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

Tiango THX
Now i know i can play around with BSD on my maim machine or at last try to :).
Tomorrow i'll start.
 
hi grafi. i came from Debian as well. You will like FreeBSD. These are my reccomendations (sorry for brevity, typing on iphone). -) read the FreeBSD handbook (sections you are interested in) -) read the man pages, they are really good in FreeBSD. -) use pkg at the beginning. -) use pf firewall to start -) try the linux emulation, when it works it rocks -) try dtrace that is mindblowing

happy hacking :)






Ok Im Grafi
Im completely green in terms of bsd.
Im a long time linux user starting with slackware 9 who stick to vanilla debian for last 6-7 years. And try some others distro too.
Im not scare by cli environments and editing configs manualy. Bsd installer looks crazy (diffrent) compare to arch slackware or debian cli
Port systems is the sexi thing in terms of bsd for me.
I want to have ability to compile every little thing from scratch / source the way i want to.
No linux distro except gentoo (portage) or arch (in some way) give its user that option.
But im not a fan of rolling release systems ang gentoo is to complex to set up properly
On bsd it looks and feel way simpler
Next thing is that BSD is a whole system not just a kernel with bunch of programs that are added by different people then we call it distribution of linux
Im aware that BSD is not linux and im aware of some tech differences.
Different dir structure
different shell tools or if you prefer commands
Every network device have its own network config and interface (you change your card you must change configs and the interface name is diffrent ).
and so on
But im as noob and as green as it could be in terms of bsd systems.


So I do not want to be that annoying guy on forum that ask stupid questions.
I read the forum from some time.
Can you please point me direction for desktop oriented Freebsd info. Manulal partitioning for desktop /boot / /home? or /usr/home/user/name
Some parts BSD calog structure is a mistry for me
Yes i'm aware of Gost Bsd, True OS an things like that.
But the case is i wont to lern the system by everyday use as a desktop then as server when i will learn its anatomy.
Yes i know that Free bsd is not desktop oriented os.
Im currently reading a FreeBSD 7. Installation and configuration by Bryan J. Hong as my main help guide .
Book is grat definitly server oriented lack of some info but very helpfull.
 
FWIW, I had an AMD 6100; it worked great with FreeBSD the whole time I had it. I've been running AMD cpus for many years now; that was never a problem with FreeBSD.
I think AMD is really the one to go with now. I've been using Intel for a decade or so, last AMD I used was a K7 or something like that. I mean an 8 core / 16 thread 4.4GHz peak CPU for around three hundred USD, what's not to love. Plus their chipsets have more features than Intel now. I'm looking forward to running FreeBSD on the AMD desktop system I'm planning to put together, I expect to be impressed.
 
My name is Price. I am a woodworker/craftsperson in Annapolis, Maryland. My last working OS was Win98 with KernelEX.
I've never tried Linux as there seem to be too many flavors.
I chose FreeBSD because the documentation is so extensive.
I have loaded FreeBSD now at least 6 times and I finally have
it running pretty well. I made alot of stupid mistakes.
 
According to some document I felt FreeBSD is more pure unix than linux. So I tried it and friendly kind handbook made every thing easy for me.
After I ran some of my favorite applications I believed I can stay here.
I learnt from FreeBSD that compiling is better than installing from packages.
FreeBSD increased my understanding of what is the better coded software.
In FreeBSD I met underrated treasures in ports system suitable for my hardware, one of them is this www/qutebrowser which is doing every thing I want and opens websites I need a lot lighter than firefox.
Dealing with sources is very easy in FreeBSD, just go to the port and
Code:
 sudo make fetch extract
and yes, you have full code ready, I made some editions in some sources and made them suitable for my personal use, That was so much fun.
FreeBSD is fully cusomizable, It's compact, works clean, folders and mounts are better organized, cmds are simpler yet powerfull.
And a lot more things that my knowladge is not enough to know them and tell them.
 
My decision to migrate our business to FreeBSD was triggered by Windows10. For the first time, Windows 10 made me feel like I do not own my computer, this was the breaking point. With windows XP all the way to Windows 7, and to a certain extent Windows 8, I felt like Stallman & Cie were kind of excessive ideologues with their free software talk.

I didn't feel anything like oppressed, limited or controlled when using Windows. This all changed with Windows 10 when I found myself constantly fighting against my computer. What I found the most shocking is the harassment to install system updates. Every dark pattern trick ever invented is used. I am the kind of person who constantly leaves my computer powered on to avoid wasting time opening development environments, documents, and other applications and projects I am currently working on every morning. I also tend to keep things open to remember to come back to them a few days later. I could go on for months without rebooting.

However, with windows10, if you haven't installed an update for a few days, try stopping using your computer for 30 minutes or - better - going to bed, and when you come back you will have the good surprise of finding that your computer has rebooted itself to install updates (that are sometimes followed by intensive I/O operations slowing your computer down for hours after the update - without you knowing exactly what's taking place in the background).

If it wasn't enough, random applications such as Candy Crush Saga are now added with every update. Advertisements are now included in the start menu apparently with plans to put ads in the file explorer too. And a bunch of creepy features such as so-called "cognitive services" offering to record and analyze each of your keystrokes give me the uncomfortable feeling that everything I do on my computer is being watched by someone and that nothing is truly private. To the point that I have become worried of writing certain documents on Windows 10. If a backdoor exists, the government can subpoena its way through it and hackers may gain access to it too. Moreover, it is not clear what kind of metadata/data about my system Microsoft now stores in the cloud.

There are many other issues, some of them could apparently be mitigated by upgrading to the "Professional" version of Windows 10 which supposedly provides finer-grained configuration options. But there is a breach of trust at this point, the whole foundation on which this OS is built no longer feels right to me. Moreover the direction they are heading to is pretty obvious.

Having seen how Windows 10 got in the way of my productivity, I realized how much it can kill the productivity of employees. Employees would be better served by workstations configured from the bottom up to allow them to get their job done without friction.

So I decided to find an open-source OS that would be stable and no-nonsense. I rapidly came across FreeBSD and after a few months of studying the Handbook, something else happened. For the first time, I realized how comfortable it feels to know the ins and outs of your system and to have a comprehensive documentation for every system utility. This does not exist in the Windows world and I suddenly realized how much time is wasted guessing, and looking up stuff on Google, only to find a list of tricks and workarounds working or not working without clear reasons. And this is without even mentioning artificial system limitations introduced by Microsoft.

I am now irritated every time I have to use a Windows system. And to add to this irony, even Linux does not fit the bill for me at this point. I find it too inconsistent, bloated and poorly documented. I want to leave this type of ecosystem behind. I want a system that I can configure exactly the way I need, and I want to know that what works today will continue to work tomorrow. I want to know that investing time to learn something today is time well-invested because the paradigm will remain stable for the next 10, 20 or 30 years rather than being disrupted from one update to the other. And I want to know that my time and our employees time will not be wasted because someone decided to fix something that wasn't broken.

My only regret with FreeBSD is the major upgrade process which introduces more friction than I had hoped. In particular with regard to the need to rebuild every package which requires users to backup and manually restore every customized configuration file after the upgrade (if I understand correctly). If it was possible to at least keep the configuration files of packages intact when they are rebuilt/re-installed it would be perfect. However, upgrading is - at it seems to stand - a high-risk and high-friction operation (what about if you forget to restore a customized configuration file from a third-party software you use). This may be good to encourage automating configuration deployment, however it makes the burden of system maintenance quite high for situations where such extensive automation adds more complexity and overhead than it solves problems (single server, focusing on going to market fast and iterating fast and grow the farm progressively as demand increases etc...).

However apart from that I feel more than happy to migrate both our servers and workstations to FreeBSD. I want a single operating system to be used throughout the company so that we get to know our system in depth. I also find it preferable that software be developed and tested on the platform on which it will run. For the rest, FreeBSD makes it inspiring to configure and deploy corporate workstations. For example, jails can be used to sandbox email clients to safeguard them in front of dangerous attachments. And the same is true for web browsers. And these are just a few examples, with many regards FreeBSD opens up many opportunities. And the fact that it runs on so many platforms make this vision of FreeBSD everywhere even more interesting from servers to workstations all the way to embedded devices sold to consumers.
there is a bit of me in this comment ... you feel the rage and disappointment of Microsoft Windows and the desire to migrate to better options, admire your efforts studying the handbook and then definitely implement the changes to this system. One of the powerful reasons that brought me to freebsd is that feeling of real and true freedom almost transparent, I feel so calm and free sailing through these waters that I dedicate myself to pay the price by having to face its well deserved learning curve. Linux is not what it used to be, it is a community that is too defragmented and a system that is now too polluted and I don't trust it too much. FreeBSD is one in every sense of the word, it motivates us to remain focused on it.
 
Started with Windows and did quite a bit of system development, debugging, hacking and more on it. This was ~95-2015.
In parallel gradually started with GNU+Linux. Evolution: debian 2005 -> ubuntu 2010 -> arch 2013 -> gentoo 2015 (as my knowledge deepened).
I started using FreeBSD in 2016 for work, mostly networking, jails and cloud development, also Java software development.

Things I like most in FreeBSD: ZFS, OpenRC init system, resource and process efficient (no bloating), very friendly community, stability and continuity, knows its focus.
Things that could be improved: Certain parts of the practical daily usage could be a little more user friendly (mostly for the newcommers). Certain parts of the documentation could be refined or extended.
All in all, it's a great OS and while not covering all my use cases, it's one of the 2 I will be using in future.
There are excellent alternatives to make everything easier than perhaps few we know as desktop-installer (thanks to Jason W. Bacon, Acadix Consulting, LLC ), it is a script to install desktops in freebsd and leaves the system practically ready for immediate use.
 
Hi folks,
I'm a long term GNU/Linux user. Startet in 1999 with SUSE Linux, but with the release of Woody I switched to Debian GNU/Linux. Over the years I tried a lot of other GNU/Linux distros, but for my daily driver and for servers I stayed with Debian.
FreeBSD now is relatively new to me, I startet using it with 11.0. First on VM, than on a little server. Until now I have not done some exotic thinks with FreeBSD, just run my little private Nextcloud instance on it.
But now I will dive a bit deeper into FreeBSD and (maybe) also switch to FreeBSD as my daily driver. My hardware is my beloved Thinkpad X230, so FreeBSD should run well on this.
I also had a thinkpad x230 and freebsd worked perfectly!
 
There are excellent alternatives to make everything easier than perhaps few we know as desktop-installer (thanks to Jason W. Bacon, Acadix Consulting, LLC ), it is a script to install desktops in freebsd and leaves the system practically ready for immediate use.
 
Greetings all. I am a retired IT techie and I'm a long time GNU/Linux user but still learning. I currently run Mageia 7, Debian 10 & Anarchy Linux. I recently installed FreeBSD to try something new and different, so far I'm really enjoying it. I have 12.0 installed with Mate DE & Slim DM. So far it's running great but need to work some kinks I'm having with it.
To be continued!
 
... you feel the rage and disappointment of Microsoft Windows and the desire to migrate to better options...

As far as desktops go I actually like Windows more than Linux. Of course I like FreeBSD a lot more than either. Problem with Linux is it has tried too hard to be a Windows replacement. In my mind it has failed miserably with that objective. FreeBSD stands independent with its own set of objectives. That is to serve the user rather than a bottom line or some agenda. Can't ask for anything more in the design of a product.
 
Problem with Linux is it has tried too hard to be a Windows replacement.
That's because linux was built by people who just wanted to "not pay" nothing more. Not paying is not big enough goal to reach you high targets.
Also I think there are other hands helping windows to keep up, like some top international business companies, like being pulled by them, no matter how hard Linux works, they always want windows IDK why, maybe windows is selling them information.
But free OSs are always proud not to be like a pet for any one.
 
That's because linux was built by people who just wanted to "not pay" nothing more. ...

Also I think there are other hands helping windows to keep up, like some top international business companies, ...
... they always want windows IDK why, maybe windows is selling them information.
But free OSs are always proud not to be like a pet for any one.

I'm sorry, but that post is complete nonsense. Linux was built by people who wanted way more than just "not pay". If they wanted to not pay, they could have run BSDi or 386BSD, or Minix. Matter-of-fact, Linus was running Minix when he started coding the first Linux kernel. It very quickly grew into a small group of hobbyists wanting to build their own OS, mostly for fun. I need to think back about when I met with Linus and the first few coders, it was the first time he travelled to the US West Coast, must have been 95 (+- a year), and I spent an evening drinking beer with them (at "99 bottles" in Santa Cruz). Not paying for an OS was the least of their worries.

Windows is not getting help from "top international business companies". Linux is, massively so. Do you know how many people IBM, Oracle, and various big users have working on Linux? Thousands. Windows is developed by Microsoft, and Microsoft only.

BUT: If you think that Microsoft is the Windows company, you are also completely wrong. Today, the Windows OS is a small part of Microsoft. To a large extent, Microsoft is a cloud, applications, and service company.

And Windows does not sell information to "top international companies", nor to others. Stop that irresponsible and dishonest rumor mongering. Please take your paranoia elsewhere.

And the blanket statement that "Free OSs are proud to not be like a pet" is just pure, unadulterated nonsense. Free of content.
 
I hope it's not too late to introduce myself, so I'll throw it out there.

Hi everyone! I was a long time GNU/Linux user since Oct/Nov 2005 in high school and my first distro was SUSE 10. Back then I had a Linux expert show me the ropes and I was able to learn quickly from him before he graduated from high school. He was also the first to introduce me about the 3 BSDs and how they were tied to Unix, more knowledge which blew my mind. As time past, I got tired of SUSE and I started distro hopping around until I landed on Arch Linux in late 2007 and have been a user there for roughly 5 years until systemd became mainstream. After that, I was exploring several source based distros, most notably distros like CRUX and Gentoo/Funtoo. These distros rapidly gave me a better understanding of Linux systems and the type control I had with third party open source software.

Back in 2011, I met beyert in college and he taught me a fair amount about FreeBSD due to his enthusiasm for BSD and permissive licenses. Needless to say, I was still very ignorant of FreeBSD and it seemed intimidating for me to approach. In 2015, I joined the Redox OS development and contributed a fair amount of improvements and refactoring there on-and-off until this year. After my exposure to Redox and having met people who were 10 times smarter than I am, I gained an appreciation for operating systems that have integrated and cohesive design, like the BSDs. I first started with FreeBSD 10.3 as my "bold" adventure into something different. I learned a lot and I appreciated the system for the fact that it had many tunables via sysctl. I also saw the connection between FreeBSD's ports system and Gentoo's portage and I was able to adapt to build configuring software for my "needs." However my problem at the time was lack of Rust support and I had to jump back to Linux for it.

However over time as Linux had evolved in directions that were not satisfying, I slowly saw the writing on the wall... "Linux was not for me" ... I've been distro hopping constantly for the past 3 years and no Linux distro met my requirements due to how advanced I became. It was as if Obi-Wan said to me, "these aren't the operating systems you are looking for." So since July of this year, I started coming back to FreeBSD with 12-STABLE. This is the first time I ever felt at home and actually felt good about using an OS, without fear of something damning might happen. Not only FreeBSD is cohesive, it's stable as heck, even with using the STABLE version after doing numerous svn source build updates. I never had a single system core breakage. That's amazing to me as a former Linux user, who was used to that kind of breakage being "normal." Another thing I realized is, once I learn FreeBSD, I know FreeBSD and things apply universally with the same OS. When I learn Linux, I never truly learned "Linux." So I have many reasons to be happy using FreeBSD and being here.

At the moment, I'm playing around with the Zig programming language and trying to get it Tier 1 support for FreeBSD as best I can.
 
stratact :
For me working with FreeBSD has been best days of my computer experience.
I spent very short time in linux so I can't judge it very much, but after I installed FreeBSD my working level has significantly advanced.
From a gamer in windows, spent a few time in linux and now I enjoy learning programing in FreeBSD.
Here you have advantage of working with both BSD, and GPL licenses. You have full access to GPL programs that passed their exam very well.
 
stratact :
For me working with FreeBSD has been best days of my computer experience.
I spent very short time in linux so I can't judge it very much, but after I installed FreeBSD my working level has significantly advanced.
From a gamer in windows, spent a few time in linux and now I enjoy learning programing in FreeBSD.
Here you have advantage of working with both BSD, and GPL licenses. You have full access to GPL programs that passed their exam very well.
Thank you for the reply and I'm happy you like my post.

I can see why its been your best computing experience. I think what makes FreeBSD special, is that its developers both develop and design from top-down and bottom-up in regards to the kernel and userspace. By making sure both of those are tied together, it would deliver a more consistent and pleasurable user experience. That's what I picked up after being part of an OS dev group. I would even argue that Windows is also kernel and userspace consistent since Microsoft designs both components with that same approach. Although I'm sure Linux users reading that last sentence would love to throw rocks at me for saying that, but I think that's what also makes Windows popular for several users, even laypeople who do not know what an OS is. That to me is the difference between a good UX and bad one.

I regards to programming for an OS, I think it would be more fun to program for FreeBSD, especially when taking advantage of kqueue for aio. I still have a lot to learn (and I'm reading Absolute FreeBSD 3rd edition atm), but I think FreeBSD has a lot of goodies that make programming more enjoyable.

You're right, that's the cool thing about FreeBSD, when it comes to using third party applications you're not limited by licenses. One can use what is practical to them and that makes sense to me. I'm pleased that GNU coreutils is provided and separated from FreeBSD's, which allows users to take advantage of other tools for specific reasons. There is one tool I like from coreutils and that is gshred.
 
stratact, I agree with your sentiments completely. I was also dismayed by the direction Linux had taken. You won't see sudden tacks with FreeBSD. They stay the course. The difference is the homogeneous nature of FreeBSD management and design. They run the whole thing from boot manger to user land. In my mind that's a huge advantage for FreeBSD since it does't see the tug of war in development that goes on with Linux.
 
This is a re-introduction. I came to FreeBSD a few years back because I did not like Linux going to systemd, as well as some other changes.

Then I became frustrated with FreeBSD because I could not use dropbox, and could not update to newer LibreOffice. Also afraid that systemd may kill the BSDs anyway, once systemd is required to run the apps.

Now I am looking at FreeBSD again. I am using ParrotOS (based on Debian, so systemd). ParrotOS is a security version of Linux, like Kali.

I have recently had it crash on startup with a kernel panic. I have never had the problem with Linux before.

I am trying to learn some security stuff. I am not sure if any of the BSDs would be good for that.
 
Linux hasn't gone to systemd. Systemd is just a choice of init system. Yes some distributions have opted to use systemd as their default init system but Linux isn't being restricted to any single init system.

I believe that all major Linux distros use systemd. Non-systemd Linux distros make up a tiny fragment of Linux systems, and I doubt many (if any) commercial establishments use non-systemd linux.

IBM/Red Hat seem determined to make systemd the Linux standard.

For Linux users, opting out of systemd is often not easy. And it will become more, and more, difficult.
 
This is a re-introduction. I came to FreeBSD a few years back because I did not like Linux going to systemd, as well as some other changes.

Then I became frustrated with FreeBSD because I could not use dropbox, and could not update to newer LibreOffice. Also afraid that systemd may kill the BSDs anyway, once systemd is required to run the apps.

Now I am looking at FreeBSD again. I am using ParrotOS (based on Debian, so systemd). ParrotOS is a security version of Linux, like Kali.

I have recently had it crash on startup with a kernel panic. I have never had the problem with Linux before.

I am trying to learn some security stuff. I am not sure if any of the BSDs would be good for that.
There is a nearby project with netbsd-based network and computer security tools called blackbsd that apparently is still under development.
 
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