Top laptops to use with FreeBSD

Post by ux266478 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #62

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

It's crazy how much negativity there is in comment threads like this. I would get it if FreeBSD was a product you paid for, or someone was evangelizing about how you're missing out if you don't get the FreeBSD laptop experience, or something. As someone who liked FreeBSD in the past and curious to check it out again, I'm glad to have this handy list.

What is sad is that even though Linux now has hardware support that is miles ahead of Windows, we've exchanged one problem with another, because nowadays most of the hardware I see is only supported on Linux and nothing else. Even on PCs, latest generation AMD graphics cards (already >1yr old) are not supported in _anything_ other than Linux (and Windows). This is just sad.

Post by ux266478 » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 6:37 PM UTC

realusername wrote: post #77

Gud wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that “obviously “? I find Linux to be a broken mess. FWIW I use them both, FreeBSD and Arch , but let’s not pretend the layers of crap tacked onto the Linux kernel is some pinnacle of computing.

While I like the simplicity from FreeBSD, this simplicity also comes specifically because there's less contributions. I doubt anything can get the scale of Linux and not have some mess.

Post by craftkiller » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 6:40 PM UTC

0x457 wrote: post #76

AshamedCaptain wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is the _only_ OSS operating system that supports AMD cards from this decade, and it does so by having to emulate the Linux kernel API, and yet _still_ it lags years behind Linux itself. I've chosen this example for a reason -- this is exactly what I'm sad about.

That and WiFi being stuck at 802.11g is what made me switch. It was a very sad day for me when I uninstalled FreeBSD from all of non-server machines.

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

bluebarbet wrote: post #92

jasonjayr wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows is cleaning up a lot of legacy drivers. A bunch of printers (+ scanners) that predate updates to the printer driver framework in recent versions of windows just don't have functioning drivers anymore, despite being perfectly functional. All these devices work out of the box on linux, more or less.

Most devices that you can buy for under $400 now run on ARM chips (frequently Mediatek). We're talking tablets (with keyboards), convertibles, even outright laptops (i.e. "netbooks"). These things qualify as computers. They are replacing traditional laptops, just as those replaced desktops. And they do not run Linux out of the box.

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Thu, Apr 09, 2026, 6:46 PM UTC

stackghost wrote: post #16

olivierestsage wrote: post #12

It's crazy how much negativity there is in comment threads like this. I would get it if FreeBSD was a product you paid for, or someone was evangelizing about how you're missing out if you don't get the FreeBSD laptop experience, or something. As someone who liked FreeBSD in the past and curious to check it out again, I'm glad to have this handy list.

>It's crazy how much negativity there is in comment threads like this I think it's because this chart continues a trend I've noticed with BSD zealots. Namely, there's some sort of reality distortion effect at play. Consider that there are obvious bullshit scores on TFA, like giving a laptop 9/10 when the fucking wifi doesn't work. In reality, this should be 5/10 or arguably 0/10. After all, what use is a laptop witho…