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I've kept hearing about BSD recently, how hard is it to actually switch to? I'm guessing Linux executables don't work on it since it's not Linux, do all your pa

I've kept hearing about BSD recently, how hard is it to actually switch to? I'm guessing Linux executables don't work on it since it's not Linux, do all your packages have to be made specifically for BSD?

SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago
If you are asking, it’s not for you.
brewmarche 5mo ago
My experiences from dabbling with it a few months ago: In general everything needs to be compiled for FreeBSD, but the ports collection is quite extensive. For example you will find Firefox, wayland, GNOME, KDE, xfce, … even dotnet was on there. Problems arise with properietary stuff like Spotify, Widevine DRM etc. However, FreeBSD has a Linux emulation layer (providing syscalls), dubbed ‘Linuxulator’. I managed to run the Spotify Linux desktop client but the Spotify website wouldn’t let me log in, didn’t research further. AFAIK the emulator is limited though, not implementing all syscalls. There is also podman for FreeBSD and in addition to running FreeBSD containers (using Jails under the hood I guess?) it can run Linux containers as well (using the Linuxulator in addition then?). It also comes with a hypervisor called bhyve if you want to run VMs There is a handbook on their website describing how to set up a system (including desktop environment) if you want to give it a go.
- Melatonic 5mo ago
  I could be wrong but I think Jails are separate from containers on BSD?
  - brewmarche 5mo ago
    I thought that podman uses jails under the hood on FreeBSD, but it is a guess. The podman code seems to reference jails: <https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Acontainers%2Fpodman%20freebsd&type=code https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Acontainers%2Fpodman%20fre...> But jails of course are older and can be used on their own, I didn’t want to imply they’re the same thing
- wolvoleo 5mo ago
  For spotify, just use spotify-qt :) I don't think docker works in the linuxulator though. That's the one thing I miss sometimes.
wolvoleo 5mo ago
Yes they do but there's a team of maintainers that do just that. There's even ports of software which isn't officially supported on FreeBSD.

SV_BubbleTime 5mo ago

If you are asking, it’s not for you.

brewmarche 5mo ago

My experiences from dabbling with it a few months ago: In general everything needs to be compiled for FreeBSD, but the ports collection is quite extensive. For example you will find Firefox, wayland, GNOME, KDE, xfce, … even dotnet was on there. Problems arise with properietary stuff like Spotify, Widevine DRM etc. However, FreeBSD has a Linux emulation layer (providing syscalls), dubbed ‘Linuxulator’. I managed to run the Spotify Linux desktop client but the Spotify website wouldn’t let me log in, didn’t research further. AFAIK the emulator is limited though, not implementing all syscalls. There is also podman for FreeBSD and in addition to running FreeBSD containers (using Jails under the hood I guess?) it can run Linux containers as well (using the Linuxulator in addition then?). It also comes with a hypervisor called bhyve if you want to run VMs There is a handbook on their website describing how to set up a system (including desktop environment) if you want to give it a go.

Melatonic 5mo ago
I could be wrong but I think Jails are separate from containers on BSD?
- brewmarche 5mo ago
  I thought that podman uses jails under the hood on FreeBSD, but it is a guess. The podman code seems to reference jails: <https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Acontainers%2Fpodman%20freebsd&type=code https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Acontainers%2Fpodman%20fre...> But jails of course are older and can be used on their own, I didn’t want to imply they’re the same thing
wolvoleo 5mo ago
For spotify, just use spotify-qt :) I don't think docker works in the linuxulator though. That's the one thing I miss sometimes.

wolvoleo 5mo ago

Yes they do but there's a team of maintainers that do just that. There's even ports of software which isn't officially supported on FreeBSD.