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

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

Once the big corporations get involved it's all over, things get institutionalized. I think Linux is now on the same path as any other corporate product. The plus side is there's lots of man hours behind things so the features are there. When you go with FreeBSD you lose some of that, but you get a product that's not run by bean counters. So it's a trade-off and sometimes you have to live without for the sake of something pure.
 
Once the big corporations get involved it's all over, things get institutionalized. I think Linux is now on the same path as any other corporate product.
This is so true. Every company that sells out goes down the drain.
And especially IBM have a track record of being completely oblivious about the reality and the expectations of the market.
IMHO the only reason they even survived that long, is the fact that their customers are just forced to use the Notes/whatever system they bought from IBM 20 years ago.
Mark my words: Red Hat is doomed.

Just my off topical 2 cents.
 
The plus side is there's lots of man hours behind things so the features are there. When you go with FreeBSD you lose some of that, but you get a product that's not run by bean counters.

I can remember when you could have replaced "FreeBSD" with "Linux" in that sentence.

I can even remember when Apple, then later Google, were hero companies for fighting against tyrannical Microsoft.

Remember the 1984 commercial where Apple is portrayed as fighting against tyrannical IBM in the PC market?

I guess that when you become big enough, you also become evil.
 
I have to agree, I always like products better that come from smaller companies that carry the vision of the company's creator. Once a board of directors gets involved they let the bean counters call the shots. Companies usually start out with a vision, but once they get there they become the new boss with the same old ways.
 
Hello! My shortname is Albi. I've been on Linux for almost 10 years, currenlty i'm runn... Devuan. Formerly i used Debian, #! and the first one i started with Ubuntu.

I learned many Linux things over the years and hope to learn more in BSD as this system seems to be more suited to my profile.

Glad to be here, though i'm too late on the BSD campus, however as they say: better late than never. Hello everybody nice to meet you!
 
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.
Linux and Linux based distros are distinctly different. Yes one part of Linux users are driving their 'patch' to be increasingly more Windows like, but in so doing are inducing bad qualities. Meh! Their choice. To reiterate Linux hasn't gone to systemd and nor will it.
 
Hello , i'm a freesoftware/opensource enthousiast , i have started with linux at 1999 , my parents couldn't buy me the best computer so after i was dissapointed with windows i tried to install linux in it, of course in a month i was able to compile kernel remove stuff i don't want add support for devices i had on my pc like tv tuner etc etc. Now i'm using linux and i don't wanna use windows again in my life , if i had to use a proprietary operating system it would be mac osx. I used to test freebsd too but i had problems and the people on forums was not too friendly they had a strange attitude and i couldn't get any help to even make freebsd start on my old pc back then. Now that linux is mainstream i find freebsd more fitting for freesoftware zealots , on linux you will be tempted to install every proprietary software you will find. I like that freebsd right now is supported 100% by my ultrabook(graphics,sound,M2 SSD and even wireless works flawlessly in topmost performance) .
At 2019 i was testing freebsd i made a lot installations and perfected , of course there is a very good project furybsd which has the best and fastest installer you will find and its based on freebsd.
Freebsd is fairly easy to install , of course its not so much for desktop computers and thats why i need your opinion , would it be worthy to install freebsd for desktop use (and php/mysql/python programming ) ? Tell me your thoughts.
 
Hello. I am 77 now, retired from the University of Idaho where I worked as, among other things, an IT Pro for 30 some years. Retired from there around 10 years ago. Built the first working "small computer" network that ever existed there. Ran an e-mail and web-server for my department using FreeBSD version 2... something. Tried Linux ver 0.99 and didn't care for it. Ran an HP-UX server for a number of years too. I like Unix very much, but was never very good at it. Still am not. Want to use FreeBSD for at least two of our 6 family computers (most of which I built). I am also an amateur radio operator and was first licensed in 1956.

I'll have a lot of questions...AFTER I have read the docs. No one needs to tell me to RTFM. Hee hee! :)
.
Later.

Ken Gordon
 
Recently I have been looking for an alternative to Windows 10 with its privacy concerns. I have been reading a lot about GNU/Linux and *BSD and I have decided to try FreeBSD. I think it's closer to Unix than GNU/Linux, has better documentation and provides a complete operating system and not only a kernel. I had a hard time deciding between FreeBSD and OpenBSD but chose FreeBSD because it still has its Linux compatibility layer if I need to use it. I was glad to find out that PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch all use FreeBSD as a base of their operating systems.
 
my parents couldn't buy me the best computer so after i was dissapointed with windows i tried to install linux
It's 10 years you are runing unix, quite honorable. I wish I had same experience in unix too.
would it be worthy to install freebsd for desktop use (and php/mysql/python programming ) ? Tell me your thoughts.
I'm running FreeBSD desktop, so I would say Yes It's worth. About programming, in one word "FreeBSD is built for that"(well that was 5 words).
In my personal experience FreeBSD has been the best operating system for programming purpose.
Just take a look at ports. There is complete support of programing and developement tools, languages, samples, environments, engines, sources, ... there.
 
About programming, in one word "FreeBSD is built for that"

I do some programming at the hobbyist level and have to agree that FreeBSD is great for that. Linux works well too, but FreeBSD has its own tool sets and I think they're better along with the fact that FreeBSD has much better system organization.
Recently I have been looking for an alternative to Windows 10 with its privacy concerns.

I haven't yet divorced myself from Windows, maybe one of these days. I do use FreeBSD as a desktop system, but it doesn't do everything for me. FreeBSD takes an investment to set up a full coverage desktop system and I haven't motivated on it. In any case there are still lots of things you can control in Windows to eliminate most of the privacy concerns. Also I run the corporate long term support version of Windows (LTSC) which is lighter and has more controls.
 
Well at least i had an operating system that would be useful and make use of the hardware of this age , with my own kernel (after i learned some stuff ) linux was pretty fast and made my pc actually usable in contrast with windows.
It's 10 years you are runing unix, quite honorable. I wish I had same experience in unix too.
 
Seems like this thread is still active, so I'll take the liberty of posting as well.

Hi folks, my name is Karol (Karl). I started with FreeBSD 5.0 back in January of 2003 (or so claims the CD box I have on my shelf). FreeBSD saw me through university and into my first job; then Linux took hold :) This past year I experienced some serious beastie-fueled nostalgia and installed FreeBSD on a desktop I was re-building. It's been a lot of fun playing with zfs, poudriere, etc, and overall setting up a solid machine on which I can work. As for the forums, I had an account here years ago, but I forgot the credentials and couldn't recover. So, here anew.

Regards,
-Karol
 
With help of FreeBSD I have never felt "I have to buy a new hardware to not stay behind".

One of the great things about FreeBSD is it's lean and even old systems can run well with it. Other operating systems seem to move ahead loading hardware commensurate with the increase in speed. FreeBSD does not do that. When your hardware is faster, FreeBSD is faster.

I'm working on a new desktop system to run FreeBSD. The system I was running it on before was retired last year. It was a system built in 2006. Quite slow in comparison to what's out there now, but running FreeBSD it had plenty of power to do what I needed. The new system I'm putting together with the latest gen hardware will probably seem ridiculously fast.
 
Hello! I am brand new to FreeBSD, ive always used microsoft windows, and I briefly used mac os, mostly been using chrome os recently. I was attracted to FreeBSD because I wanted to learn more about it and how to use it to create an OS customized to my liking for work and play!
 
Hello! I am brand new to FreeBSD, ive always used microsoft windows, and I briefly used mac os, mostly been using chrome os recently. I was attracted to FreeBSD because I wanted to learn more about it and how to use it to create an OS customized to my liking for work and play!

That's the spirit.
 
because linux is some really convoluted, asinine garbage
i am still learning but freebsd reminds me a lot of how linux desktop used to be in 2007-ish maybe that is just me
and that is why i love it
 
Who's new to FreeBSD? Did you migrate from another OS and what was your reason?
I never really switched to it so much as added it to my weapon arsenal. :3 No, in all seriousness, it is one of my main Operating Systems. :) Much as I love Linux, getting the Chromium Snap Package in Ubuntu to write to the NTFS Partition (with pictures and stuff) on the same SSD can be tricky. Snap is interesting, but I prefer pkg, pkg_add, apt, dnf, etc.. :) I like FreeBSD for that, as well as how stable it is. I've never really had many crashes on Linux, but compared to Windows 10.... >.>
 
because linux is some really convoluted, asinine garbage
i am still learning but freebsd reminds me a lot of how linux desktop used to be in 2007-ish maybe that is just me
and that is why i love it
To each their own. :) I use any OS I can. It's good for learning, even though I really love *BSD. :D BTW, that kitteh in your Profile Pic is aDOREable. :D
 
Been a Linux user for nearly 20 years. I did have a small FreeBSD stint in there for about 6 months and still no clear understanding of why I left and went back to Linux. I have certainly used every major distro on distrowatch, plus too many other small ones to list. Since Linux was my first foray into into open source and the freedom it represents (from other major OS vendors), I loved it and embraced it wholeheartedly. As of late, the Linux camp seems fragmented, plus a few other things have happened in the past few years which have soured my Linux experience, namely the perception, on my part I am sure, that Linux has gotten overly complex and way too much like Windows.

I truly appreciate that FreeBSD is a complete OS, built by a team of folks, and not a collection of separate projects cobbled together. Not to disparage Linux, but FreeBSD seems cleaner, smoother, hard for me to describe. Anyway, I gave FreeBSD a go again a couple of weekends ago, and got everything working perfectly as my sole desktop OS. One issue remains but after extended discussions here and much Internet research, I believe to only be solvable by new/different hardware.

I will not go back to Linux. I don't need to: every piece of peripheral hardware I have works, and I specifically buy hardware that is Linux and Unix friendly. I don't use Windows at all at home any more because I simply chose not to. I have zero dependencies on it.

All I know is it feels very good to have FreeBSD as my desktop OS, and to be learning how it works, fixing or adjusting things on my own (or from help here), and simply enjoying using my computer.

Doesn't get any better than that!
I keep hearing how you can run Linux installers like DEB and RPM Packages, but have seem to come up short. :\ FreeBSD sees my AMD Radeon (Thames) GPU, and the GPU works especially well with Lumina. :) If I could just get Steam running with Star Wars: Empire At War, and Ms. Pacman, both from Steam, to work.... If I had the space, I'd clone the FreeBSD Source Tree and have a poke around (BASIC pun there :D), just out of sheer Geeky curiosity. :D I agree with you. FreeBSD is both the OS and the Kernel, and that is K.I.S.S.-compliant. :) Also, it's pretty much Un*x, without the branding, so.... :)
 
If I could just get Steam running with Star Wars: Empire At War, and Ms. Pacman, both from Steam, to work...

Let's see. The first game game is 32-bit Windows app from 2006 and probably runs acceptably well under Wine (or not at all). Steam never (!) had any significant problems with Wine in the first place, so I don't even consider that a valid complaint. The second game will not run without WoW64 Wine, although finding a Pacman clone/port which will run on FreeBSD shouldn't be difficult.
 
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