I want to switch to FreeBSD. More specifically, I want to WANT to switch to FreeBSD.
I've always been an OSX and Linux user, but have always admired FreeBSD's stability, the ports system, etc... but my last foray into FreeBSD ended in tears because while I want to use X86_64 (large amounts of RAM, more consistent with my various server environments etc), I have nVidia cards and I never had luck running X with compositing etc. I'm a sucker for a nice, clean, responsive desktop with just a *bit* of eyecandy (shadows and transparency - they do everything in terms of taking away the flatness of a 2D desktop).
I poked around the nVidia site and saw they now have FreeBSD X64 drivers (and have for some time, I just haven't looked in a while).
This changes everything, but I don't want to make a monumental shift without answering a few questions first... is FreeBSD still regularly maintained, or is it "years behind" Linux like I keep reading around the place?
How many people here are happily using FreeBSD x86_64 as a workstation, with nVidia cards, with compositing etc?
If you weren't *always* a FreeBSD user and were, today, suddenly faced with the opportunity to switch, would you? Would you abandon the nice comfy sheltered harbor of say... Ubuntu?
I regard myself as a bit of a power user (not a guru but certainly FAR more adept than an end-user) and I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I only resorted to Ubuntu et al because they're easy, there's no screwing around and everything just installs and works.
But I can't help feeling excited at the prospect of a switch to FreeBSD, and I don't want to read some 12-month-old "FreeBSD vs Linux" article either. I'd love to hear from some of you now, in the current state of things, about the wisdom of a switch to FreeBSD for a web dev workstation.
I've always been an OSX and Linux user, but have always admired FreeBSD's stability, the ports system, etc... but my last foray into FreeBSD ended in tears because while I want to use X86_64 (large amounts of RAM, more consistent with my various server environments etc), I have nVidia cards and I never had luck running X with compositing etc. I'm a sucker for a nice, clean, responsive desktop with just a *bit* of eyecandy (shadows and transparency - they do everything in terms of taking away the flatness of a 2D desktop).
I poked around the nVidia site and saw they now have FreeBSD X64 drivers (and have for some time, I just haven't looked in a while).
This changes everything, but I don't want to make a monumental shift without answering a few questions first... is FreeBSD still regularly maintained, or is it "years behind" Linux like I keep reading around the place?
How many people here are happily using FreeBSD x86_64 as a workstation, with nVidia cards, with compositing etc?
If you weren't *always* a FreeBSD user and were, today, suddenly faced with the opportunity to switch, would you? Would you abandon the nice comfy sheltered harbor of say... Ubuntu?
I regard myself as a bit of a power user (not a guru but certainly FAR more adept than an end-user) and I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I only resorted to Ubuntu et al because they're easy, there's no screwing around and everything just installs and works.
But I can't help feeling excited at the prospect of a switch to FreeBSD, and I don't want to read some 12-month-old "FreeBSD vs Linux" article either. I'd love to hear from some of you now, in the current state of things, about the wisdom of a switch to FreeBSD for a web dev workstation.