Linux user looking for right BSD on old laptop reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 11:21 Hey. I was wondering what the best BSD OS/distribution would be for my pretty basic usecase: I have an old laptop, thats currently running alpine linux. I mainly use it as a terminal(x and ssh) and just some light text editing and web browsing. So my requirements are basically just a decent WM and Firefox, ideally WIFI would work, but I can live with Ethernet too. I was just curious about trying BSD, and I don't see any issues with such old hardware. My main question is about package management: which BSD has the largest library of available, as recent as possible software without building from source(I'm fine with building some stuff myself, its just pretty painful on this laptop cause it likes to overheat)? Side question: is there any equivalent/port of Linux's nouveau driver for nvidia GPUs or would I have to use the proprietary one(its a 520m) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryunosuke_TSOU · 2023-07-20 11:46 FreeBSD, it has Bluetooth support and Linux binary compatibility layer, this two make transitional face from Linux to BSD a lot smoother. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 11:59 I'm not planning on moving completely, this is just an old laptop I use as a terminal. But from what I've heard FreeBSD has the largest amount of software available of the BSDs, so thats gonna be it most likely. Do you know whether there is a FOSS video driver for nvidia? I don't really want to install proprietary software if I don't have to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ryunosuke_TSOU · 2023-07-20 12:04 I don’t know about this since I don’t use Nvidia graphics card, but for any additional appreciation or driver you want, you could look up at [freshport](https://www.freshports.org/) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dancorbe · 2023-07-20 12:06 > Do you know whether there is a FOSS video driver for nvidia? There is but it doesn't work as well as the nVidia binary driver. What model laptop is it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 12:11 Sadly couldn't find anything, only discussion from a year ago where people said that a port of nouveau was unlikely. Which is why i asked. Sort of sucks cause this card is only supported by 333 and earlier, and I had issues with drivers this old on linux, which is why im using nouveau in the first place. Let's hope they'll work fine. Apparently there is nouveau for netbsd, so I might try that if have issues with the proprietary one. Even though I'm not looking forward to building mesa. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 12:12 Its an old(first gen Intel core) Samsung with a 520m. I had pretty big issues with x11 and the proprietary driver in linux, which is why I asked in the first place. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dancorbe · 2023-07-20 12:26 The nvidia-driver packages is currently the recommended way to get nVidia cards working on FreeBSD. Your mileage may vary. I've had problems with this driver on Thinkpads, which is, generally speaking, why I run OpenBSD instead. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 12:30 I'll just try both and see what works better for me. Thx for your help ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jaypatelani · 2023-07-20 13:40 https://twitter.com/vmisev/status/1681459285874839552 probably proprietary ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gumnos · 2023-07-20 13:46 My "old laptop" and your "old laptop" may have vastly different specs, so it's hard to tell unless you provide further details (particularly RAM, but CPU and disk-type would be useful, too) Firefox (or chrome/chromium/ungoogled-chromium) is the biggest wild- card in the picture. Modern browsers consume RAM like there's no tomorrow, so if your system doesn't have much, the choice of OS won't make much difference. That said, any of the big three (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD) should suffice. Choose an adequately light-weight WM (I'm a big fan of `fluxbox`, though sometimes use `cwm` configured about the same way when on OpenBSD because it comes installed out of the box and can do ~95% of what I do in fluxbox) instead of something heavier like KDE or Gnome and you should be fine. In terms of performance/resources, I give a slight edge to FreeBSD for making the best use of better hardware. But I've found you can take OpenBSD & NetBSD down to much lower-end hardware with fewer concerns (FreeBSD gasped and wheezed on a system with 512MB of RAM where Open & Net both ran fine). For package support, FreeBSD is the top contender, but unless there's some particular niche package you want, I've rarely gone reaching for something on my OpenBSD machines that wasn't in the package repo. Fortunately, it sounds like this is a junker laptop and you'd have no qualms installing one, experimenting, repaving it with another, experimenting, and repeating until you found some setup that worked for you. Which is what I'd recommend. :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AhmedNabilG · 2023-07-20 13:46 you can try ghostbsd it's based on freebsd but have live iso with mate desktop and can trying it without install it ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 13:56 I don't want smth like that tbh. I want the most minimal system. I'm not a fan of large linux isos either. Arch or debian netinstall with the tui installer is where its at. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 13:57 Its got enough ram for web browsing and I'll probably use openbox or i3 depending on my mood that day. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dnabre · 2023-07-20 14:17 As far as nvidia gpu, FreeBSD has lots of support. That means is a bit mixed, for example, in ports we have >x11/linux-nvidia-libs NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version) x11/linux-nvidia-libs-304 NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version) x11/linux-nvidia-libs-340 NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version) x11/linux-nvidia-libs-390 NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version) x11/linux-nvidia-libs-470 NVidia graphics libraries and programs (Linux version) x11/nvidia-driver NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering x11/nvidia-driver-304 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering x11/nvidia-driver-340 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering x11/nvidia-driver-390 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering x11/nvidia-driver-470 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering x11/nvidia-hybrid-graphics NVIDIA secondary GPU configuration - Optimus Technology support x11/nvidia-hybrid-graphics NVIDIA secondary GPU configuration - Optimus Technology support x11/nvidia-secondary-driver NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering on secondary device x11/nvidia-secondary-driver-390 NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering on secondary device x11/nvidia-settings Display Control Panel for X NVidia driver Figuring out which version you need is more effort than it should be, but generally with some googling you can figure it out. There are fallbacks for generic framebuffer of EFI graphics as well, which for your uses may perform well enough . In general, FreeBSD has more support for the odder things you'll find in a laptop, and has the widest software support, especially when you factor in Linux Emulation. Odd personal experience note: The program I use Linux Emulation for the most is oddly enough for Java. Not because FreeBSD doesn't have full support for a variety of different JRE/JDK distributions, but I keep running into to closed-source java programs that just check if they are on Linux/MacOS/Windows and refuse to run regardless. ​ In ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chesheersmile · 2023-07-20 14:30 I would say OpenBSD, but as we talk about nVidia GPU and number of binary packages, then it probably would be FreeBSD. P.S. Also, it's always a good time to quote Linus and say:"F**k you, nVidia!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 15:12 True. I'm quite happy to not have a nvidia gpu on any of my daily drivers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 15:15 I probably won't need any sort of linux emulation at all, since I just need a terminal, Firefox and neovim, which I assume all exist. The reason why I asked about the nvidia drivers is that I've had issues with the last proprietary drivers that support this card(340) and x11 on linux, so I've had to use nouveau. Let's hope I won't have those issues on BSD. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Prom001 · 2023-07-20 16:59 Then try openBSD! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kyleW_ne · 2023-07-20 17:24 As far as I know NetBSD is the only *BSD with the open source Nvidia driver. FreeBSD is the only one with the propitiatory driver so doesn't need it. OpenBSD has NV as an Nvidia driver but it is super slow and only usable on ancient GPUs. Therefore I would probably recommend NetBSD to you it actually works better on older hardware and has a low ram requirement and comes with a couple of simple window managers and x11. Should be all set for a terminal computer. NetBSD does have the smallest install base, lesst funding, and least software. That doesn't mean it's a bad os though! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dmxk · 2023-07-20 18:28 i'll probably try all of the major BSDs now lol. just to see which one works best here ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 120r · 2023-07-21 03:00 Depends on your hardware. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ayleid96 · 2023-07-21 11:18 If you want hibernate/suspend to work then OpenBSD is the way to go. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ngc-bg · 2023-07-21 16:21 OpenBSD will work but there is no nvidia support. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin-Baulig · 2023-07-22 07:04 Hardware compatibility is probably going to be your major deciding factor. For basic text editing and web browsing, OpenBSD would clearly be my preferred choice - I'm running OpenBSD 7.3 as my primary desktop and development system and am quite happy with it. The OpenBSD version of Firefox uses **pledge(2)** and **unveil(2)** to restrict file-system access to your *Downloads* and *Uploads* folders - these are OpenBSD specific system calls, it's basically a mini- chroot that your web-browser is confined into by the operating system. I once installed OpenBSD on a very old gaming laptop that had a dual NVIDIA / Intel GPU, and it worked well enough to run Firefox and GNU Emacs. But I've also had a slightly different model of that same brand where I had issues getting even FreeBSD to run, and could only with an external USB Ethernet adapter. When it comes to laptops, even two slightly similar models can have quite some significant differences in hardware. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sazo_sazo · 2023-07-22 19:56 The choice would be NetBSD if you have an old machine, but if you are looking for pre compiled software pick FreeBSD ... Good luck