How did you switch to FreeBSD?

C

clueless

I've been a windows 10 user for years now, and before Windows 7, but I've been also booting Linux distributions on a Live USB to get away from Windows from time to time, and I've been trying FreeBSD on a virtual machine, lately I've only been having too many issues with Windows 10 (and I'd never install Windows 11, I've been only staying with Windows 10 because of Microsoft Office and convenience that I got used to with using it), so I'm considering switching to FreeBSD, how did any of you prepare the switch before doing it if you had a similar history? I've been trying to make a list of softwares I need on daily use and trying to run it on FreeBSD, is there anything else I should be aware before making such a big switch to consider besides that?
 
dump all your data you want to save on a backup.. then download the memstick and wipe your disk clean with a new installation of glorious freebsd.

Not much to think about. "Just do it".
 
I came from MacOs and was fed up with the walled garden it forces you into. Since FreeBSD and MacOs are related (the command line in MacOs is very BSD'ish), the natural choice for me was FreeBSD. I liked very much the fact that FreeBSD comes very polished, with the man-pages working, etc. FreeBSD feels very much like a propriety (in terms of quality) product. This is not the case with the various Linux distributions, which seem to vary only between extrem nerdyness (like Arch) or some Windows-Wannabe (like Ubuntu).

The rest was diving into the cold water: I ditched my MacBook, using it only in emergencies, and forced myself into using FreeBSD as my daily driver. This meant approaching problems with a certain edge, i.e. reading documentation, not relying on some support hotline, etc. This can be annoying sometimes, but has the advantage that I feel like really owning my system: I am the king of my castle, not Apple, or Microsoft, etc.
 
I did a backup of all data to ext4 from Linux then converted my systems and built a new zfs raid10 backup system and moved my backed up raw data over. I should really compress my backups lol. Then I just restore what I need.
 
If you have enough hard disk space, why not install it in an empty partition? See
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/
The handbook for this OS is very good and large.

Try the Live CD (or Mem-Stick Image): you can select to run it or install it
Using bsdinstall - a menu system for the installation
Starting with packages but not the ports system for user software and without -dbg Debug, and Sources.

FreeBSD comes not with a desktop. But you are free to choose any one:
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/desktop/
While FreeBSD is popular as a server for its performance and stability, it is also well suited for day-to-day use as a desktop.With over 36000 applications available in the FreeBSD ports tree, it is straightforward to build a customized desktop that can run a wide variety of desktop applications.This chapter demonstrates how to ...
Click to expand...
"available in the FreeBSD ports tree" means, there are also packages for it. Software from the ports must be compiled. Packages can be very easy installed.
 
Well, I still need Windows for several softwares and some I won't run virtualized for performance means (Cubase), so I use both by a fail safe dual boot : I've setup FreeBSD on an external SSD drive (USB 3.1), this allows me to run FreeBSD by simply plug my drive in, if I don't, I simply boot on my W11 internal hard drive. No buggy GRUB/Windows Boot Manager dual boot and it's much safer for my drives data ?
 
OP should probably have posted to the Forums' official self-intro thread in the Off-Topic area, it's pinned by the mods to be at top of the list:
Thread introduce-yourself-tell-us-who-you-are-and-why-you-chose-freebsd.68079

This is my post in that thread, introducing myself:
forums.freebsd.org

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

We welcome any slang from Pidgin English to Oxford, indeed, don't we? Some members use an online translating service & from my experience these work sufficiently well. I have even seen some spanish speaking members offering to translate when someone was having trouble to find the right terms...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
 
astyle said:
OP should probably have posted to the Forums' official self-intro thread in the Off-Topic area, it's pinned by the mods to be at top of the list:
Thread introduce-yourself-tell-us-who-you-are-and-why-you-chose-freebsd.68079

This is my post in that thread, introducing myself:
forums.freebsd.org

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

We welcome any slang from Pidgin English to Oxford, indeed, don't we? Some members use an online translating service & from my experience these work sufficiently well. I have even seen some spanish speaking members offering to translate when someone was having trouble to find the right terms...
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org
Click to expand...
As I stated in the thread, while I did tell those things mentioned in the introduction in the thread, I did it so to others know why I was asking the following questions further. So, it really doesn't fit into the introduction thread. Also, I couldn't think of any other category it'd fit into, so I figured it was probably better to post on Off-Topic category.

clueless said:
how did any of you prepare the switch before doing it if you had a similar history? I've been trying to make a list of softwares I need on daily use and trying to run it on FreeBSD, is there anything else I should be aware before making such a big switch to consider besides that?
Click to expand...

Certainly doesn't fit either one of the questions from introduction thread nor adequate to ask there or hope to get a specific reply to what i'm asking in such a different thread. ( Introduce yourself, tell us who you are and why you chose FreeBSD / Who's new to FreeBSD? Did you migrate from another OS and what was your reason?)
Also, my account is new so my post had to be approved beforehand so I doubt I posted it in the wrong place if it got approved. Also my questions fit into the title if it had to be condensed for a title. Thanks for the recommendation though, I don't mean to sound rude, just explaining why it was posted on Off-Topic.
 
I was a hardware guy who only knew assembly and C. I also owned a number of franchised restaurants that, in 2003, didn't have much of a web site and didn't do online ordering. So I decided I'd make one for my restaurants.

I only knew Unix to a point but could never afford that and our cash registers ran Windows. My wife's brother-in-law was a programmer and project manager for a big Windows software company and got me all the tools I needed to program Windows for free. I was months into the project--nearly done--when Microsoft made a change that collapsed the whole thing.

Called the brother-in-law who recommended switching to Linux but I could never get the thing to work. Grabbed some floppies I had made years before (but never used) for FreeBSD and it installed right away. And the rest is history.
 
Yeah I'd suggest buying another storage drive for your machine and installing your new OS on that. That way you can easily just swap between the two. Less risk of destroying file systems by trying multi-booting, which rarely works and is more hassle than it's worth in my view.

These days, because I live in an ivory tower with a solid gold toilet, I have separate machines for different operating systems/distributions. ?
 
astyle the introductions topic is ideal for introductions, however some answers here (to questions in the opening post) here don't belong under introductions.

clueless said:
… Linux distributions on a Live USB …
Click to expand...

So, you're probably familiar with, or at least aware of, things such as LibreOffice.

clueless said:
… how did any of you prepare the switch … I've been trying to make a list of softwares I need on daily use and trying to run it on FreeBSD, is there anything else I should be aware before making such a big switch …
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Do you have a particular computer in mind and if so, what's the hardware? Audio, graphics, and Wi-Fi in particular.

Long story short: if you already have the computer, and if it has 4 GB or more memory, try a live boot of GhostBSD – <{link removed}>. The most recently provided image there is close to what's possible with FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE. Check YouTube playback in both Chromium and FreeBSD; and so on.

Longer story – defocusing from GhostBSD – significant problems (compared to your Linux distros) might include:
  • inability to boot the installer
  • inability to get a Wi-Fi connection during, or after, installation
  • difficulty getting graphics (for a desktop environment)
  • audio failure after wake from sleep, need to restart the entire operating system.
 
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clueless said:
As I stated in the thread, while I did tell those things mentioned in the introduction in the thread, I did it so to others know why I was asking the following questions further. So, it really doesn't fit into the introduction thread. Also, I couldn't think of any other category it'd fit into, so I figured it was probably better to post on Off-Topic category.



Certainly doesn't fit either one of the questions from introduction thread nor adequate to ask there or hope to get a specific reply to what i'm asking in such a different thread. ( Introduce yourself, tell us who you are and why you chose FreeBSD / Who's new to FreeBSD? Did you migrate from another OS and what was your reason?)
Also, my account is new so my post had to be approved beforehand so I doubt I posted it in the wrong place if it got approved. Also my questions fit into the title if it had to be condensed for a title. Thanks for the recommendation though, I don't mean to sound rude, just explaining why it was posted on Off-Topic.
Click to expand...
I don't mean to be rude, either - it's just that when reading through the self-intro thread, I noticed that it does have a lot of those conversations woven into it. I participated in a number of such conversations myself, it's just a way to welcome someone to the Forums.

Some Forums newcomers do have questions about FreeBSD and include them in their self-intro post in that thread, and get quick answers - that's just fine. The entire self-intro thread is in the Off-Topic area anyway. Idea being, that if one wants to have an in-depth technical conversation on a FreeBSD-related issue, the Forums have a place for that. But for just quickly dipping your toes into FreeBSD, and figuring out what to look out for - the self-intro thread is not a bad place for that.

For an example of an in-depth discussion that deserves its own thread, my Thread sienna_cichlid-driver.86670 thread is in System Hardware section of the Forums...
 
astyle said:
Some Forums newcomers do have questions about FreeBSD and include them in their self-intro post in that thread, and get quick answers - that's just fine.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's just fine. When that thread was started up, I questioned one of the mods (who shall remain nameless) as to why we needed such a thing. The ONLY reason was to keep these intro threads out of the other areas because, at the time, they were popping up as individual posts containing nothing but "Welcome to the forums!" responses and then getting off into other subjects unrelated. This way they were confined to one spot.
 
OP: if you have a second computer, consider making this your first FreeBSD machine. Then you can use and learn about FreeBSD while still having your familiar environment on the other computer.
 
I was at IBM in the main frame arena when we introduced the PC and DOS 1.0 my preferred language was ASM.

All of my production work is done on various Windows and VMware platforms.
I dabble in FBSD after an introduction via XigmaNAS because I like its purity and lack of bloat.
 
clueless said:
I've been trying to make a list of softwares I need on daily use and trying to run it on FreeBSD, is there anything else I should be aware before making such a big switch to consider besides that?
Click to expand...

You're going to waste a huge amount of time (and encounter lots of frustration) tying to shoehorn your use case into a system that isn't designed for your use case. You will have a gimped experience with a bunch of hacks to maintain should you choose that route. Outside of web browsing and blabbing on these forums; FreeBSD lacks the hardware and software support for most desktop use cases. Just think of the outcomes/productivity you were able to produce with that list of applications you use on a day-to-day basis; it won't exist on FreeBSD. If you care about having a Unix environment with a plethora of apps to use; just get a Mac. If you want to delve into the world of general Unix administration and systems development; FreeBSD is perfect for that. Just grab VirtualBox, a release ISO, and go.
 
I've switched from OS/2 years ago. Fortunately, Japanese version of OS/2 didn't have actually-usable office apps (actually exists, but tooooo heavy) and IBM WebBrowser for OS/2 was a port of Mozilla, so switching browser was quite easy to migrate. Just needed common FAT16 partition for data exchange. (Even FAT32 didn't exist at the moment on OS/2).
What I struggled was to find usable (Japanese capable and handy) MUA and IME for Japanese.
For MUA, PCMPM/2 on OS/2 used customized version of MH type storage, I found mail/sylpheed can handle them with quite easy conversion.
For IME, japanese/scim-anthy was usable and japanese/fcitx-mozc was ported far later and quite usable.

Unfortunately, these alternatives (except www/mozilla at the moment and now www/firefox as successor) was not exists on OS/2.

If there are apps common between Windows10 and FreeBSD, try it on Windows first. If you find it's usable for your existing data, you can migrate data it can properly handle to FreeBSD.
Repeating this for all data you need would be most painless (but time consuming).
The apps which its data cannot be migrated would be so-called "Killer Apps" on Windows for you.
 
For me it was a process
took about three years to change from 98% Windows (7) and 2% Linux to 100% FreeBSD.

If you start with FreeBSD, and being completely new to the world of un1x,
I recommend to have a second, additional machine (old hardware) you can experiment with, having no data of any worth on it, and another one running, reading the handbook, manpages, how-tos, tipps, tricks, and problem solutions, as this forums are a goldmine for those.

Getting into FreeBSD to me is mostly two things:
1. Learn to work with the shell.
Most use bash or sh. I prefer tcsh, and sh for scripting.
But this depends highly on personal taste, or what you want to do.
The nicest thing about FreeBSD is you don't need to stick with anything "but everybody else do it this way."
If you don't like bash (which I can comprehend), but are very comfortable with zsh, well then use zsh.
With FreeBSD you can, you're free.
(Except: Don't try to change root's login shell! That's a dangerous trap.)

2. Learn to read manpages.
The official handbook is of course the main documentation, and it gets you pretty far,
but no book can cover everything.
But the manpages do.
They are a gold mine.
Especially the lower parts refer to related manpages, and files.

Additionally take a peek at your /usr/local/share/doc/ - another goldmine.
(I have it bookmarked in my browser.)
And get additonally books on FreeBSD like "Absolute FreeBSD",
or others, if you want to dig into something specific deeper.

Participating this forums for several years
I estimate over 90% of all questions could have been answered by oneself by just reading the handbook, or manpages. Nearly all of those questions a beginner may have, are already answered anywhere at least once, mostly within this forums.

Learn FreeBSD, experiment with it, try things out, do some tests, crash disks, reinstall, play with it.
Until you feel confident enough to set up your production system.
Of course you don't have to become the total geek for that.
FreeBSD is pretty tolerant and robust.

Rule #1 in FreeBSD:
Don't panic!
When anything bad happens, stay cool!
There always is a solution.

You may experience at the beginning many occasions when the machine will not start completely anymore.
That's quite normal. I think we all experienced that.
Most of the times it's just because you tinkered something within /boot/loader.conf or /etc/rc.conf.
Just type what the system message tells you to get a proper shell running,
mount your partition writable (it's all in the handbook),
comment the line which caused the trouble, and reboot.
Anyway in almost all cases there is a solution, and at least you may get to your data.
Last straw would be ask in this forums.
I am regulary surprised what gurus may post here tricky solutions I never thought of in my wildest dreams.

If you got this you're in.

Step by step I moved more production to FreeBSD,
until I plugged off my Windows 7 Pro HDD.
Two years later also Windows 7 Home (Games) went into the cupboard.
Since last year I have a completely new machine which has never seen anything but FreeBSD (Windows for games within VirtualBox, okay)

I miss nothing, have everything I need, and get better every day at FreeBSD.
Just simply read.
Don't rely on video turtorials - way too inefficient.
read.
Anything else will come automatically.

In the retroperspective FreeBSD is really simple:
Install from USB-stick-image,
get a x-server running, which is not the "black magic" anymore like in the 1990s, when we had to fumble with mode tables on flickering screens, just don't expect the latest graphics adapter released yesterday will work.
Get one from last year, even costs less.
Decide for a DE or WM - you may change this anytime.

The rest is pkg install, freebsd-update, and reading the handbook, and manpages,
and enjoying a powerful, reliable, robust, and stable system,
you may have full control over,
which doesn't piss you off every couple of months.

Ah, yeah, one last crucial point:

Don't try to adapt FreeBSD to you experiences with any non-BSD system,
this will miss the whole point completely.
Adapt yourself to BSD.

Don't think Windows,
think unix.
 
Beastie7 , I built two rigs with hardware that was brand-new, recently released, and pretty high-performance (at time of purchase). And I was quite happy with KDE. In the meanitme, Microsoft and Apple were busy pulling some incredible nonsense that got me frustrated. And I'm writing this on a Lenovo Thinkpad laptop with a Ryzen 7 5000 series, 40 GB of RAM, and working wifi :P

And yeah, it's easier to configure than a Mac, no stupid restrictions that Apple pulls out of their ass. No stupid updates like Microsoft, that break convenient features. Set it up the way you like, and rest assured that you won't be forced into a stupid update that breaks your workflow.

If you do decide to do an upgrade on FreeBSD, at least you know that there is a risk that dependency hell will break everything, and can plan for that so that an upgrade brings the least amount of unpleasant surprises. Apple and MS updates do bring a LOT of unpleasant surprises like loss of useful features that used to be included by default and free. Worst part is, there's no good way to plan for THAT with Apple or M$... If a FreeBSD installation breaks, I'd rather live with that than with the knowledge that I'm stuck paying for something that used to be free 5 minutes ago prior to the crash.
 
clueless welcome to The FreeBSD Forums. If you're sitting comfortably, the usherette will be with you soon. Ice cream and popcorn to complement the on-screen entertainment :)

clueless said:
… my account is new so my post had to be approved …
Click to expand...

Yes, I think a side-effect is that your second comment did not become visible until some time after later comments.

grahamperrin said:
… inability to boot the installer …
Click to expand...

T-Aoki said:
… maybe … "FreeBSD does not support 100% of LATEST …
Click to expand...

{link removed}

I have not yet sought a matching report in Bugzilla.

grahamperrin said:
… audio failure after wake from sleep, need to restart the entire operating system. …
Click to expand...

{link removed}
 
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I didn't switch to anything, I use the right tool for the job.

For a desktop: Windows 11. Sometimes ChromeOS.
If my application requires .net or IIS: Windows Server 2016/2019/2022
If I can get away with using an open source server: FreeBSD
If I can get away with using an open source server and the 3rd party software only runs on Linux: Debian
If I need a quick and dirty network device and don't want to purchase Cisco: OpenBSD
If I just want to tinker with something: NetBSD
 
grahamperrin said:
Kernel panic with attempted load of i915kms after amdgpu · Issue #289 · freebsd/drm-kmod
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This one is not making sense... why would someone want to load both i915kms and amdgpu? You only need one of them for graphics in FreeBSD. Those two drivers compete for the same hardware resources, which need to be allocated on an exclusive basis.

Plugging one monitor into AMD GPU and another into mobo's HDMI/DP/VGA/etc port that feeds from i915 Intel iGPU will create race conditions in the kernel, and that's what causes the kernel panic.

I'd say an easy solution is to just let the discrete AMD GPU card handle all the graphics, and drive both monitors. Maybe disable the integrated graphics in the BIOS altogether?

An idea occurred to me - does Windows handle this mixing of drivers any better?
 
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