Show Your FreeBSD Workstation (Specs + Screenshot)

Isoux

Isoux

Hi everyone,

I thought it would be interesting to have a dedicated thread where we can share actual FreeBSD workstations — not just hardware lists, but real systems that people actively use, along with a screenshot of the running environment.

Here is my current setup (screenshot attached):
FreeBSD 14.2-RELEASE (in the middle of upgrading to 14.3-RELEASE, as you can see in the terminal),
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 x24, 16 GB RAM, ATI RV515 graphics, and roughly 1 TB of disk space.

Feel free to post your workstation specs, desktop environment, terminal setup, storage layout, and a screenshot if possible. It might be helpful for new and experienced users alike to see what FreeBSD looks like in daily use.

Looking forward to seeing your systems!

Screenshot at 2025-11-19 21-42-18.png
 
CodeBlock

Thread 'FreeBSD Screen Shots'

Going to try to start a trend here ;), if this belongs in another subforum (like window managers), mods feel free to move it :).

I'm a member of the ArchLinux forums (used Arch before coming to FreeBSD) and monthly they have a screenshots thread which is neat because it gives everyone a chance to see some new window managers, configs, styles, themes, etc.

Basically what they do is post a screenshot (thumbnail usually linked to a bigger image) of their desktop, and usually talk about the config a bit. Some of them are quite interesting :).

So instead of our 17 or so window-manager...
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MSI mainboard, AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.7/4.8GHz, 64G RAM, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
14.3-RELEASE-p5
14.3-RELEASE-p5
14.3-RELEASE-p5
2x 256G NVME as ZFS mirror for /
2x 256G SSD as ZFS mirror for /home
2x 1T SSD as ZFS mirror for miscellaneous

my workstation (scroll down)
Screenshot of my WM (fvwm2)

Plus:
My little server (NAS mostly)
ASUS board, AMD Phenom II X4 980 3.7GHz, 16G RAM, some passive cooled GPU to get a terminal in case
13.5-RELEASE
13.5-RELEASE
13.5-RELEASE-p1
9 HDDs providing 12.37T in mirrors, and raidz2
NFS, Samba, for backups, porn collection, and SVN-server

a Laptop (ASUS TUF505)
upgraded to 32 GB RAM,
WLAN card exchanged for an Intel (the former didn't work with FreeBSD)
1x 512GB NVME, 1x 1T SSD
synchronized with my workstation's home

and dust collectors:
three HP EliteDesk, one with FreeBSD 13.? for brute force experiments, one still may have some ancient ubuntu on it (not aware if there is still RAM in that thing), my fossil Commodore C64, (Amigas gone), and three RaspPis in shoe boxes.
 
I don't necessarily agree, after more than 40 years dealing with computers and about 30 in the industry I found that having a system with almost everything preconfigured for you is a nice touch.

That's why I use FreeBSD and KDE.

Code: 
pkg install kde sddm xorg drm-61-kmod
sysrc kld_list="i915kms"
sysrc sddm_enable="YES"
reboot

Done. Nothing more is needed. No fiddling with text files, all the apps are already there. Being in my late fifties I now appreciate those things.
 
Workstation running FreeBSD: I have one laptop HP Zbook 15 G3 and one desktop HP Z600. The desktop one is a dual quadcore Xeon X5570. Two screens wired on an Nvidia Quadro K2000. The Z600 was used for CAD/CAE, but I changed software (FreeCAD -> Alibre + Mecway) and I had to switch to another Z620 with Windows 10. The Zbook is used right now as a serial terminal via USB for my embedded hardware, a bit overkill, isn't it?

Desktop manager ? See by yourself:
2025-11-20-201933_2720x1024_scrot.png
 
doul said:
So I'm not the only one who puts a light behind the screens?
Click to expand...
Nope.😁
(That's why I control closely all my pix before I post them. Some have really sharp eyes and look very closely :cool:)
Oh! I better cleaned those ancient spiderstrings before I took the pic 😂 (I look so seldom behind the monitor.)
Another pic from my weird engineering forge *cough*:
backlight.jpg


First time I saw something like that was on an old TV-set from the late 70s (tube) my grandparents had, and was puzzled:
A light bulb mounted into the back of the TV? 🤪
Yes. To light up the wall behind it.

Later I learned: Too much contrast ain't good for the eyes. That's why many also adjust their DE/WM/xterm/editor... colorsettings: Permanentely black text ond white background ain't really that good. It tires your eyes quicker.
(I also attached a pinkish paper to the wall, and my WM's wallpaper is made of warm, orange colors. As a highly sensitive person I can consciously feel the effects colors can have on the temper.)

So, a pair of bi-pin sockets (G4, GU4, G23,... need to see what your do-it-yourself store offers; lamp and socket must fit, of course. WARNING! As long as you are not a certified electrician, just deal with max 12 V! Don't do such a stunt with 120...240V⚡! [Mine is 12 V]), some wire, and an old wall cube (output voltage must fit the lamp(s) [12 V] {see my post}), and some tinkering.

Of course there are infinite other ways to get a light behind the monitor and light the wall.
 
fmc000 said:
I don't necessarily agree, after more than 40 years dealing with computers and about 30 in the industry I found that having a system with almost everything preconfigured for you is a nice touch.

That's why I use FreeBSD and KDE.

Code: 
pkg install kde sddm xorg drm-61-kmod
sysrc kld_list="i915kms"
sysrc sddm_enable="YES"
reboot

Done. Nothing more is needed. No fiddling with text files, all the apps are already there. Being in my late fifties I now appreciate those things.
Click to expand...
Ok, this is not ageing well...

Since I posted the Phoronix article about the new CDE release I found myself installing, configuring, creating icons and so on, like I used to do so many times in the previous decades of my career.

My backup laptop is almost ready, now it's time to decide if KDE is going to be phased out on the main system too.

Man, how much do I love CDE, nothing is so blazingly fast and easy to use once properly configured .
 
Yeah! Another fvwm user :cool:
Here some ideas from my ~/.fvwm/my.config how to pimp the vanilla version:

Since I frequently adapt my fvwm (mostly menu entries) I have an alias set in my ~/.cshrc (you may use another shell):
alias edfvwm vim $HOME/.fvwm/my.config

The very first (commentary) lines I have manual entries, "bookmarks"/reminders, at which lines my menu, my terminal definitions, etc. begin, so I can get quicker there. More elegant of course was using marks. In vim at your first root menu's line you may set the mark 'm' by pressing mm, and with 'm to jump there.

Under #Start Function I have:
Code: 
# better than those boring default old people wallpaper:
+ I Exec exec fvwm-root -r $HOME/.fvwm/Wallpapers/wallpaperimage.png
# automatically start my desktop with music playing
+ I Test (Init) Exec exec vlc /home/.../playlists/Jazzradio-vlc-Favorites-320k.pls.xspf

I have several own terminals defined: full screen, double, triple,... start in certain directories. Example:
Code: 
DestroyFunc FullTerminal
AddToFunc   FullTerminal
+ I Exec exec xterm -fullscreen -fg \#999999 -bg \#001000 -fn "-adobe-courier-medium-r-*-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
(You may chose other colors, and another font, or another size. I recently enlarged it from 18 to 24 🥸😂 see according sysadminotaur)
and under 5: Mouse and Key bindings
Code: 
# Ctrl-1...0 launches new terminals
Silent Key 1 A C FullTerminal
...
So with Ctrl-1 I get a borderless fullscreen terminal on the monitor where my mouse pointer is.

I also have my own window buttons defined:
screenshot.jpg

The four ones on the left move the window to another desktop page. I find that more useful than the default.
However, just as some few ideas what you can configure with a WM.
But I admit, fvwm's syntax takes a bit to get used to it. Other WMs may have a easier syntax.
 
doul said:
Each one can customize his desktop as he wishes, so you can work in a great environment
Click to expand...
That's the whole point - especially the difference between a desktop environment DE, and a "simple" window manager WM.
Downside: One need to spend some time to find the suiting WM - there are so many choices one can pick from.
You also need to take a closer peek at how its config is done, and if can you live with it, before you decide. And then of course spend some time to configure it.
But you will also find a lot of config files, templates, examples, and ideas on the net, so many things you can do, or learn by copy-paste.
But it's worth it. Once you got the WM you like, configured the way it suits your personal style, it's so cool, relaxing, efficient, productive,...just great, when the shit works exactly like you want it to work.
Looking back I only can feel pity for those poor bastards stick with this 🤪-"structure" of Windows. But they don't know what they are missing, so let them stay wonderland. 😂
 
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