1995 - I'm on MS-DOS then on Windows 95
1998 - on Windows 98
2000 - on ME
(loved reinstalling it every week)
2001-2009 - on XP
2009-2013 - on Windows 7
2013-2025 - hackintosh user
(4 desktops)
I have a university degree in Information Security, working as DBA, was writing music in the past, sub-pro strong in sound engineering. Looking forward into programming on C/C++ and Vulkan to make some AI, completely new tech.
Never liked distros of Linux because all them are compromises in insignificant stuff.
To continue to write music and launch local LLM and to stay on macOS I have to wait M5 Max Mac Studio and have $18k at least for my needs with 4 TB NVME for music and LLMs. But RTX 5090 was only $5500.
Modern computers so powerful, so even half of my Ryzen is enough to write it in VirtualBox on any OS without dual booting.
Tried FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE half year ago. It was tough, I did everything wrong, mixed official repos with my local, didn't used proper commands for installation of my local repo, then I tired, switch to Arch. Achieved everything I need in 3 hours including gaming which is necessary for chill. Then tried Mint (Arch is actually "okay"). I liked Mint, but in dev it's questionable as an initial platform for Vulkan. Of course you can install latest Vulkan and tools, but it's not gonna be with 0 problems and Mint has 4.18 XFCE still, so I used Gnome.
And few months ago something clicked in my brain and I understood FreeBSD and all I did wrong and tried it. Now I'm in control - I decide what and when is gonna be updated and how, because FreeBSD allows and welcomes it.
I also have sound cleaner than on macOS due to proper virtual_oss and bitperfect + 4 level quality resampler.
I launched comfyUI, llama.cpp and koboldCPP with CUDA support, latest Vulkan SDK from poudriere. I have retro games in VirtualBox Windows Server 2022 with Mesa3D opengl replacement on a system level + dxwnd. I've launched Skyrim, Oblivion Remastered, Alien Isolation and few other games I love to play SOMETIMES. Also I've transfered my dosbox wrapper from macOS to FreeBSD. So I basically just reduced amount of reboots to Windows.
Honestly, forget - I don't really want or play games lately, but sometimes I do. And I did FreeBSD mine PlayDeck + have isolated environment for openclaude coding with local LLMs, fresh tools, LTO fast browsers, amazing sound clarity.
I know that there'll be no day "Oh there is better distro, I should reinstall everything 25 time this year". I need an OS which is predictable.
I wish if linuxulator will become better for running 2D/3D applications from linux, but most of the times everything can be covered via VM.
I also like that I encrypt system disk with GELI and... it does it. And works great. "It just works" (c) Todd Howard.
ZFS is the best file system for fast disks with enough RAM. I tried few times to encrypt macOS system disk - it's not the best influence on how system will respond. On Linux encryptfs should be prohibited to be used on kernels above 6 and LUKS on Arch.. well it doesn't work anyway. Basic stuff.
And I've tried to install Studio One on Linux through pipewire-jack. Yes, it works, but pipewire-jack takes monopoly over your sound device. No use of Linux for me, despite couple games on Steam.
It does not completely save me from reboot or using VM. So is the FreeBSD. It's just a question will I be spending on distro hopping or gonna be learning my system and UNIX sometimes or just using it and enjoying good sound and responsive system. That's why I choose FreeBSD. And Hyprland or XFCE. If I'll use Linux for real, next time it's gonna be probably Gentoo or Artix
), keyboard lighting, all specific buttons set up to manage them. Awesome! I deleted debian from both, now happily using a real Unix environment like in the good old days. A much more polished experience then on linux. Congratulations and thanks for the developers!