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FreeBSD 13.2

freebsd.org

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Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience with Browsers. Only Surf never dies.

https://surf.suckless.org/ ah, the memories this + dwn https://dwm.suckless.org/ then I said to myself "why am I wasting so much time tinkering with stuff that gains me nothing" and moved on in my life

Eh, I disagree. WMaker+Luakit makes my netbook work. Anything else under i686 it's a no-no.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#92
post #71

I tried FreeBSD on ARM64. I couldn't get the browsers, like Firefox or Epiphany, to load without crashing. I'm not sure if it was something I was doing wrong or if the ARM ecosystem just isn't well supported yet. I was also running in a VM with QEMU. On the surface, FreeBSD sounds cool. I liked that I could boot directly to a console and then run the GUI only if I wanted to. Everything felt more modular. It reminded…

> I liked that I could boot directly to a console and then run the GUI only if I wanted to. You can do that in Linux... > Only I'm not sure I'd be able to use it as a daily driver. I felt like I'd be spending my time administering the machine and nothing else. Not really? I think the BSDs are simpler, change less and are better documented. Source: I ran OpenBSD on desktops in early 2000s.

> I think the BSDs are simpler, change less and are better documented

> Source: I ran OpenBSD on desktops in early 2000s.

From my experience witb BSDs on a SUN pizza box (also around 2000) : FreeBSD had the docs on the internet, not very helpful when you want to configure the network. OpenBSD was ok. Linux (my first choice) was slow as hell.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same experience with Browsers. Only Surf never dies.

https://surf.suckless.org/ ah, the memories this + dwn https://dwm.suckless.org/ then I said to myself "why am I wasting so much time tinkering with stuff that gains me nothing" and moved on in my life

I had the opposite experience with dwm. I don't like cycling through overlapping windows on the same "desktop", and I don't like taking the time to place windows correctly. With 2 screens, I have 18 "desktops", which is more than enough, and the automatic tiling is exactly what I want. On the other hand when I use GNOME/KDE/Windows I'm always losing lots of time navigating. Also I must have some kind of curse because even with high-end computers I've never had one of those run really smoothly. My current work laptop is on KDE, and when I use a shortcut to open a terminal it takes 200/300ms.

I think it also helps that I've never really tinkered with it. I took someone's build that had a few things I wanted, and I think that's it. In contrast, I spend more time on a regular desktop environment setting up shortcuts.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#94

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

Ran it for a long time, mostly I liked the simplicity of it over linux, which with systemd + udev etc has become much harder to configure easily just by reading through the files in /etc. The way you configure FreeBSD has been basically the same since 1998, so I haven't had to learn new magic with whatever trend is taking over the linux world. On modern linux, without a browser open to google shit constantly it's a real challenge to make even little quality of life changes. And Linux binary compat on FreeBSD was (maybe still is?) very good. Lately I'm on linux though since I need docker for my job workflow.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#95
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.

Been using the webcam with my FreeBSD desktop for job interviews over the past couple of months. Unfortunately Zoom eats up a ton of CPU and then crashes when I open it in a browser tab, and there isn't a packaged binary that I've given a try yet. On Google Meet the browser also doesn't support blurring out the background. So, while it's not totally broken or anything, I don't rely on it for important video meetings.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#96
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Arch for a number of years before switching to a Mac when I went back to school. At some point I may go back to Linux or FreeBSD (I've used both!) but I'll never go back to rolling releases. The whole reason I switched to Mac was that I got tired of things breaking constantly due to the never-ending updates. And if you put things off then you end up getting a whole lot of breakage all at once. No, I would pref…

Similarly I found Arch particularly badly suited for multiboot systems where one might spend extended periods of time not booted into Arch. Too often I'd reboot into Arch and run updates which would break the install somehow. Fedora has been a decent in-between in my experience. Packages are reasonably up to date and updates are frequent, but I've never had a few weeks of accumulated updates break things which is nic…

I do this with Ubuntu. Snap is annoying yes. And I don’t like some of the changes, at least how they are implementing them (ie: systemd, netplan) during upgrades etc. but it’s serviceable.

I only use windows to play games. But frankly, my personal laptop is used mostly for that, if at all. I have a work laptop provided to me for work stuff.

I still tend to use Ubuntu for the occasional freelance, research or teaching work I do though.

I’m not an evangelist on OS. I’ve used centos, fedora, Debian, mint, elementaryos and even for a time was swapping out DEs for window manager things like awesomeWM.

But at this stage in the game I’m too lazy to tinker with making the OS work. And Ubuntu tends to do well with mixed hardware such as having iris xe and nvidia chips on a single board. So I went with that.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#97
post #92
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I liked that I could boot directly to a console and then run the GUI only if I wanted to. You can do that in Linux... > Only I'm not sure I'd be able to use it as a daily driver. I felt like I'd be spending my time administering the machine and nothing else. Not really? I think the BSDs are simpler, change less and are better documented. Source: I ran OpenBSD on desktops in early 2000s.

> I think the BSDs are simpler, change less and are better documented > Source: I ran OpenBSD on desktops in early 2000s. From my experience witb BSDs on a SUN pizza box (also around 2000) : FreeBSD had the docs on the internet, not very helpful when you want to configure the network. OpenBSD was ok. Linux (my first choice) was slow as hell.

As a current OpenBSD user, the man pages absolutely blow Linux out of the water.

RTFM will go a very, very long way on this OS.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#98
post #39
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Arch for a number of years before switching to a Mac when I went back to school. At some point I may go back to Linux or FreeBSD (I've used both!) but I'll never go back to rolling releases. The whole reason I switched to Mac was that I got tired of things breaking constantly due to the never-ending updates. And if you put things off then you end up getting a whole lot of breakage all at once. No, I would pref…

The only sane Linux setup for a workstation is an immutable distro like Silverblue/Kinoite, and an Arch Linux toolbox (or any distro you prefer). I will die on this hill, and whoever disagrees has never tried what honestly feels like the future. My Linux PC is as stable and reproducible as my iPhone. One day I will finish my Fedora Silverblue master guide that has been a draft for months... (No, sorry, NixOS ain't be…

immutable distro like Silverblue

I had never even heard these before! This sounds exactly like what I want!

One day I will finish my Fedora Silverblue master guide that has been a draft for months...

I would love to read it!

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#99
post #97
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the BSDs are simpler, change less and are better documented > Source: I ran OpenBSD on desktops in early 2000s. From my experience witb BSDs on a SUN pizza box (also around 2000) : FreeBSD had the docs on the internet, not very helpful when you want to configure the network. OpenBSD was ok. Linux (my first choice) was slow as hell.

As a current OpenBSD user, the man pages absolutely blow Linux out of the water. RTFM will go a very, very long way on this OS.

On that note, maybe I should try the other BSD flavors then.

Re: FreeBSD 13.2

#100
post #62

I tried FreeBSD on ARM64. I couldn't get the browsers, like Firefox or Epiphany, to load without crashing. I'm not sure if it was something I was doing wrong or if the ARM ecosystem just isn't well supported yet. I was also running in a VM with QEMU. On the surface, FreeBSD sounds cool. I liked that I could boot directly to a console and then run the GUI only if I wanted to. Everything felt more modular. It reminded…

If you're going to run it in a VM, why ARM?

Exactly. I was on an M1 Mac, so trying to emulate x86/64 would have been painfully, unusably slow.

For simple console stuff on the terminal, it's ok. But when the GUI is involved, or anything with a lot of computation, having to translate all of the instructions from native ARM64 back to x86/64 and back takes a ton of resources and time.

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