I've daily driven Linux all my life. Contemplating switching to FreeBSD now... reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind_lux · 2022-06-02 22:19 Why did you? Why do you think I should? What is FreeBSD's target audience? Do you have any questions about my software/hardware/experience? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- meefybeetwitch · 2022-06-02 22:44 I honestly wouldn't switch, be prepared for a lot less software, no drm, no steam etc. Depending what you do that can be annoying ---------------------------------------------------------------------- devenblake · 2022-06-02 22:46 > no drm > no steam Sign me up! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rdcldrmr · 2022-06-02 23:20 > What is FreeBSD's target audience? Generally speaking, enterprise customers with large storage needs. NetApp, Netflix, some backup service providers, etc. For a better discussion, you might want to mention why you're thinking about switching, what your needs are, and what you think is wrong with what you're using now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tambow44 · 2022-06-03 00:37 This. I run freeBSD extensively… as servers. It’s incredibly powerful in this space. Desktop? Not so much. It’s still quite clunky if you’re a “power user”. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen some amazing desktop installations on freebsd but it’s not something - I personally - am interested in spending time on. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VENTDEV · 2022-06-03 00:38 Uh, it isn't a "lot less software." Proprietary software will require a compatibility layer or an emulator. The DRM you're referring to is probably Widevine. It currently works in the Linux compatibility layer. Steam works in both the Linux compatibility layer and WINE. The latter of which is what many Steam Linux users are using to play games with these days anyway. Nearly everything FOSS is or has been ported to BSDs unless it has a lot of Linuxism or is heavily dependent on Poettering spaghetti. The only major workflow that I can think of that can't be done on FreeBSD is GPU passthrough to a virtual machine, but even that is currently in testing with bhyve and will probably make its way into FreeBSD 14. OP: Assuming your hardware works fine with FreeBSD and you can handle distros like Gentoo or Arch from scratch, you shouldn't have a problem using FreeBSD as a desktop. If you make heavy use of closed source software, you'll have to RTFM and fiddle with config files to get most everything to work via compatibility layers. There still might be some software that won't run. For example, if you need Maya for Linux, that might not work via Linux compat layer. But blender works fine... If you're a bog standard Ubuntu user, you might have a difficult time adapting to FreeBSD. If you make it through, you'll learn a lot about how Unix/Posix software works, including on Linux. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RandomXUsr · 2022-06-03 02:43 Love the BSD's but only one really made sense to me for desktop use, and that was PCBSD/TrueOS. now I can only use it for specialty purposes, such as router, storage server, and maybe for middle ware for some customers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GamingMaster991 · 2022-06-03 02:48 Freebsd uses more RAM than void Linux. If you go BSD and are prepared for less support, go openbsd. It is the lightest is thats usable by my standards. IN have it on all my servers ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Playful-Hat3710 · 2022-06-03 03:58 what is your use case? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jaypatelani · 2022-06-03 04:05 Check out GhostBSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kraileth · 2022-06-03 04:53 You are making a false assumption here: Using less RAM is not a good thing. Having lower requirements is! FreeBSD will work just fine on systems that are low on RAM and can be tuned to use little RAM. It's true though, that out-of-the-box it uses more RAM *if available.* FreeBSD has a different philosophy compared to Linux. You could sum it up as: "Free RAM is *wasted* RAM!". Therefore FreeBSD will happily use free RAM e.g. for caching purposes. This RAM can be freed quickly if the system actually needs it for something else as the data kept there is not important to hold (i.e. it could be fetched from disk, too). But as long as there's plenty of RAM available, using generous caching is a sensible thing: Why not boost system performance by making good use of it instead of keeping it "free"? Especially if you use ZFS, FreeBSD does this excessively (and generally with good success). Of course you could limit that to a rather low amount of memory if you really wanted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kraileth · 2022-06-03 05:23 FreeBSD is a *general purpose* OS, but people who are telling you that it has a strong server bias are telling the truth. Things are changing, though, and people also using on the desktop are on the rise (still it's a niche thing and will likely continue to be for some time). But don't let that scare you away. There actually *are* very valid reasons to daily-drive FreeBSD. I've made the switch both on my home machines and my laptop and workstation at work - and I won't be going back if I don't have to for a really good reason. If it might be for you is hard to say without knowing your use case. Why do you consider switching? If you want to take a good look beyond the Linux teacup (that's how it started for me after having used Linux for almost two decades, one of them as my exclusive system): Go for it! Daily-driving it for a month's time or something will make you familiar with its advantages and disadvantages quickly. At the end of your set time period you can decide whether you want to stay or not. Just be sure to share the problems you can't solve after you give up; it's entirely possible that what looks like it has no solution is actually doable. It's not as complicated as switching from Windows to Linux, but be open-minded and try to understand why things are like they are even if it feels strange at first. Chances are that you'll appreciate the different approach later. If your motivation is to "escape" some of the insanity that has prevailed in Linux as well as unlimited corporate power, FreeBSD could be for you. It has very different values; it follows the *cathedral* model instead of the bazaar, so evolution is somewhat slower but more organized and less chaotic. One point here is the *POLA*, the *Principle of Least Astonishment*. Once you understand some fundamental design decisions of the OS, FreeBSD tries hard not to surprise you. This is true both for when you venture into parts that you haven't ever touched, yet, and for future versions. When there's a problem with `ifconfig`, somebody will fix it. You won't suddenly find it being replaced with `iproute2` and the like. FreeBSD also has a core team instead of a BDFL. Core is elected democratically by all members of the FreeBSD project (be it source committers, ports committers or docs committers) and thus less prone to direct corporate influence. If you're looking for a complete operating system (vs. "kernel + a bunch of packages"), any of the BSDs is a great candidate. The projects controlling the source of the entire system has many benefits, not just in terms of consistency and stability. There's also not a whole jungle of distributions. In case you find out that something works on FreeBSD version x, then it works on FreeBSD version x. There's no: Works on Arch and maybe Gentoo, has been successfully done for Debian and Slackware by some, forget about it on CentOS if you want to keep your hair. If however you are primary interested in gaming - stay away. You *can* play games on FreeBSD and it's not half bad for some people, but this certainly is not its strong point. If you have any other reasons for it and want to play games as well, it *could* work. But things will be much easier if you target another platform. Hope that helps a little. If you have some questions I'll be happy to explain things further. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- abrahamzen · 2022-06-03 05:23 Go OpenBSD :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind_lux · 2022-06-03 05:43 Primarily gaming. I also code and commit to schoolwork, but primarily gaming. Keep in mind that I plan to daily-drive it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chesheersmile · 2022-06-03 08:07 I wouldn't agree. I use it on laptop with 4Gb of RAM. Have no issues running X11, libreoffice, browser and pdf viewer simultaneously (my usual workflow). Also, I'm using ZFS. AFAIK, FreeBSD caches more RAM to use it when needed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- j0holo · 2022-06-03 08:32 If you want a good gaming OS: Windows. It's the best OS for it. Linux with Proton/Wine is decent but Windows is the main target for every PC game ever made. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Mind_lux · 2022-06-03 08:54 I didn't switch from Windows to Linux to increase my gaming performance. I'm sorry for beginning a tangent here, but unlike a surprisingly large majority of Linux users, I switched because I disagree with the Microsoft ideology, and agree with the Linux philosophies immensely more, with my entire soul and being. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- j0holo · 2022-06-03 09:20 Oh, I can understand that you don't like how Microsoft collects data but there are scripts/tools that can block all data collection. I would stick with Linux for desktop if you don't want to use Windows for gaming (your primary use-case). FreeBSD (and OpenBSD) are great OSes but their focus is on servers. And Steam Proton is really good and not something FreeBSD has. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CNR_07 · 2022-06-03 10:07 GhostBSD is a nice OS. (and the only BSD that worked for me lol) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- CNR_07 · 2022-06-03 10:09 If that's what you want to do you might not be happy with BSD. If i was you i'd run Linux as the primary OS and use QEMU to virtualize BSD. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GamingMaster991 · 2022-06-03 10:57 Ah ok ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GamingMaster991 · 2022-06-03 10:59 Im used to lower memory systems, so thats why I said openbsd but ill keep this in mind ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NotHariasa · 2022-06-03 11:54 There's a thriving OpenBSD gaming community. On Reddit: [https://www.reddit.com/r/openbsd\_gaming/](https://www.red dit.com/r/openbsd_gaming/) On IRC: Libera #openbsd-gaming A small video taste of the possibilities: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05xVLyvc- sA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05xVLyvc-sA) In regards to using it as a daily driver, it seems most OpenBSD devs use OpenBSD as their daily driver, whereas it seemed a common perception at one point, that most FreeBSD guys ran different operating systems on their clients. Also: I think it is a huge benefit, that after installing OpenBSD you enter the X Windows System. Albeit in an old school fvwm2 environment, but it is running a graphical UI and you quickly install a different WM (e.g. i3, dvm) or DE (eg. xfce) if you want to. On FreeBSD you might have to fiddle around somewhat before you get a GUI (that's why people used to recommend GhostBSD or PCBSD, I believe). Only thing missing on OpenBSD is AAA gaming titles. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Playful-Hat3710 · 2022-06-03 16:43 If you mean the latest/newest high end games then IMO the BSD family of operating systems probably isn't ideal. Windows or some linux distros would be better for gaming. For all of the other things you mention, FreeBSD should be fine, unless your school has some proprietary software you have to use that bsd doesn't work well with. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Playful-Hat3710 · 2022-06-03 16:47 Well, for games, especially newer ones I would say Linux would be a better option then FreeBSD. Depends on the distro obviously. FreeBSD can do games, but it depends on which ones specifically. Maybe dual boot? So much of this depends on the specific hardware and if you mean older games or the newest AAA titles edit: for linux gaming I would consider OpenSuse (leap or tumbleweed depending on your hardware. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sehnsuchtbsd · 2022-06-03 20:53 > Why did you? Linux users, especially those coming fron Windows, often assume that Linux is a kimda mandatory step before ever consider jumping on the BSD board. That's a false assumption which typically leads to believe that BSDs need to provide the same functionality as Linux in order to be considered good operating systems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sehnsuchtbsd · 2022-06-03 20:57 > Only thing missing on OpenBSD is AAA gaming titles. Which is probably what OP is interested in, like most of people who put gaming as top priority making up their mind about their OS choice. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Updated_My_Journal · 2022-06-10 18:56 You're going to be 'philosophically' and 'ideologically' compromised by playing video games anyway, at the very least with their licensing and proprietary assets and code. Just segment that part of your life into Windows and daily drive *BSD or Linux. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- killa_fr0gg · 2022-06-16 13:59 Not necessarily. I view games as paintings, and do not concern myself with knowing exactly what goes into them except in those extreme cases where someone tries to mount a camera inside one. On the other hand, I view an OS as the wall upon which I may choose to hang a painting, and concern myself deeply with knowing exactly what that wall is made of and its inspectability and accountability thereof. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NoDimensionMind · 2022-06-20 12:37 I switched to FeeBSD from Linux. I'm old and like the history and originality of this UNIX variant. I also use Solaris for years but Oracle messed that up. ZFS is the best filesystem ever invented in my book which is another good reason to use BSD.