What makes BSD stand out as its own system? I’ve been thinking about installing it in a new computer mainly for reading but I don’t know much about it.

  • Muddybulldog@mylemmy.win
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to get crucified for this… for a desktop end-user it’s basically Linux with completely different syntax, lesser hardware compatibility and limited support channels.

    • HousePanther@lemmy.goblackcat.com
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      1 year ago

      I am certainly not going to crucify you for it. While FreeBSD is a fantastic operating system, its hardware support is lacking.

    • tauonite@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And less supported software! Open-source programs can often be compiled for FreeBSD but many closed-source and some open-source software won’t work in FreeBSD. There is the Linuxulator, which is basically Wine but for Linux programs on FreeBSD but it doesn’t have perfect Linux software support yet.

      • Muddybulldog@mylemmy.win
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        1 year ago

        It’s rock solid. It also has a heavy emphasis on security. Numerous high-end network routers and security devices use it as the base operating system. Darwin, the open source foundation of macOS is also derived from it.

  • const_void@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s great for certain use-cases that don’t require a lot of hardware support. But don’t go trying to use it on your laptop.

  • ask@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I like using FreeBSD, the setup feels a lot nicer and more coherent than Linux in a lot of ways. I mainly tried it for native zfs.

    The only downside is that nobody knows it exists so I have to compile things myself a lot or even patch it to get it to compile.

  • nhoad@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I use FreeBSD for my website and I’m actually pretty happy with it, the simplicity is a strong selling point.

    It does feel sometimes like the documentation is written with a lot of assumed knowledge though, which makes it difficult to know what terms to use to find what you’re looking for… e.g. figuring out how to do major version upgrades did not feel straightforward.

    • obbeel@lemmy.mlOP
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      1 year ago

      It will certainly deepen my knowledge about operating systems. Messing with alternatives to grub and all that.

      • dot20@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not sure about the BSDs, but for Linux you don’t actually need GRUB anymore these days. On modern (i.e. UEFI) systems, you can boot the kernel directly as an EFI binary (this is known as EFISTUB booting).

  • treadful@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    It’s so old and rigid. But it’s stable and worth consideration. I put it in a similar camp as Debian. That said, I haven’t used it in years so I don’t really know the current state of things.

    OpenBSD is my go to for super-security though.

  • Vendetta9076
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    1 year ago

    Its a base layer of several other, really good operating systems but I wouldnt use it by itself. If you want something lightweight just install ubuntu or mint.

  • olizet@lemmy.works
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    1 year ago

    Linux on my selfhosted system with email and DNS, FreeBSD on my 2nd system. 2ndary DNS and hot standby for emails. Best of both worlds. You may hack the primary, but not both.