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A brief look at FreeBSD

(yorickpeterse.com)
106 points todsacerdoti | 3 comments | 12 Nov 25 12:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.844s | source
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sunshine-o ◴[12 Nov 25 20:31 UTC] No.45906140[source]▶
I have been daily driving FreeBSD for a while now (as a newcomer, coming from Linux) and surprisingly the experience for me was different from what you usually hear.

Pros:

- It is actually in a way easier than Linux. The installation is less complex and more reliable than a Fedora if you are not afraid of the TUI. More important it will soon include a desktop installation script.

- All the software you will ever need is in pkg or ports unless you are a degen

- You will pick up jails for container use cases in 10 minutes and will never want to go back

- VM with vm-bhyve is simpler than libvirt and no XML to deal with.

- Same with networking, you will pick it up quickly and no more confusion between NetworkManager, systemd-networkd, ifup, etc.

- The linux-compat feature will get you very far and there are a lot of Linux apps packaged already

- Hardware support is ok if you check first on https://bsd-hardware.info/

- The wifi thing is no problem with https://github.com/pgj/freebsd-wifibox

Cons:

- You won't be able to mount/read your LUKS drives from your Linux era.

- Sometime very critical packages like Chromium disappear because they won't build (for example no chromium in pkg on the current FreeBSD 15 BETA)

- Bhyve do not support SPICE so you are stuck with the perf of VNC.

- Bhyve do not have vsock so no blazing fast waypipe

- You basically loose a lot of security feature of web browsers, most of the sandboxing of Firefox and Chrome. This is really bad.

- I haven't really dived into it but it seems there is no Bluetooth LE

- It is fast but doesn't feel as fast as an Alpine

If you are thinking about it and this is ok for you, I would say go for it.

replies(1): >>45906538 #
1. 0x1ch ◴[12 Nov 25 20:56 UTC] No.45906538[source]▶
A lot of your points are valid, however... some are taking some liberties. Are you actually running into usecases where FreeBSD is easier or faster to install than current release Fedora Server?

> The wifi thing is no problem with...

You're seriously proposing end users run Linux VMs with PCIe Passthrough to get modern networking cards to work?

A lot of wishful thinking in this thread about FreeBSD on workstations.

replies(1): >>45907623 #
2. sunshine-o ◴[12 Nov 25 22:17 UTC] No.45907623[source]▶
> A lot of your points are valid, however... some are taking some liberties. Are you actually running into usecases where FreeBSD is easier or faster to install than current release Fedora Server?

It is just that the Fedora installer is more complex... and also will fail often at partitioning or during install. I've done it hundreds of time and it failed dozens on time.

I would still recommend Fedora to Linux users but the FreeBSD installer much more simple and straightforward.

> You're seriously proposing end users run Linux VMs with PCIe Passthrough to get modern networking cards to work?

It is an Alpine running on the hypervisor you won't even notice it. It consumes less than web browser tab...

Plus it has benefits from a security point of view.

I would rather FreeBSD devs focus on other things than porting all wifi drivers.

replies(1): >>45908385 #
3. 0x1ch ◴[12 Nov 25 23:28 UTC] No.45908385[source]▶
I think the most complex part of a desktop linux install is the partitioning, but sane defaults are handed to you on most installers, so I'm curious about the failures and what induced them.

As for the whole wifi thing... Yeah man, FreeBSD isn't ready for vast majority of people, even linux veterans. I know getting the manpower to write those drivers isn't always possible, but we're talking years of this being ignored. Which has led to solutions like yours.

Something trivial to us, is not for others. It's pretty insane to even think that is a supported solution to that problem.