FreeBSD not a good choice for desktop use

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Theone666

Hello,

I'm a linux user and I wanted to try out freebsd for a while now but couldn't find the spare time. That day finally came and after trying it for a couple of days I realized that while freebsd is a good choice for a server use, it's an awful choice for a desktop use.
Main reasons for me were
1) Lack of support for drivers, especially wifi.
2) No flash support without linux emulation(yes this is a workaround and can give problems)
3) The ammount of time it takes to update.
4) The lack of updated packages. I tried installing firefox with pkg_add and I got firefox 3.0.x. Installing firefox from the ports(you'll get 3.6.4 which is good) takes time and you most likely will get some errors if the system is not up to date.

You can get packages from the package manager that are seriously outdated and by now there is no point in even having such outdated software around. Why would I risk the security of my system and not to mention user experience by using them?
I could get some more up to date packages from the ports but that takes forever and 10 days to compile. Sometimes the download speed is super slow and it's not from my part(I have an 8mbps connection).
And I'm sure that I would of discovered more if I used it more.

I guess freebsd is just not ment for some things.
 
Theone666 said:
Hello,

I'm a linux user and I wanted to try out freebsd for a while now but couldn't find the spare time. That day finally came and after trying it for a couple of days I realized that while freebsd is a good choice for a server use, it's an awful choice for a desktop use.
Main reasons for me were
1) Lack of support for drivers, especially wifi.
2) No flash support without linux emulation(yes this is a workaround and can give problems)
3) The ammount of time it takes to update.
4) The lack of updated packages. I tried installing firefox with pkg_add and I got firefox 3.0.x. Installing firefox from the ports(you'll get 3.6.4 which is good) takes time and you most likely will get some errors if the system is not up to date.

You can get packages from the package manager that are seriously outdated and by now there is no point in even having such outdated software around. Why would I risk the security of my system and not to mention user experience by using them?
I could get some more up to date packages from the ports but that takes forever and 10 days to compile. Sometimes the download speed is super slow and it's not from my part(I have an 8mbps connection).
And I'm sure that I would of discovered more if I used it more.

I guess freebsd is just not ment for some things.
Click to expand...

You only mentioned criteria relavent to you. For others this doesn't apply:
1) Use wire, it works much, much better (even when you have driver for wifi, I'd chose wire over wifi)
2) Who cares.... Use cclive, to fetch from youtube, if you really want, use firefox, or latest opera (not in ports yet) to view html5. Go go go html5
3 and 4) Don't update if you don't want it. Latest software version number doesn't mean best version. I update when I have time. You can sue packages. YOu can use other PC to compile packages, if you have it..... there are many options (don't use GNOME and KDE, they are HEAVY beasts, use custom DE)

I'm using FreeBSD as my desktop os for 2 years, and There is absolutely no other OS, that I'd like to use for my desktop.

As for linux.... It's nice until you need to do something particular with it.... it's a mess. Don't want to start frame war
 
killasmurf86 said:
You only mentioned criteria relavent to you. For others this doesn't apply:
1) Use wire, it works much, much better (even when you have driver for wifi, I'd chose wire over wifi)
Click to expand...

Even if I wanted sometimes I can't for the simple reason that the router is located in another room.

2) Who cares.... Use cclive, to fetch from youtube, if you really want, use firefox, or latest opera (not in ports yet) to view html5. Go go go html5
Click to expand...

Cclive is not a solution. How can you not see how stupid that sounds, downloading videos just to watch them.

3 and 4) Don't update if you don't want it. Latest software version number doesn't mean best version.
Click to expand...

Correct. Latest version number doesn't necessarly mean best but when a security update is out then it means better.
 
Theone666 said:
Even if I wanted sometimes I can't for the simple reason that the router is located in another room.
Click to expand...
Buy longer wire :D

Theone666 said:
Cclive is not a solution. How can you not see how stupid that sounds, downloading videos just to watch them.
Click to expand...
It's not stupid. it's very simple way to watch youtube.... (not that I do it :) )

Theone666 said:
downloading videos just to watch them.
Click to expand...
Like you don't download them when you watch videos using stupid flash players :)
 
FreeBSD not a good choice for desktop use for Theone666

I use it strictly as a desktop and have had absolutely no issues whatsoever.
 
Only 1 and 2 are valid complaints, but they're not enough to persuade me that my FreeBSD desktop machines are unusable.

Both of my machines use a wired connection. I'm old-fashioned and still think of a desktop machine as something that sits on top of my desk, not my lap. ;) If you want to argue that FreeBSD isn't good for mobile computing, your point would perhaps be more appropriate (but still not convincing imho).

I tend to agree with killasmurf86 and see the lack of Flash as a feature, not a shortcoming.

As for 3 and 4, I don't find either of them to be true. I update the portstree and my ports daily, 8-STABLE once a week. I think the time required is more than reasonable. And I've yet to encounter any problems that I couldn't solve on my own or after a bit of time reading the mailinglists.

But I don't use pre-built packages or bloated software like Firefox (I prefer Midori instead), so I can't speak to those specific points.
 
I love ports

ports most of time provide last version for every thing , I use port all the time on my laptop I avoid update big packages like qt and kde , it don't take mush time if you update every weak , and most linux distribution will provide out dated package , I love port you can find every thing there except some cases
 
Watching youtube videos with youtube-dl is not at all stupid -> together with any multimedia player (vlc/xine/mplayer) it is as good as any web browser with flash. Big + is that, it uses much less CPU.

With youtube-dl you don't need to download a full video to watch it - you can play it while downloading.

For low-end computers like netbooks it is a good work around of low CPU power (eg. 900 MHz).
 
Re watching YouTube videos:

Lately I've been using multimedia/gpodder to update my subscriptions and fetch videos for watching with mplayer. If someone sends me a link or I see something interesting on a website, I hand it off to cclive as killasmurf86 suggests.

This way I only download and watch the videos I'm interested in, and not the ones that someone else is pushing on me for one reason or another. (Advertisements! Pr0n! Stupid kitteh tricks!) I figure the extra time it takes to do it my way is more than compensated for by the time I haven't wasted idly browsing and using up bandwidth on unwanted videos.
 
hm.. now i see why openbsd is "closed" project and why they flame you if you want *something* not in road map of the project. all those flash rants (ok wireless i do like to have more) are too much seen recently. and indeed as popular the os become the more.. unpleasant(?) things start to happen.

P.S. i *think* that i am becoming a troll so.. if that is indeed happening - shoot on sight.
 
mmmm

I see comparing freebsd with linux is pointless , I use freebsd for two Year and every thing I need I can easily found ,, really Im getting bored from these thread and I think it should mention in forum rule no one is allowed to post something like that ,freebsd rock on wireless area I connect using wpa password ,it is not freebsd proplem if there is no driver for your card (some cards doesn't has driver ) freebsd wirless stack is ported to solaris os and ath driver is ported to linux ,,, I see that some people didn't want to get there hand dirty and try to blame freebsd I think they should use windows
for youtube video have you heard of html5 (even Iphone drop support to flash ) so flash can go to hell
 
Every thing I need I get in FreeBSD: fvwm, a browser, TeX, vim, cmus and a compiler. This I call desktop,it's more or less the same desktop since the early 90s. But that's not the desktop for average joe. And for the latter Linux fits way better most of the time. If you discover the penalties of youd system of choice, you are able to make it better. Hype just clouds the mind.
 
Theone666 said:
1) Lack of support for drivers, especially wifi.
2) No flash support without linux emulation(yes this is a workaround and can give problems)
Click to expand...

I enjoy freebsd as a desktop.

#1. I use wired personally, I can see how this sucks though.
#2. Linux has no up to date flash support with x64 either. FreeBSD not supporting flash natively is no ones fault but ADOBE's.

As for freebsd desktop in general, It works for me and my hardware. I enjoy working with freebsd and that is why I use it. I do not go on linux forums crying about how all linux's have different defaults and random ways of doing many things. Instead I just use what works for me and leave it at that.
 
Right. 'nuff said, it's going all over the place, and it's all been said before ;)

Closed.
 
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