Using FreeBSD as Desktop OS

The MacOS "Mission Control" seems to be the same "expose" effect, what is present in many non-tiling compositing WMs, including the old compiz-fusion, which probably was the first to implement that.
Thanks for the info. I am not that well familiar with the OpenSource apps at the moment. A couple of months ago, my brother had tried KDE on a laptop. I didn't, see the "expose" effect on that; even an an option. I remember Compiz.. Liked it when I was using Gnome2. I loved the fish tank effect and stuff. Is it possible to have Compiz on a KDE Desktop? (Forgive my ignorance)
 
KWin, the KDE WM does the expose. I do not remember if that is set by default but IIRC the effect is activated placing the pointer at the top left corner.

Compiz is in ports, I've not used that since many years but yes it does. At least used to do. :)
 
Just out of curiosity, what is the preferred environment for those running FreeBSD as a desktop.
I recall DesktopBSD that used KDE (I think) and PC-BSD that used something like KDE, but I don’t have a clue.
On the Linux side, people can literally get into religious wars about distros, GUIs, etc. It’s one of the few things I don’t like about Linux.
 
I'd really appreciate a current and working how-to or tutorial on getting a MATE desktop to work on FreeBSD within VMWare Fusion on a MacBook Pro. I consider the ability to mount/unmount external disks, mount network volumes, shutdown or reboot directly from MATE and actually being able to double-click on an external file and have it open said file instead of opening just the application because the path to the file is actually not exposed from the file manager to the system to be essential. The latter happened to me the last time I tried XFCE. sysutils/desktop-installer didn't work for me. Also, booting straight to the desktop without having to log in would be a plus.
 
Never saw any point to configure something desktop related in VirtualBox/VMWare etc.
Why? Better play some others, more interesting games :) The beauty of FreeBSD is in its performance
and in its stable work, configure it once and use it for years on your real hardware.
 
I’ve watched through the videos. They are beginner level, are interrupted by arrows asking to share and were a complete waste of time for me because they don’t improve upon what (little) information is already available in the handbook. Classic videos that only exist to generate clicks. They just show to you what you are going to see anyway. The creator is clearly a Linux user, he does things in a Linux kind of way. They also don’t touch my configuration issues that don’t work (mounting/unmounting, etc.) at all.

Somehow I knew it: YouTube = 99.99% crap.
 
Thanks, although I positively hate videos of installations that don’t have an accompanying transcript. Having to glimpse every single command and pausing the video repeatedly is pretty annoying. It’s what lazy people and those looking to monetize their videos via YouTube are doing.
I understand. I would have liked to see something in the description that links to a step by step guide. But that is the best that I could find. Seeing those videos gave me the idea of using FreeBSD as my primary system. But I am still on the fence. I like MacOS. It works well on my Hackintosh.

The beauty of FreeBSD is in its performance
and in its stable work, configure it once and use it for years on your real hardware.
I can say the same thing about MacOS. I have been using my Hackintosh for years and it get upgraded to the latest OS without any hassle.
There are a couple of instances when an update breaks the drivers for the nvidia card. But that is quickly resolved.
 
this is something that I found long time ago, lots of useful info.

Nice, that looks promising. If I ever get a working system together, I’m going to write a how-to myself, from start to finish. Funny how WM’s or developers assume the user is not going to do simple things like accessing network shares. In a company of any size, people would be unable to work if this did not work.

FreeBSD is rather exceptional as a server platform, as a desktop it’s “meh”.
 
But I am still on the fence. I like MacOS. It works well on my Hackintosh.

As you’re running a Hackintosh, you’re probably not too concerned about stability. You may find that FreeBSD, once configured, is more stable. There are no niceties though, like consistent HiDPi or working network share mounting. Things that are so basic to macOS they are just treated as a given.

I can say the same thing about MacOS.

I’m with you on that. Ignore the poster, he’s a fanboy who is often just stirring up trouble.
 
Ignore the poster, he’s a fanboy who is often just stirring up trouble.
Unfortunately the fan boy is you ;)
I'm not a fan of anything, I just like good open source software,
no matter how it is licensed (GPL/BSD/MIT) or what company/guy created it.
While you use stuff from one company and promote it everywhere in your postings...
So who is an Apple™ fan-boy? ;) Yes, it's clear enough that it is you.

BTW, it is much better to ignore you, herrbischoff, because you never post any technical stuff,
only "...bla-bla-bla..." or "apple bla-bla-bla..." or "macos bla-bla-bla-bla desktop...",
more than 100 postings and 0 of them are useful.

P.S.: In my original first post I wrote nothing about Macos,
I wrote about FreeBSD, that it is stable, do not know why you guys
started to comparing Macos and FreeBSD, it is stupid,
it is two completely different operating systems.
 
I’m with you on that. Ignore the poster, he’s a fanboy who is often just stirring up trouble.
I don't believe he is trying to stir up anything. He was pointing out FreeBSD's stability and I was also claiming that in my experience with my Hackintosh, I had no issues. MacOS has been just as stable. So stability is not the issue for me looking into running FreeBSD as a Desktop.

As you’re running a Hackintosh, you’re probably not too concerned about stability. You may find that FreeBSD, once configured, is more stable. There are no niceties though, like consistent HiDPi or working network share mounting. Things that are so basic to macOS they are just treated as a given.
The Hackintosh has been running for years without an issue. Does everything I need really. I guess my only reason for asking about FreeBSD is the allure of building up something from scratch just the way you want it.

There are somethings that you just take for granted in MacOS (or any mainstream OS; even Linux distros). Stuff like...
  1. Microsoft Exchange Support in the mail client.
  2. Being able to mount a USB by just plugging it in. I have seen some Linux distros need text files edited and terminal commands done just to accomplish that. No thank you.. I need it plug and play.
  3. Mount network drives and folders.
  4. Watch movies, etc. Stream tv shows on Kodi.
  5. Graphics drivers that give you all the performance of your graphics card.
  6. Drivers for my Kensington trackball. I need to be able to configure all the buttons to use all the features.
I guess these and other things are the ones that keep me on the fence.
 
don't believe he is trying to stir up anything.

Fair enough. I'm probably biased because in the past he acted quite inappropriate at times with personal insults and whatnot. I retract my comment.

Stuff like...

I see what you mean. Some of those points are exactly what's preventing me from switching to FreeBSD full-time, as much as I want to. Personally, I don't want to have to use Linux, so the next best thing for me is macOS. I guess it's a similar situation for you. Good to hear that the Hackintosh setup is stable. The last time I checked, it was rather flaky and Apple services like iMessage and iCloud (not really essential stuff) did not work at all.

I hope to be able to resolve some of the points in my trial with a VM. Certain functionality like proper ZFS support and Jails are just too useful to easily dismiss for a development machine setup. :) Being part of a product development team, I'm also tied to the Microsoft online ecosystem like Teams, Skype for Business, Outlook and the like. Having to use all those services via a web browser is just not workable in the long run. I'm not in the position to change this, so I have to work within certain restrictions I am given. There's also no official Visual Studio Code version for FreeBSD, which is mainly because of Electron not being properly supported. There's experimental work going on but I wouldn't exactly call that production-ready. Because of the type and complexity of the applications being developed, Vim doesn't cut it, which is unfortunate because I love it and used it for years.
 
I do not have any ties to Microsoft. I could do without Outlook. Skype is useful, but I use WhatsApp more. I use Apple Mail rather than Outlook. I use iTunes for my music. For me, I just want something that works and has all the abilities that we take for granted.
 
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