Linux comparability, and comparability in general reddit / freebsd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GafiQ · 2021-03-17 20:14 Hi! I don't use FreeBSD, but I heated it has Linux comparability. Does that mean I can just get a Linux package compatibly, like pacman and just install software? Will that work for stuff like OpenCL drivers and games? Also, does steam run fine? Can it use proton? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- j0e74 · 2021-03-17 20:26 Did you mean Linux ***compatibility?*** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GafiQ · 2021-03-17 20:53 Yes sorry typo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rizzzeh · 2021-03-17 21:28 Steam won't run in native linux, so no Proton, it can run as windows app in wine though with limitations. FreeBSD has its own package manager similar to pacman/apt. You can look up packages available here: https://www.freshports.org/ If you are looking to game on FreeBSD like you would on Linux, i'd suggest dont bother, while FreeBSD can run games quite well, i'd say even better than linux ,the list of ported games is very short. I have very few installed - Doom3 via dlewm3 port, Xonotic, OpenArena and they run perfectly. So its not the fault of OS but game developers not releasing for it which is also understandable considering how few actual desktop installs capable of gaming there are on this platform. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GafiQ · 2021-03-17 21:31 Yeah ik it's not FreeBSD's fault. I'm also aware FreeBSD has a package manager, but since it prob has less software on the repos than something like arch, I figures I might b able to installing pacman. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rizzzeh · 2021-03-17 21:59 FreeBSD number of ports - 42754 Arch packages - 11846 Arch doesnt have lot of software in its repos by any stretch, in fact it has fewer than almost any main linux distro. It relies on Aur which is not official >AUR packages are user produced content. These PKGBUILDs are completely unofficial and have not been thoroughly vetted. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PkHolm · 2021-03-17 23:44 Not quite true. Linux Steam client can be run on FreeBSD. And wine works too. Not sure about proton. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vegan_html_hacker · 2021-03-18 08:30 FreeBSD has binary Linux compatibility. I’ve only tried it once — I was running a Linux binary of the Storj server since their only option at the time was to download an ELF binary. For the most part, it’s better to install via the package manager and just run stuff natively. The Linux binary compatibility is amazing but it’s really meant to be a last-ditch necessity if I’m understanding the setup correctly. Edit: Adding this link: https://people.freebsd.org/~rodrigc/doc/handbook/linuxemu-lbc- install.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- JakoDel · 2021-03-18 15:06 actually, steam works, and even proton (kind of) does www.github.com/shkhln/linuxulator-steam-utils ---------------------------------------------------------------------- GafiQ · 2021-03-18 15:10 Cool ---------------------------------------------------------------------- rodrigo975 · 2021-03-19 10:47 To answer your question, yes and no. This compatibility let's you run around 90% of the linux binaries unchanged, without any noticeable performance lost. In FreeBSD ports, some closed source applications like [kzip](https://www.freshports.org/archivers/kzip/) uses this mechanism. Compatibility with a moving beast like linux has drawbacks, sometimes recent Linux syscalls aren't yet implements. For sure you can't just install a linux package manager and expect things works, mostly because they don't respect FreeBSD file system hierarchy hier(7), and can break things. But you can use a jail to have an [linuxjail](https://wiki.freebsd.org/LinuxJails), sort of chrooted linux environment You can read more about this feature in the [Handbook](https://docs.fr eebsd.org/doc/4.10-RELEASE/usr/share/doc/handbook/linuxemu.html)