How to start, and should I? reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 08:24 I'm a high school student and bsd, specifically freebsd, has peaked my interest lately, I'm currently running linux, and I'm wondering if bsd is for me. I like how organized the user-space is (I don't know if this is just a buzzword or not but bsd seems much less chaotic than linux) and how it isn't as political as gnu/linux. Especially in the quarantine, my way of hanging out with friends, if not possible in real life, is gaming. I know gaming is a waste of time and I'm really just there to talk, I would probably be able to give up gaming if I was still able to find a chat platform that I can talk to my friends with. (we're using discord now but from what I know, it is not compatible with any of the bsds, and I'm okay with that because I don't really like discord) Is there any plausible chat platforms available for me and my friends on bsd? (they use windows) All of my work is online through online office, so school work will not be a problem if I make the switch. I love learning about computer systems and all things \*nix, and I am looking at a career as system administration or in IT. If someone could get back to me about my inquiries, that would be great! edit: I'm currently running a Thinkpad x230, so I don't think that hardware compatibility will be a problem, but please correct me if I'm wrong. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- viktormadarasz · 2020-04-17 08:39 jitsi meet videochat free open source or Matrix ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moboforro · 2020-04-17 08:41 Hi, linux guy here who also loves unices and bsds. Bsds, from my perspective are great to learn unix internals and to see a different point of view. I've used FreeBSD from time to time and I am quite happy with the status of that project. That said, the BSDs don't benefit from any big names money and because of that they suffer from a lack of support on several things that are considered normal on other platforms. Go ahead and try FreeBSD on your laptop and you'll see what I mean. Things as simple as "suspend" are a bit wacky as you will find out. But I still consider FreeBSD an interesting experiment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 08:46 I was thinking that a good way to learn about bsd would be creating a bootable system on a usb stick. So I wouldn't have to install it on my hard drive, but it might be a little more realistic(?) than a vm, or do you think I should just go with a vm? edit: I also considered it because bootable flash-drive systems are cool. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moboforro · 2020-04-17 08:48 Well ideally you would want to try it on real hardware at some point but yes , if you want to play with it in a safe way even a vm will do. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 08:53 Yeah you're right I should probably try on real hardware at some point, thanks for getting back to me. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 08:55 I'll look into that, thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- moboforro · 2020-04-17 08:58 Np. Just be warned that things that are easy on some linux distro won't be that easy in BSDs. Think Arch kinda hard or sometime Gentoo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 09:06 Yeah I’m okay with that, I’m using arch rn (I don’t mean to be that guy or anything.) But I find the minimal installs like Arch or Debian’s net install a good way to get acquainted with the os/distro. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gnemmi · 2020-04-17 09:21 If you like minimal installs (bare OS) I would highly recommend you to give DragonFlyBSD live USB img a try. Its a r+w img .. so whatever edits and configs you do on the USB img will be persistent across reboots (think setting up your Wi-Fi card for instance). Now .. if you'd like a full blown desktop ready to go on a USB pen drive, FuryBSD, NomandBSD and GhostBSD are the most solid candidates. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PsychologicalTortois · 2020-04-17 09:48 Install qemu, make a few VMs, install, delete, reinstall, upgrade {Free,Open,Net}BSD, play around, break and fix. This is how you learn. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tiredinmyhead · 2020-04-17 15:47 There's also NomadBSD, which is designed to be run as a live image. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2020-04-17 16:52 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- batman_carlos · 2020-04-17 17:13 In the 90's I was in school like you and I felt I need to choose btw windows or linux/bsd. You don't have to do it. You can have both installed and play with your friend with windows and do the rest in \*nix. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mgladiethor · 2020-04-17 17:40 and interest will fade, linux is better in almost everyway ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 18:08 Yeah I just now found out there is a browser client for discord, so that would make it much easier to chat w/ friends when not gaming. I will probably dual boot windows and bsd once school gets out, I'm a bit too busy with online work right now for switching now to be practical. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- wombleh · 2020-04-17 18:09 Same here, love FreeBSD and used it on servers in the past. Decided to try it again recently and found it doesn’t support the WiFi chipset in my 8 year old thinkpad. IMO the best way to play is to spin it up in a VM, I use virtualbox but should run fine in any of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 18:10 For the time being, that is probably what I'll experiment with, I'm a bit too busy right now to mess with installing a new OS and getting everything configured on my hard drive with online school and everything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mihaua · 2020-04-17 19:26 Telegram works fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mihaua · 2020-04-17 19:45 You right the point is in "politics", I ll better say in "phylosofy", clearly build system, quality, performance. Phylosofy is to be more permissive & democracy then agressive gnu. Bsd more pro grade, stable, documented - and this is the cause of its strict requirements to compatibility and license purity. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 20:00 Interest in bsd will fade? I'm not sure I understand your comment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ShaneFishes05 · 2020-04-17 20:04 Yeah gnu/linux (mainly gnu) has always seemed super aggressive about non-free software and not using the gpl license. IMO, the gpl seems very unrealistic if foss ever becomes mainstream. I like how bsd takes a more practical approach to software. I don't really have a problem with non-free software, although I definitely prefer it over non-free software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- eg_taco · 2020-04-18 00:02 Piqued* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jdrch · 2020-04-18 07:57 You should, but on a cheap used PC. Use FuryBSD to get a DE going and then go from there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- batman_carlos · 2020-04-18 11:31 Computers today are super powerful you can use virtual machines too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- crocflamingo · 2020-04-21 01:02 You can use discord in a browser, I don't know of any good alternatives to discord though.