4 ms·

Can I just install it on my laptop, and expect that I'll have graphics, hardware acceleration, wifi, suspend/hibernate out of the box? (There was the live hurd

by bmacho 3y ago

Can I just install it on my laptop, and expect that I'll have graphics, hardware acceleration, wifi, suspend/hibernate out of the box? (There was the live hurd distribution ArchHURD that offered exactly this, I could just put the CD in, and then I had a familiar system with gnome, firefox and such.) I know there was ghostBSD and desktopBSD for this in the past, but I am not sure what is recommended today?

Gualdrapo 3y ago
Maybe you can try NomadBSD[0]: > NomadBSD is a persistent live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD®. Together with automatic hardware detection and setup, it is configured to be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery, for educational purposes, or to test FreeBSD®'s hardware compatibility. Though I am not sure when/if it will be rebased to this new release of FreeBSD. [0] https://www.nomadbsd.org/ https://www.nomadbsd.org/
- e12e 3y ago
  >> Though I am not sure when/if it will be rebased to this new release of FreeBSD. >> [0] https://www.nomadbsd.org/ https://www.nomadbsd.org/ > Current Version > 140R-20231121 Seems to be on 14?
exitb 3y ago
Impossibile to tell, I've tried Free, Open and NetBSD on my older ThinkPad and surprisingly OpenBSD turned out to have the best out-of-the-box compatibility. It seemed however to be the worst performance-wise with fans going crazy whenever a browser is opened up. I ended up with Linux.
gosub100 3y ago
If your laptop is 8-10+ years old, surprisingly yes (not sure about the suspend/hibernate part, I doubt it). I tried to recycle a friend's 2 older laptops and most everything worked out of the box. I even installed the "Chicago" Theme (looks like win95) [1] for ease of use. 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpaSXca-tEs&t=214s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpaSXca-tEs&t=214s
- agapon 3y ago
  Minus hibernate, of course.
tambourine_man 3y ago
You are very lucky to be able to do that even with Linux.
- WolfeReader 3y ago
  I've been "very lucky" with five computers in a row now, for almost a decade. Linux is actually a good, reliable desktop OS these days.
  - 1attice 3y ago
    > I've been "very lucky" with five computers in a row now, for almost a decade. Linux is actually a good, reliable desktop OS these days. This. I've been using Linux as a primary OS across all my devices for about twenty-five years. This comprises half a dozen Raspberry Pi 4s, two laptops and a monster workstation (AMD|Intel x86_64; ASUS, Dell, and ASUS, respectively.) I used to have enormous linux compat problems with laptops as a matter of course, and I earned my stripes doing custom kernel compiles with patches, etc. The last time I had to do this was, I think, 2016 or so. In particular, the past half-decade's worth of installs have all Just Worked -- at least, after I turn off Secure Boot.
    - tambourine_man 3y ago
      My feeling is that after you’ve compiled your kernel a few times, everything just works because you learned to debug it the hard way and it seems easy now. What I understand as “just works” is having a webcam, bluetooth, audio, graphic acceleration, hibernation, wifi, media keys, etc, all working when you first boot after the install.
      - 1attice 3y ago
        literally, that is now the case. Did you not read my post.
        tambourine_man 3y ago
cies 3y ago
> not sure what is recommended today? I'd recommend using *BSD with a VM on top of Linux.
vermaden 3y ago
Mostly yes. ThinkPad T14 for example: - https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/05/14/freebsd-13-2-on-thinkpad-t14-gen1/ https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/05/14/freebsd-13-2-on-th... More laptop models: - https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops Being on you place I would try GhostBSD or NomadBSD - DistroWatch just made a nice review: - https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20231127#ghostbsd https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20231127#ghostbsd Regards.

by bmacho 3y ago

Gualdrapo 3y ago

Maybe you can try NomadBSD[0]: > NomadBSD is a persistent live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD®. Together with automatic hardware detection and setup, it is configured to be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery, for educational purposes, or to test FreeBSD®'s hardware compatibility. Though I am not sure when/if it will be rebased to this new release of FreeBSD. [0] https://www.nomadbsd.org/ https://www.nomadbsd.org/

e12e 3y ago
>> Though I am not sure when/if it will be rebased to this new release of FreeBSD. >> [0] https://www.nomadbsd.org/ https://www.nomadbsd.org/ > Current Version > 140R-20231121 Seems to be on 14?

exitb 3y ago

Impossibile to tell, I've tried Free, Open and NetBSD on my older ThinkPad and surprisingly OpenBSD turned out to have the best out-of-the-box compatibility. It seemed however to be the worst performance-wise with fans going crazy whenever a browser is opened up. I ended up with Linux.

gosub100 3y ago

If your laptop is 8-10+ years old, surprisingly yes (not sure about the suspend/hibernate part, I doubt it). I tried to recycle a friend's 2 older laptops and most everything worked out of the box. I even installed the "Chicago" Theme (looks like win95) [1] for ease of use. 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpaSXca-tEs&t=214s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpaSXca-tEs&t=214s

agapon 3y ago
Minus hibernate, of course.

tambourine_man 3y ago

You are very lucky to be able to do that even with Linux.

WolfeReader 3y ago
I've been "very lucky" with five computers in a row now, for almost a decade. Linux is actually a good, reliable desktop OS these days.
- 1attice 3y ago
  > I've been "very lucky" with five computers in a row now, for almost a decade. Linux is actually a good, reliable desktop OS these days. This. I've been using Linux as a primary OS across all my devices for about twenty-five years. This comprises half a dozen Raspberry Pi 4s, two laptops and a monster workstation (AMD|Intel x86_64; ASUS, Dell, and ASUS, respectively.) I used to have enormous linux compat problems with laptops as a matter of course, and I earned my stripes doing custom kernel compiles with patches, etc. The last time I had to do this was, I think, 2016 or so. In particular, the past half-decade's worth of installs have all Just Worked -- at least, after I turn off Secure Boot.
  - tambourine_man 3y ago
    My feeling is that after you’ve compiled your kernel a few times, everything just works because you learned to debug it the hard way and it seems easy now. What I understand as “just works” is having a webcam, bluetooth, audio, graphic acceleration, hibernation, wifi, media keys, etc, all working when you first boot after the install.
    - 1attice 3y ago
      literally, that is now the case. Did you not read my post.
      - tambourine_man 3y ago

cies 3y ago

> not sure what is recommended today? I'd recommend using *BSD with a VM on top of Linux.

vermaden 3y ago

Mostly yes. ThinkPad T14 for example: - https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/05/14/freebsd-13-2-on-thinkpad-t14-gen1/ https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2023/05/14/freebsd-13-2-on-th... More laptop models: - https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops Being on you place I would try GhostBSD or NomadBSD - DistroWatch just made a nice review: - https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20231127#ghostbsd https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20231127#ghostbsd Regards.