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FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

docs.freebsd.org

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Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#31

Post by GekkePrutser »

andrewzah wrote: post #17
nauticacom wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking of throwing FreeBSD on an old Thinkpad and trying to use it normally. Right now I run Debian, with most of my work happening in Firefox or the shell. Is there anything you didn't even think about that ended up being a problem, or noticeably worse? Or the opposite, something you thought would be an issue but wasn't?

FreeBSD runs pretty nice on thinkpads. I've thrown it (and OpenBSD) on my x201s and x220s. There are a few pain points: * getting used to the BSD version of utilities. make frequently breaks for me, and last time I used gmake there were still issues. * random software isn't packaged or just doesn't run/build on *BSDs well. * lack of support for games. these days, steam games run rather well on linux as long as they d…

Most gmake works well but sometimes you have to change the include and lib paths. FreeBSD is just a bit different in that respect bit it's a good thing IMO. It's very consistent

Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#32

Post by GekkePrutser »

dddddaviddddd wrote: post #18
nauticacom wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking of throwing FreeBSD on an old Thinkpad and trying to use it normally. Right now I run Debian, with most of my work happening in Firefox or the shell. Is there anything you didn't even think about that ended up being a problem, or noticeably worse? Or the opposite, something you thought would be an issue but wasn't?

WiFi is currently limited to 802.11n on all chipsets. Work to support 802.11ac (and more wireless cards) is ongoing and looks to me like it could be ready in 2022. Also, options for videoconferencing programs (Zoom, Skype) are poor, you're effectively limited to browser-based versions, which don't perform well with an iGPU at least.

Jitsi works fine though at least in Firefox!

I don't want zoom anywhere near my FreeBSD box after what they did with that backdoor on macOS. And refused to remove it until apple blacklisted them.

Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#33

Post by GekkePrutser »

nmz wrote: post #22
packetlost wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh wow, yeah. Finally looks like FreeBSD grew out of the 2005 era. I say that only half jokingly, the previous design was very dated, but still every bit as functional for it's purpose.

I tend to use w3m with the documentation or a reference manual on a tiling wm. so as long as it works on w3m. So I do hope manuals should work in that way.

Yeah the old manual worked great in text browsers. But I imagine they still provide it as such as a package like they always have

Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#35

Post by grumpyprole »

adamddev1 wrote: post #28

I remember growing up in grade school my friend's older brother was a very active contributer to FreeBSD. I remember being fascinated by the FreeBSD desktop they had running in the living room and this alternate universe of free software he was helping to create. I don't remember much other than his rants against windows (he thought it was terrible that people let their computers would do stuff like run CD-ROMs autom…

I remember being a new Linux user in the mid-90s at university. I was told by more than one computer science nerd that FreeBSD was more mature and reliable, which was probably true back then. But Linux just seemed to be where the excitement was (it even had coloured ls output!).

Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#36

Post by nix23 »

grumpyprole wrote: post #35
adamddev1 wrote: post #28

I remember growing up in grade school my friend's older brother was a very active contributer to FreeBSD. I remember being fascinated by the FreeBSD desktop they had running in the living room and this alternate universe of free software he was helping to create. I don't remember much other than his rants against windows (he thought it was terrible that people let their computers would do stuff like run CD-ROMs autom…

I remember being a new Linux user in the mid-90s at university. I was told by more than one computer science nerd that FreeBSD was more mature and reliable, which was probably true back then. But Linux just seemed to be where the excitement was (it even had coloured ls output!).

>was more mature and reliable, which was probably true back then.

Those two points are still true compared to linux.

Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#39

Post by VTimofeenko »

wyuenho wrote: post #30
VTimofeenko wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's Gentoo handbook[1] that walks through every step of building a system and explaining the choices and the consequences of those choices. [1]: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:Main_Page

That's not the same at all. This FreeBSD is a user's manual, Gentoo's is a developer's wiki. It doesn't tell me most of the things I need to know to do actual work.

Hm. Gentoo does have a developer's manual[1] which describes in detail how one would be able to package new applications or patch things in the main repository.

Working with Gentoo as a user does require having an understanding of the knobs that portage (the package manager) presents, and this has a certain learning curve. But that learning curve is IMHO worth it for the flexibility that portage brings to the table. Without that flexibility it would be very hard to manage replacing at user's will something as major in the system as the init system, or the whole audio stack or libssl provider.

[1]: https://devmanual.gentoo.org/

Re: FreeBSD Handbook / Introduction

#40

Post by INTPenis »

wyuenho wrote: post #4

Whoa, there's a *nix distro that actually has documentation that can explain things to me like I'm 5 and show case all things special about the OS? This is exceptional good.

I haven't used FreeBSD for almost 10 years now but it was my first non-Linux OS back in early 2000s and the primary OS we used at my first IT job.

The FreeBSD handbook is something you actually had bookmarked, I checked the handbook before I searched the web.

There is no Linux distro today with a handbook like the FreeBSD handbook, in terms of how I used it at least.

Same goes for OpenBSD.

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