Switching from Fedora to BSD could use advice reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tziuk · 2015-10-10 20:00 Hey, I've been a lifetime linux user, over the last few years using Fedora. I'm wanting to make the switch for a number of reasons, a few of those being: I want a more well tested reliable OS and better documentation so I don't have to turn to google all the time. I'm a software developer and having a solid platform that I can rely on is vital to my work as well as personal computing. I figured I'd probably go with openBSD as I'm care quite a lot about security, great docs and I use a lot of software which comes out of the openBSD project. The issues I think I'm going to come up against are hardware related, two machines: one is a macbook air (I believe the WIFI - Broadcom BCM4360, will be a paticular problem) and my desktop which has a Nvidia Geforce 970.GPU. Selling and buying up other hardware isn't really something that's possible right now for me. I'd like to run Gnome3 on both machines (though I suppose some other WM would be fine, for now). My question really is, is it feasible for me to switch at all given my hardware? If so would I have to compromise and go with FreeBSD given it has Nvidia support (not that I think FreeBSD is bad, it just seems from cursory reading openBSD would be a better fit)? Are there other considerations I should be taken into account prior to moving. NB: I'm a bit concerned about getting small wireless USB dongle type device as getting a good signal with them is usually a bit iffy and the macbook air only has 2 USB ports. Thanks! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dlangille · 2015-10-10 20:55 Try PC-BSD. I believe there is a version which will run off a thumb drive, so you can try before you install. Disclosure: I don't know for sure. http://www.pcbsd.org/en/download.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpitySnook · 2015-10-10 21:11 > I want a more well tested reliable OS Well, I like and use FreeBSD, but I don't know that you'll find what you're looking for. Fedora is extremely well tested compared to the BSDs, just by virtue of having a much larger user and developer community. On FreeBSD: In general there are a few differences / surprises coming from Linux. You'll use `pkg` instead of `yum` or `dnf`; ports/pkgs install in `/usr/local` instead of `/usr`; $HOME directories are typically in `/usr/home/`. Configuration lives in both `/etc` and `/usr/local/etc`; rc scripts in `/etc/rc.d/*` as well as `/usr/local/etc/rc.d/*`. Most system settings on FreeBSD are configured in `/etc/rc.conf` (`man 5 rc.conf`). There are some knobs in `/boot/loader.conf`; and compilation option knobs in `/etc/src.conf` and `/etc/make.conf`. Broadly speaking the BSD core command line utilities have fewer options and less '-h' documentation than their GNU counterparts. They tend to have solid manual pages, though. Some people think this is a feature; I don't. It is what it is. There are a few wholly incompatible utility/options between the two systems as well (`sed -i` is a good example). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tziuk · 2015-10-10 21:54 > Well, I like and use FreeBSD, but I don't know that you'll find what you're looking for. Fedora is extremely well tested compared to the BSDs, just by virtue of having a much larger user and developer community. Yeah it makes sense for major linux distributions to be more well tested, Fedora seems to change things pretty fast for example whilst I like selinux and I even think systemd can be okay (if not a bit of a monolith) but I've found incompatabilities and configuration qurks, updates which then break existing software (e.g. when redshift broke due to a geoclue update). Fedora is a good system, I just feel it's become a lot more flakey and less reliable, I've heard BSDs have a pretty solid base system and tend to only bring things in when they're done and won't break other things? (hopefully?). Thanks for your help in regard to the breakdown of differences. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BumpitySnook · 2015-10-10 23:54 > I've heard BSDs have a pretty solid base system and tend to only bring things in when they're done and won't break other things? I've *heard* that too. GNU coreutils/binutils, linux-tools-ng, etc are also pretty solid, despite the fragmented development model. I don't think one is obviously better than the other. Give BSD a shot, it's good. I just don't want to oversell it. :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- d_stick · 2015-10-11 00:34 Agreed. I've been a FreeBSD user since 3.2. Pcbsd is a nice friendly implementation without too many nuts and bolts showing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- i_have_reddit · 2015-10-11 09:17 If you still wanna stay in the Linux world, you might try something like Debian or Slackware. Both of them are extremely stable, although Slackware come with Gnome out of the box but there are third party projects (Dropline Gnome) for that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- daemonpenguin · 2015-10-11 12:40 PC-BSD does not have a live edition, however PC-BSD does have a feature at the beginner of the install process that allows you to check if your hardware is supported. So you can put in the USB/DVD, boot and, on the first screen that comes up, click the Hardware button. It'll show a list of detected hardware with a red "X" next to any that won't work. GhostBSD uses a FreeBSD core, like PC-BSD, and GhostBSD does offer a live desktop environment you can explore prior to installing. I would probably go with one of those as they will offer you the technology of FreeBSD with nice, graphical tools similar to Fedora. If neither of those work, perhaps try Debian or Linux Mint's Debian Edition. Those are very stable and are more likely to support your hardware. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tziuk · 2015-10-11 13:35 I might use that feature to check the hardware, I however probably won't go with those distributions if I do decide to go with FreeBSD, I prefer to read the documentation and understand how things are working and what is on my system, I think the regular releases from FreeBSD (or openBSD for example) would be much more appropriate for that. Thanks for the information though. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dlangille · 2015-10-11 17:51 That's a pity. A live thumb drive of PC-BSD might be useful, just for checking... Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- g_h_hardy · 2015-10-23 15:05 > when redshift broke due to a geoclue update I, too, have seen this. I had to resort to running `redshift-gtk -l manual` by hand. (Didn't happen on Debian, though.)