4 ms·

To be honest I don't really see a reason to use a *BSD system myself other than just for the sake of using something different and less mainstream. FreeBSD had

by mono442 11mo ago

To be honest I don't really see a reason to use a *BSD system myself other than just for the sake of using something different and less mainstream. FreeBSD had some advantages in the past but nowadays Linux has caught up in features.

PunchyHamster 11mo ago
BSD license so you don't have to upstream your stuff would be one. Tho it's not an advantage to *BSD systems, Linux near-forcing vendors to go mainline (as keeping separate kernel tree is PITA) did a lot of good in hardware support.
- graemep 11mo ago
  Not really a problem for users. Only for people who want to redistribute a fork. It matters if you are Apple or Sony, but not for most people. incidentally, the requirement of the GPL is not to upstream your stuff, but to offer to make the modified source available to anyone you distribute the code to. Often the same in practice, but does not have to be.
Gualdrapo 11mo ago
I feel like DragonflyBSD is really cool if you want to look at some BSD that offers some advantages and something unique to your day-to-day desktop usage. And I feel like their community is not as toxic as that of FreeBSD and OpenBSD with their holier-than-thou attitude towards Linux. I'd love it if Gentoo/BSD were a thing once again, I like the BSD concepts but there's nothing like Portage on BSD so far - afaik pkgsrc is nowhere close to it.
rixed 11mo ago
When I switched to FreeBSD, it was because of the quality of the documentation. In Linux manpages are a patchwork from various sources, and it shows; it's not rare for a manpage to be missing, obsolete, or to document another similar tool, or to be inacurrate... Much better than in many other OSes, but still nowhere as good as in FreeBSD. Now that I think of it, when I switched from DOS to Linux it was already because I found manpages amazing. Maybe I've just a soft spot for documentation.
deleted 11mo ago
[deleted]
rfmoz 11mo ago
The development move in ZFS from FreeBSD to OpenZFS (AKA Linux) was a mayor point on that.
DeathArrow 11mo ago
>To be honest I don't really see a reason to use a *BSD system myself I see some reasons: - the BSD license - the system is composed of pieces written to work together, it is built from start up as a coherent operating system as opposed to things cobbled together like other UNIX-like OS-es do
SoftTalker 11mo ago
To me the advantages are: simpler and more consistent configuration, less churn, better documentation, focus on security and secure-by-default. Yes if raw performance is your top priority, linux wins. But for a desktop or general-purpose server, that's not the most important thing for me.
f30e3dfed1c9 11mo ago
> To be honest I don't really see a reason to use a *BSD system myself I use FreeBSD+ZFS for storage servers. I definitely want to use ZFS for these and I don't think Linux+ZFS is as good a combination. It depends on what you want to do. If you want a typical laptop with a desktop environment, then FreeBSD might not be a good choice. Horses for courses.

by mono442 11mo ago

PunchyHamster 11mo ago

BSD license so you don't have to upstream your stuff would be one. Tho it's not an advantage to *BSD systems, Linux near-forcing vendors to go mainline (as keeping separate kernel tree is PITA) did a lot of good in hardware support.

graemep 11mo ago
Not really a problem for users. Only for people who want to redistribute a fork. It matters if you are Apple or Sony, but not for most people. incidentally, the requirement of the GPL is not to upstream your stuff, but to offer to make the modified source available to anyone you distribute the code to. Often the same in practice, but does not have to be.

Gualdrapo 11mo ago

I feel like DragonflyBSD is really cool if you want to look at some BSD that offers some advantages and something unique to your day-to-day desktop usage. And I feel like their community is not as toxic as that of FreeBSD and OpenBSD with their holier-than-thou attitude towards Linux. I'd love it if Gentoo/BSD were a thing once again, I like the BSD concepts but there's nothing like Portage on BSD so far - afaik pkgsrc is nowhere close to it.

rixed 11mo ago

When I switched to FreeBSD, it was because of the quality of the documentation. In Linux manpages are a patchwork from various sources, and it shows; it's not rare for a manpage to be missing, obsolete, or to document another similar tool, or to be inacurrate... Much better than in many other OSes, but still nowhere as good as in FreeBSD. Now that I think of it, when I switched from DOS to Linux it was already because I found manpages amazing. Maybe I've just a soft spot for documentation.

deleted 11mo ago

[deleted]

rfmoz 11mo ago

The development move in ZFS from FreeBSD to OpenZFS (AKA Linux) was a mayor point on that.

DeathArrow 11mo ago

>To be honest I don't really see a reason to use a *BSD system myself I see some reasons: - the BSD license - the system is composed of pieces written to work together, it is built from start up as a coherent operating system as opposed to things cobbled together like other UNIX-like OS-es do

SoftTalker 11mo ago

To me the advantages are: simpler and more consistent configuration, less churn, better documentation, focus on security and secure-by-default. Yes if raw performance is your top priority, linux wins. But for a desktop or general-purpose server, that's not the most important thing for me.

f30e3dfed1c9 11mo ago

> To be honest I don't really see a reason to use a *BSD system myself I use FreeBSD+ZFS for storage servers. I definitely want to use ZFS for these and I don't think Linux+ZFS is as good a combination. It depends on what you want to do. If you want a typical laptop with a desktop environment, then FreeBSD might not be a good choice. Horses for courses.