Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

FreeBSD 13.2

freebsd.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 108 posts

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#21

Post by 2b3a51 »

doublerabbit wrote: post #9
gautamcgoel wrote: post #2

Does anyone here run FreeBSD on the desktop? If so, can you explain why you prefer it to Linux?

Not Linux: Linux feels clunky like a bunch of third party cogs all mashed together. Some with teeth missing some with too many. If it's not SystemMd taking over the whole startup of system services and needing its own DHCP server, it's then down to package manager's. Apt being replaced with snap, snap replaced by flat images. Its divided and with no formality. Someone will create some new thing, I'll get popular, get…

I'm glad you like your FreeBSD installation.

Just a reminder that a range of Linux distributions available. There is choice.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#22

Post by russnes »

citrin_ru wrote: post #15
gautamcgoel wrote: post #2

Does anyone here run FreeBSD on the desktop? If so, can you explain why you prefer it to Linux?

I do. The main reason is that I know it better and I feel it is easier to know it well thanks to good documentation and relative simplicity (compare to Linux). First class ZFS support is another reason. While ZFS is available on Linux in distros I would use (OpenSuse or Fedora) it is not available by default and needs to be installed separately. Also use i3 WM and install only apps I use - a typical Linux distro whic…

I would use FreeBSD myself if it weren't for Void Linux. You get all the extra tools and quality of life from Linux without any bloat, and it has a minimal init system.

It's also very convenient to use if you need up to date software since it is a rolling release, but there are some things in FreeBSD which is better like reproducible builds.

Kind of like Arch Linux but without the chaos, and the community appears to be growing!

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#23

Post by quectophoton »

1letterunixname wrote: post #18

OpenSSL 1.1.1 is deprecated and loses security patches in under 6 months.

I'm curious how this will be handled.

There's already a `vendor/openssl-3.0` branch in their git repo, but those changes look like way too big to release in just a security patch for 13.2.

FreeBSD 14.0 is scheduled for July (2 months before OpenSSL 1.1.1 EOL), so maybe we'll get OpenSSL 3.0 in that release, and then a backport with the OpenSSL upgrade.

But the timelines seem too tight, so I'm not too optimistic.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#24

Post by hestefisk »

5e92cb50239222b wrote: post #17
ken666 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have a look at void Linux. I was a long time freebsd user until I really needed some proprietary software (zoom) in the pandemic. Switched to void and it is the same freebsd feeling, but with much better hardware support. And with my beloved ZFS!

I believe it runs fine in any browser with WebRTC support.

Assuming you have a good webcam?

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#26

Post by pjmlp »

ofalkaed wrote: post #3
gautamcgoel wrote: post #2

Does anyone here run FreeBSD on the desktop? If so, can you explain why you prefer it to Linux?

It is like linux if Canonical never happened, so like linux 20 years ago. The ports system is nice. FreeBSD is my fallback in case Patrick gives in to the changing linux world and I have to abandon Slackware or start learning OS stuff again. Biggest thing to know about it as a desktop, drivers get into the kernel much slower than with linux and some never get in, so like linux was 20 years ago.

Like UNIX you mean.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#27

Post by pjmlp »

doublerabbit wrote: post #9
gautamcgoel wrote: post #2

Does anyone here run FreeBSD on the desktop? If so, can you explain why you prefer it to Linux?

Not Linux: Linux feels clunky like a bunch of third party cogs all mashed together. Some with teeth missing some with too many. If it's not SystemMd taking over the whole startup of system services and needing its own DHCP server, it's then down to package manager's. Apt being replaced with snap, snap replaced by flat images. Its divided and with no formality. Someone will create some new thing, I'll get popular, get…

Linux adoption at scale was only possible because of getting in bed with corporate.

By the way, FreeBSD also enjoys a bit of corporated love, with the difference that love only goes into one direction.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#28

Post by klibertp »

gautamcgoel wrote: post #2

Does anyone here run FreeBSD on the desktop? If so, can you explain why you prefer it to Linux?

I don't run it right now (and won't anytime soon) as a desktop. Once I switched to using laptops exclusively, the driver story became too bad to work comfortably. But, I used FreeBSD on a desktop for 5 years, from 2005 to 2010.

I really enjoyed using it. The reasons for that are what others already mentioned: simplicity, well-thought-out organization of the system vs. userland vs. 3rd party packages (man hier), excellent documentation always available locally, ports, jails, pf, etc. It was all nice, but the killer feature, for me, was stability. The system simply refused to die, no matter what I threw at it or how I misconfigured it. At the time, Linux was a lot less stable than it is today - it could hang forever, corrupt the filesystem, or restart in the middle of doing something. Especially with proprietary, binary blobs and apps, rare as they were, Linux had a hard time accumulating uptime. On the other hand, FreeBSD worked, always. Well, it had no other choice, given that ACPI wasn't fully implemented and it couldn't suspend/sleep - it was a desktop but also a server for some private stuff, so that was ok.

Linux got much better over the years, both in kernel and userland. I have been using Fedora for close to 15 years now, and it works. I won't be going back to FreeBSD on the desktop, unfortunately. However, I'm tempted to try it again on an older laptop that plays the role of a NAS: no GUI, always connected to the router with a cable, always connected to power. I have Fedora running there, but I already use ZFS - it's great - so the switch shouldn't be hard.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#29

Post by simion314 »

ofalkaed wrote: post #3
gautamcgoel wrote: post #2

Does anyone here run FreeBSD on the desktop? If so, can you explain why you prefer it to Linux?

It is like linux if Canonical never happened, so like linux 20 years ago. The ports system is nice. FreeBSD is my fallback in case Patrick gives in to the changing linux world and I have to abandon Slackware or start learning OS stuff again. Biggest thing to know about it as a desktop, drivers get into the kernel much slower than with linux and some never get in, so like linux was 20 years ago.

>It is like linux if Canonical never happened,

Really? from what I read BSD complaints they hate RedHat related stuff like systemd and GNOME code was Linux only for w hile, not sure if this was fixed in GJPME or downstream.

Post reply on HN