Introduce yourself, tell us who you are and why you chose FreeBSD

ikbendeman said:
Who's new to FreeBSD? Did you migrate from another OS and what was your reason?
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Windows and Linux user. Ages ago (around 1999-2000 maybe) I used FreeBSD on my desktop computer with twm for about a year, and now I was curious where it has grown. And for my absolute complete surprise, I managed to install it on my 11" macbook air and on my 13" macbook air within less than one hour each, having fully working Xfce desktop environment, working sound, wifi (with usb wifi dongle :) ), keyboard lighting, all specific buttons set up to manage them. Awesome! I deleted debian from both, now happily using a real Unix environment like in the good old days. A much more polished experience then on linux. Congratulations and thanks for the developers!
 
ikbendeman said:
Who's new to FreeBSD? Did you migrate from another OS and what was your reason?
Click to expand...
I migrated from gnu/linux , gnu/Guix around October 25. Am really find various flavours interesting and used them for around two decades. But Freebsd was my choice once I wanted to settle for my free open source project ‘relysam’ a core Reliability Engineering platform with AI/ML enhancements. Now my old horses ( machines) are happily running Freebsd and nomad BSD for development and testing. Learning never stops and FreeBSD is the best amongst the OS.
 
1995 - I'm on MS-DOS then on Windows 95
1998 - on Windows 98
2000 - on ME :p (loved reinstalling it every week)
2001-2009 - on XP ❤️
2009-2013 - on Windows 7 :(
2013-2025 - hackintosh user 🔥 (4 desktops)
I have a university degree in Information Security, working as DBA, was writing music in the past, sub-pro strong in sound engineering. Looking forward into programming on C/C++ and Vulkan to make some AI, completely new tech.
Never liked distros of Linux because all them are compromises in insignificant stuff.
To continue to write music and launch local LLM and to stay on macOS I have to wait M5 Max Mac Studio and have $18k at least for my needs with 4 TB NVME for music and LLMs. But RTX 5090 was only $5500.

Modern computers so powerful, so even half of my Ryzen is enough to write it in VirtualBox on any OS without dual booting.

Tried FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE half year ago. It was tough, I did everything wrong, mixed official repos with my local, didn't used proper commands for installation of my local repo, then I tired, switch to Arch. Achieved everything I need in 3 hours including gaming which is necessary for chill. Then tried Mint (Arch is actually "okay"). I liked Mint, but in dev it's questionable as an initial platform for Vulkan. Of course you can install latest Vulkan and tools, but it's not gonna be with 0 problems and Mint has 4.18 XFCE still, so I used Gnome.
And few months ago something clicked in my brain and I understood FreeBSD and all I did wrong and tried it. Now I'm in control - I decide what and when is gonna be updated and how, because FreeBSD allows and welcomes it.

I also have sound cleaner than on macOS due to proper virtual_oss and bitperfect + 4 level quality resampler.

I launched comfyUI, llama.cpp and koboldCPP with CUDA support, latest Vulkan SDK from poudriere. I have retro games in VirtualBox Windows Server 2022 with Mesa3D opengl replacement on a system level + dxwnd. I've launched Skyrim, Oblivion Remastered, Alien Isolation and few other games I love to play SOMETIMES. Also I've transfered my dosbox wrapper from macOS to FreeBSD. So I basically just reduced amount of reboots to Windows.

Honestly, forget - I don't really want or play games lately, but sometimes I do. And I did FreeBSD mine PlayDeck + have isolated environment for openclaude coding with local LLMs, fresh tools, LTO fast browsers, amazing sound clarity.

I know that there'll be no day "Oh there is better distro, I should reinstall everything 25 time this year". I need an OS which is predictable.

I wish if linuxulator will become better for running 2D/3D applications from linux, but most of the times everything can be covered via VM.
I also like that I encrypt system disk with GELI and... it does it. And works great. "It just works" (c) Todd Howard.
ZFS is the best file system for fast disks with enough RAM. I tried few times to encrypt macOS system disk - it's not the best influence on how system will respond. On Linux encryptfs should be prohibited to be used on kernels above 6 and LUKS on Arch.. well it doesn't work anyway. Basic stuff.

And I've tried to install Studio One on Linux through pipewire-jack. Yes, it works, but pipewire-jack takes monopoly over your sound device. No use of Linux for me, despite couple games on Steam.
It does not completely save me from reboot or using VM. So is the FreeBSD. It's just a question will I be spending on distro hopping or gonna be learning my system and UNIX sometimes or just using it and enjoying good sound and responsive system. That's why I choose FreeBSD. And Hyprland or XFCE. If I'll use Linux for real, next time it's gonna be probably Gentoo or Artix
 
I've been a Linux user for a few years. Started on Linux Mint, which was great as refugee from Windows initially, but moved to MX to get off Ubuntu base, and became aware of systemd and IBM's influence through Red Hat and Fedora. I am now on Artix, which I am happy with, but decided to install FreeBSD on an older laptop I had been using as a sandbox for trying new Linux distros.
I'm not a programmer, I know some useful commands and understand some responses but that's it.
I'm also interested in the affects the philosophical differences between FreeBSD and Linux had on both their evolution.
So I decided to try it to see how it "feels" compared with a Linux system, and to try to learn more general understanding of computers in a coherent, logical and modular system.
 
Hello, I chose GhostBSD because it runs in RAM out of the box, customizable and has OpenZFS, I am here because I want to post a topic about filename lengths in FreeBSD, which is, of course, the basis of GhostBSD
 
Hi there , not new to bsd , always had a bsd ,the tinfoil hat openbsd ,by default as a life raft for when the LinuxTitanic hits an iceberg on my t480 , since i installed libreboot , the softraid encryption io error , timings or what made openbsd just burdensome and unstable to deal with even that it integrates nicely otherwise wit bspwm and x , i am not a devel so i just gave up went back to freebsd , i haven't used it for a while , but with geli it seems to be much more stable , just abit more firmware quirks like keyboard track pad cursor , with x , not sure what firmware i am still missing but i got it to work now , at least with xfce and i3 , bspwm with sx.. not so much , maybe laters , but besides the setups and hardening does and don'ts i am surprised how many pkg s it has , coming from spoiled linux , lol . i don't intent to expect more than just being able to use a browser some file manipulation programs ,nice that it has keepass and veracrypt , and that plays better with linux files etc . thanks you
 
Hi, good morning!

I'm new to the FreeBSD community. In fact, this is my first post :)

On the other hand, I'm not new to the UNIX-like systems world. I've used Debian, Fedora, and OpenBSD. Now, I want to try FreeBSD for a while, although my intention is to stay here forever, or at least for as long as possible.

I've chosen FreeBSD because I've heard so many good things about its stability, ease of use, and ease of configuration and management. FreeBSD also has good documentation, and that's another big plus. I've always liked *BSD systems. The first BSD version I tried was OpenBSD back in 2003, and I stayed with it for a long time — nearly 12 years.

I think OpenBSD is quite stable, easy to use, and easy to manage, but the thing I don't like about OpenBSD is its lack of support for newer hardware. That's why I've used Linux since 2013 until now.

I don't particularly like Linux. I used it mainly because I've always hated Windows and OpenBSD couldn't support the hardware I was using. I've always loved the philosophy of *BSD systems.

I tried NetBSD too, but I had a lot of problems trying to install it on my computer, and in the end I had to give up on it.

I'm not an operating systems guru. I'm just a computer engineer who works mainly with embedded devices (STM32, TI, NXP, and things like that), so I don't want to waste too much time setting up the system. Windows and Linux have always been a pain for me in that regard. That's why OpenBSD was my main option until now.

So, it's nice to meet you!
 
I am generally a tech geek who likes working with computers. I like programming. Haven't switched (yet) but I have a successful FreeBSD LXQt installation in a VM. I plan to immigrate from Fedora Linux 44. I want to test out FreeBSD on my Pi 5
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I started with version 5.1 in 2003. My first PC was an Apple. I only used Windows once in my life, when I got hired to administer several Windows servers in 2005. Since then, I've become very good at making backups. I've been a Slackware Linux user from 1991 to the present. Incidentally, after trying FreeBSD 5.1, I was about to make it my primary operating system, but that soon became impossible. I was an observer for a long time, but I returned to FreeBSD three days ago. I got a half-dead laptop and decided to revive it. So far, my impressions are positive.
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blackbird9 said:
Yeah, slackware and freebsd, about the closest match in linux. And, you get Alien BOB's great website https://blog.slackware.nl/ , I guess he's up there with vermaden https://vermaden.wordpress.com/ 😁

This is the next 'dead laptop' you need to get from ebay to run freebsd on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X220 :-) And a lot of people say the T480 and T14 with AMD cpu are good too (not the 's' version, 's' for 'sucks'). X220 here.
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Historically, I've only used laptops my whole life. You know, a large family, a hysterical wife, and a job that requires business travel. But all the laptops I own were either gifts or given to me at work. And I've accumulated a whole shelf of them in my closet. So far, all the TinkPads I've come across have been in very poor condition and not worth the money.
I've been using Slackware since version 1.1. I remember ordering that very same famous set of installation diskettes by mail. There was a bug in the OS: during installation, two MBR partitions were created, and I had to fix it manually. I only had an FTP client and an email program. It was fun.
 
Hello!

In 2003, I bought an Apple laptop for school and that led to 20+ years of primarily, but not exclusively, using Apple computers. Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to move away from Apple computers, but I knew I preferred Apple to Windows, so where did that leave me? After trying a few different Linux distributions over the course of a few months, I decided I would buy a used ThinkPad to make my primary laptop. In the course of installing the Linux operating system I had been using on a different laptop, I ran into some difficulty which led to a crisis of faith in Linux and I thought, "Am I insane? Should I just stick with the Apple computers I know already? What am I doing this for? If you don't want Apple, and you don't want Windows, and don't want Linux, then what do you want?"

On June 25th, I sent this message to my family's group chat:

"I broke up with Linux. Yesterday, I installed FreeBSD. It's kinda like Linux, but different in the sense that it's a complete operating system, not the kernel like Linux, which then has tons of different distributions. I think FreeBSD might stick!"

So far, it has.

I'm also highly insecure about my computing skills. Part of the reason I wanted to move away from Apple was to actually start learning computing at a more fundamental level. But I feel like all I know how to do is copy-paste and cross my fingers that things work, even though I don't understand how they work at a fundamental level. A lot of the time, I feel too dumb even to know the right questions to ask. But I do feel a sense of accomplishment for having gotten this far.
 
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There is a quiet confidence that comes with running an operating system built on architectural integrity, predictable behavior, and decades of engineering discipline. After relying on FreeBSD as my core platform, I wanted to share a brief reflection on why this remarkable operating system has completely transformed my approach to system administration, application deployment, and daily computing.

The Power of Architectural Cohesion

Unlike systems assembled from fragmented userland components and rapidly shifting defaults, FreeBSD delivers a unified base system. Everything—from the kernel down to the core utilities and documentation—is developed as a single, cohesive unit. This design philosophy eliminates the unpredictable papercuts often found elsewhere:

  • Predictability & Stability: System updates are clean, structured, and deliberate. You never wake up to broken configurations caused by sudden base-system overhauls.
  • Comprehensive Documentation: The FreeBSD Handbook and man pages are second to none. Having authoritative, accurate documentation built directly into the core ecosystem saves countless hours of troubleshooting.
Features That Simplified My Infrastructure

Integrating FreeBSD into my server and development workflows simplified complex management tasks into clean, elegant administrative patterns:

  • ZFS out of the box: Native ZFS integration provides peace of mind through atomic snapshots, continuous data integrity verification, boot environments, and trivial storage pool expansion.
  • Lightweight Isolation with Jails: Bastille and native FreeBSD jails offer secure, lightweight, and efficient containerization without the bloat or overhead of heavy virtualization layers.
  • Network & Firewall Control: Combining PF (Packet Filter) with flexible loopback and vnet networking makes building isolated service environments straightforward and performant.
A Platform Built to Last

FreeBSD isn't just an operating system—it is a masterclass in software engineering. It respects the administrator’s time, preserves system resources, and stays out of your way so you can focus on building and operating software rather than fighting the platform.

To the core developers, committers, and community members who maintain this rock-solid OS: thank you for your commitment to excellence and stability. I am proud to run FreeBSD as my primary foundation!
 
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