[vermaden]

One of 'the most' fun and pleasure to work with stack is FreeBSD ecosystem for me.

After switching from Linux both on desktop/laptop and servers I really got comfortable and fun on FreeBSD. Of course its has its ups and downs - like everything in life - but after using FreeBSD for about 16 years now I know one thing - this is the OS that sucks the LEAST from all of them.

Here are some thoughts to conquer:

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/quare-freebsd/

Regards.

[lambdaba]

Do you find issues with software not packaged for FreeBSD? How's the Wayland situation?

I'm a NixOS user, I have a strange attraction to FreeBSD for years even though I used it only briefly (it sounds silly but running "top" on a bare FreeBSD is so... satisfying and peaceful). Overall I wonder if there's anything to be missing from Linux. Why wouldn't I use FreeBSD?

[vermaden]

> Do you find issues with software not packaged for FreeBSD?

For example?

I use Cargo packages for some software that was not in the Ports and it worked well. Also downloading binaries for both FreeBSD and Linux and running them works. For Linux version I would say it depends - mostly works.

> How's the Wayland situation?

Dunno. I use X11.

> Why wouldn't I use FreeBSD?

If you need KVM virtualization or 'fat' desktop clients like Discord or Slack for example.

There are no USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 features for VirtualBox (as they are closed source and for Linux only).

There is no Opera or Brave browser as they are not open source ...

Currently 802.11ac and 802.11ax WiFi does not work on FreeBSD. There is some first work committed for Intel AX200 and AX201 likes committed to 14-CURRENT but not sure how it works. Most 802.11n WiFi cards should just work. I have Intel 6300 WiFi - which is rather old as it comes from 2011 ThinkPad W520 - but a lot newer WiFi cards also work.

Hope that helps.

[lambdaba]

Nothing too bothersome, newer wlan I suppose will be available soon enough, but I just found out that Docker isn't working ATM. Anyway, I really want to use FreeBSD so I'll probably go ahead soon-ish :).

Thanks!

[vermaden]

Yeah, Docker is unavailable on FreeBSD.

Same as Jails are unavailable on Linux systems :)

[lambdaba]

Did you try DragonFlyBSD? It had some really cool features. I wonder how it's doing these days, and if it's equally viable as a daily driver.

[vermaden]

The only thing that 'excites' me in DragonflyBSD is their HammerFS - which works and its OK - but its not as usable and simple as manipulating ZFS with zfs(8) and zpool(8) commands ...

Besides that I do not see anything special on DragonflyBSD ... I have read that they have very sophisticated and fast SMP implementation ... but a lot things just are absent there - like on OpenBSD land. No virtualization for example ... while FreeBSD has *VirtualBox* and *Bhyve* and *Xen DOM0* ...

*WINE* probably does not work (or does not work well) as last WINE commits for DragonflyBSD are from almost a decade ago:

- https://source.winehq.org/git/wine.git/?a=search&h=HEAD&st=c...

FreeBSD also has *VNET Jails* while DragonflyBSD only has 'classic' Jails.

FreeBSD comes with GEOM for storage which is just great - https://is.gd/bsdstg - more here. I myself also wrote *lsblk(8)* implementation for FreeBSD - this is also missing on DragonflyBSD.

Hope that helps.

[lambdaba]

I too was interested in HammerFS. Thanks for the perspective, I'll ask around here at some point about DragonFly users, they must be out there :).

[vermaden]

I like HammerFS offline deduplication which is great for systems with low or 'normal' amount of RAM.

I would like to see that implemented in ZFS but I think it will not gonna happen :)