then used to access my old Linux partitions to copy files. Works very well for that and I have no complaints, but I also can't say I noticed any major improvement over Qemu? But I made a quick attempt to also install something with graphics, probably Lubuntu, and I did not get that to boot. Is the graphics good enough to play games and run some Linux-only applications with reasonable performance?
      - doublerabbit 3y ago
        The hypervisor is not enterprise like VMware where you can easily pass 3D accelerated adapters. But it's still very usable over remote-desktop. Windows Server works a charm, as does Linux Desktops via VNC or whatever remote protocol you use. You can pass though hardware devices including graphic cards but you need to have it as a secondary and unused. bHyve is unable to use the primary card as well as a shared device for the guest.
        wkat4242 3y ago
        Yeah the thing is that bhyve doesn't seem to have an emulated console like the other virtualization solutions out there. That makes things a little more cumbersome. I'm not even talking about 3D passthrough. Just a fake VGA adapter you can see in a window so you can run an installer.
        ptx 3y ago
        It provides a graphical console over VNC: https://github.com/churchers/vm-bhyve/wiki/UEFI-Graphics-(VNC) https://github.com/churchers/vm-bhyve/wiki/UEFI-Graphics-(VN...
drewg123 3y ago
I've used it as my desktop OS since 1999 or so (first on FreeBSD's DEC Alpha port, so as to eat my on dogfood as I was one of the main contributors to the alpha port), with a brief detour running Ubuntu Linux on x86 when I was doing almost 100% linux work from 2010-2015 or so. I run very basic GPU (GTX 750), use ZFS for everything, run lxde, and use linux firefox as my main web browser (via the LinuxJails project at https://wiki.freebsd.org/LinuxJails https://wiki.freebsd.org/LinuxJails). For day-to-day use its nearly the same as linux, and runs nearly the same apps as linux. The biggest frustration I have is "linux recipes" for doing things often don't work (naturally, since the OS is different), and electron apps are a crapshoot, since the electron is chrome, and the emulation needed for chrome is incomplete. For example, I'm listening to spotify right now and I can listen to playlists, but can't just play a song.. EDIT: One the things I loved about Ubuntu LTS is the packages being essentially frozen, aside from security fixes. FreeBSD is a "rolling release" OS for 3rd party packages, even on stable branches. That's one of the reasons that I use the ubuntu LTS firefox ... I can apt-get update & apt-get upgrade just the web browser and its dependencies, rather than the 1700 unrelated packages that I'd need to update just to get the newest firefox.
- CoolCold 3y ago
  You are probably the first FreeBSD guy who understands [and likes] the LTS option one can get with Linux world. Many from FreeBSD crowd just don't get the plain idea of LTS at all. Kudos!
- wkat4242 3y ago
  Vscode is also Electron and works great though. Chromium itself too. For Spotify I use spotify-qt which is ok (not great) though with the latest version from ports it refuses to store my password in the KDE keychain any longer :( Ps I actually love the rolling packages on FreeBSD while keeping a stable OS. On Linux these things are usually coupled. You can however change FreeBSD to quarterly updated packages if you so desire. Just set it to the quarterly branch instead of latest.
  - drewg123 3y ago
    I use spotifyd and control the music from my phone most of the time. I mostly don't care if I have the latest version of libfoo, but I do care that I have the latest version of anything exposed to the internet (eg, firefox), and any security updates required to libfoo. What I hate is when I do a pkg update; pkg upgrade firefox and it pulls in 1000+ pkg updates via dependency chains, some of which change how things work. That's why I like the linux jail approach. Back in the old days (early/mid 2000s) when things were simpler, I still ran linux web browsers for the same reason. I could just download the tarball from mozilla or opera or whatever and update to the latest browser binary without taking a chance on fubar'ing my system.

> I would recommend FreeBSD to anyone wanting to jump out of the Linux bandwagon As a desktop OS?

by zvmaz 3y ago

> I would recommend FreeBSD to anyone wanting to jump out of the Linux bandwagon As a desktop OS?

Totally, it's my daily driver. I now only reboot to Windows if I feel like gaming. Proton is available too. I use Xfce and Nvidia drivers on a 3060 but AMD worked too when I was using an 5700 XT. Processor: Ryzen 5950X - no issues Sound, I'm using a PreSonus via USB Ethernet (realtek) too works nicely. WiFi I've not attempted but probably would. Can't fault it.

jasaldivara 3y ago
What advantages do you find over Linux?
- torstenvl 3y ago
  You know how there's a constant stream of weird things Linux does that annoy and confuse you? Like .sudo_as_admin_successful showing up in your home directory with no way to turn it off and nothing really documented anywhere? Or being afraid to upgrade because you don't know which method won't clobber your custom kernel modules? That stuff happens a lot less on FreeBSD.
  - BirAdam 3y ago
    You can get rid of a lot of unexpected behavior just by using Slackware. I like the BSDs, but I also like having broader hardware and software compatibility.
    - torstenvl 3y ago
      Sure. I'm not married to the FreeBSD kernel, but to the BSD approach generally. If someone did the opposite of Debian/kFreeBSD I would be interested. FreeBSD/kLinux?
      - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
        Chimera Linux?
    - yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
      > Since its first beta release in April of 1993, the Slackware Linux Project has aimed at producing the most "UNIX-like" Linux distribution out there. - http://www.slackware.com/info/ http://www.slackware.com/info/ A person could reasonably argue that Slackware was always a BSD that happened to use the Linux kernel:)
  - 79a6ed87 3y ago
    I've only seen that in Debian-based or Ubuntu-based distributions
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  It's not Linux. I have more than one gripe with Linux and FreeBSD free those. Yes Linux can do all those things but that's not the reason here. The kernel feels solid and bHyve is a goddess. Jails are great for running isolated browsers with sound.
  - livrem 3y ago
    > bHyve is a goddess Does it work well with graphics? I just started using FreeBSD and one of the first thing I did was to follow the Handbook instructions to set up a minimal Debian in Bhyve that I then used to access my old Linux partitions to copy files. Works very well for that and I have no complaints, but I also can't say I noticed any major improvement over Qemu? But I made a quick attempt to also install something with graphics, probably Lubuntu, and I did not get that to boot. Is the graphics good enough to play games and run some Linux-only applications with reasonable performance?
    - doublerabbit 3y ago
      The hypervisor is not enterprise like VMware where you can easily pass 3D accelerated adapters. But it's still very usable over remote-desktop. Windows Server works a charm, as does Linux Desktops via VNC or whatever remote protocol you use. You can pass though hardware devices including graphic cards but you need to have it as a secondary and unused. bHyve is unable to use the primary card as well as a shared device for the guest.
      - wkat4242 3y ago
        Yeah the thing is that bhyve doesn't seem to have an emulated console like the other virtualization solutions out there. That makes things a little more cumbersome. I'm not even talking about 3D passthrough. Just a fake VGA adapter you can see in a window so you can run an installer.
        ptx 3y ago
        It provides a graphical console over VNC: https://github.com/churchers/vm-bhyve/wiki/UEFI-Graphics-(VNC) https://github.com/churchers/vm-bhyve/wiki/UEFI-Graphics-(VN...

drewg123 3y ago

I've used it as my desktop OS since 1999 or so (first on FreeBSD's DEC Alpha port, so as to eat my on dogfood as I was one of the main contributors to the alpha port), with a brief detour running Ubuntu Linux on x86 when I was doing almost 100% linux work from 2010-2015 or so. I run very basic GPU (GTX 750), use ZFS for everything, run lxde, and use linux firefox as my main web browser (via the LinuxJails project at https://wiki.freebsd.org/LinuxJails https://wiki.freebsd.org/LinuxJails). For day-to-day use its nearly the same as linux, and runs nearly the same apps as linux. The biggest frustration I have is "linux recipes" for doing things often don't work (naturally, since the OS is different), and electron apps are a crapshoot, since the electron is chrome, and the emulation needed for chrome is incomplete. For example, I'm listening to spotify right now and I can listen to playlists, but can't just play a song.. EDIT: One the things I loved about Ubuntu LTS is the packages being essentially frozen, aside from security fixes. FreeBSD is a "rolling release" OS for 3rd party packages, even on stable branches. That's one of the reasons that I use the ubuntu LTS firefox ... I can apt-get update & apt-get upgrade just the web browser and its dependencies, rather than the 1700 unrelated packages that I'd need to update just to get the newest firefox.

CoolCold 3y ago
You are probably the first FreeBSD guy who understands [and likes] the LTS option one can get with Linux world. Many from FreeBSD crowd just don't get the plain idea of LTS at all. Kudos!
wkat4242 3y ago
Vscode is also Electron and works great though. Chromium itself too. For Spotify I use spotify-qt which is ok (not great) though with the latest version from ports it refuses to store my password in the KDE keychain any longer :( Ps I actually love the rolling packages on FreeBSD while keeping a stable OS. On Linux these things are usually coupled. You can however change FreeBSD to quarterly updated packages if you so desire. Just set it to the quarterly branch instead of latest.
- drewg123 3y ago
  I use spotifyd and control the music from my phone most of the time. I mostly don't care if I have the latest version of libfoo, but I do care that I have the latest version of anything exposed to the internet (eg, firefox), and any security updates required to libfoo. What I hate is when I do a pkg update; pkg upgrade firefox and it pulls in 1000+ pkg updates via dependency chains, some of which change how things work. That's why I like the linux jail approach. Back in the old days (early/mid 2000s) when things were simpler, I still ran linux web browsers for the same reason. I could just download the tarball from mozilla or opera or whatever and update to the latest browser binary without taking a chance on fubar'ing my system.