Okay, so what's so great about FreeBSD?

=D

Hi all.

I'm a new Linux user, started on ubuntu a few weeks ago, progressed towards some other distros recently. A (Microsoft!) programmer friend told me that if I'm going to go the Linux route, I should look into FreeBSD.

So- sell me on it.

What's so great about it?

And, if you're capable of giving a balanced critique as well - what are the drawbacks / weaknesses? I have a high tolerance for learning curve, etc etc, but there is really a reasonable limit to what is practical for a normal human being. Does FreeBSD stray over that line? Am I going to have trouble with compatibility issues, finding drivers, etc?

Thanks! Look forward to your responses.

--
e.m.fields
Chapel Hill, NC
 
fieldse said:
So- sell me on it.

What's so great about it?

Now imagine a Windows user coming to some random Linux forum and wants the same afrom them, as you want from us: "tell me what Linux can give me and if I will have any problems with it".

We do not have all day to write these things, imho these are good start points for FreeBSD newcommer:

http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux
http://wiki.freebsd.org/AvoidingLinuxisms
http://www.cons.org/cracauer/freebsd.html
http://ivoras.sharanet.org/freebsd/freebsd7.html
http://ivoras.sharanet.org/freebsd/freebsd8.html
http://freebsd.org/handbook
http://freebsd.org/about.html
http://freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/
http://freebsd.org/docs/books.html
 
Sorry for moving this to 'Off Topic'. These forums are mainly a community support effort, focusing on technical issues. It's not really an advocacy platform, and I wonder whether there's a lot of enthusiasm for selling anyone on anything. It's not really in the BSD DNA -- though there is a bit of marketing..

By the way: if this deteriorates into another Linux-FreeBSD shouting match, or if things like "M$" and "Winblows" get thrown around willy-nilly again, I'll close this thread before you can sneeze with your eyes open.
 
fieldse said:
What's so great about it?
Maybe it's nothing more than familiarity, but I can use it while drunk, which is more than I can say for any other operating system I've tried this with.

By "tried this with" I mean, like: right now.

Oh, and by "use" I mean non-destructively.
 
the freebsd-questions list often has *long* threads answering
the OP. ( a few times, most years). Several ways to search
that list on the web, including digest form in google groups.
 
LOL @ vermaden:
vermaden said:
Now imagine a Windows user coming to some random Linux forum and wants the same afrom them, as you want from us: "tell me what Linux can give me and if I will have any problems with it".

We do not have all day to write these things, imho these are good start points for FreeBSD newcommer: ...

:p

Thanks for the links/response. I do understand, but in my experience: people who love their system love to talk about it. If you don't have the time, don't respond.


@DutchDaemon:
DutchDaemon said:
Sorry for moving this to 'Off Topic'. These forums are mainly a community support effort, focusing on technical issues. It's not really an advocacy platform, and I wonder whether there's a lot of enthusiasm for selling anyone on anything. It's not really in the BSD DNA -- though there is a bit of marketing..

=D
Understood, no problems. I didn't really see an appropriate category, as "off-topic" was listed as "Non-BSD-related", but not trying to clutter up your forums.
As far as "selling anyone on it": As above- people who love their particular thing generally enjoy sharing it, and I enjoy being "sold" on something good. I'm not trying to cause a ruckus. ;)


@jb_fvwm2:
jb_fvwm2 said:
the freebsd-questions list often has *long* threads answering
the OP. ( a few times, most years).

Heh, figured as much. Seems to be the way in all the other forums, figured I'd start the traditional quarterly debate over here with our cousins.

anomie said:
  1. jails
  2. the base system upgrade process
  3. good documentation

@anomie: Jails? I suppose this is something I'll have to look up.


To all:
Again, let me reiterate: This is intended to be a friendly community discussion, not a flame-war / argument-starter / snobbery-fest. If you love FreeBSD and feel inclined to respond with your input, please kindly do so, as "we" would do in turn for such a thread on our own forums.

I look forward to your replies
--
fields
 
fieldse said:
I'm a new Linux user, started on ubuntu a few weeks ago, progressed towards some other distros recently. A (Microsoft!) programmer friend told me that if I'm going to go the Linux route, I should look into FreeBSD.
So- sell me on it.
What's so great about it?
For me its about choice. And in some respects a better one (vis-a-vis Linux). ;)
 
One thing freebsd users *might* want to consider is a
journal with seperate pages for different topics. I
should've started that way back in 2004... for instance
...
a page for zfs or other features you might try eventually;
a page for buildworld hints;
a page for ports which fail to build;
a page (or several) for notes relating to your specific hardware;
a page for notes relating to your window manager;
.............
etc etc etc. Already it has saved me a few
hours of re-reading or browsing;
I have seven or so times that number of topics already, probably.
.............
 
Thanks for the links/response. I do understand, but in my experience: people who love their system love to talk about it. If you don't have the time, don't respond.

Its not about being rude (if it looked like that, then sorry, that was not my intention). Propably, as many other peolpe here I like A LOT things that are IMHO reoslved better then in Linux or at Mac OS X, it is a good idea to create such thread and then reply with link to all newcommers, but not type it again and again ;)

Also check daemonforums.org I remember several such threads there.
 
  1. Free
  2. Opensource
  3. Ease of use
  4. Jails
  5. Security
  6. Performance
  7. Ports system
  8. Stable
  9. One place to get all packages, kernel, security patches, man pages, installer etc.
  10. Better documentation
 
Well as a professional microsoft programmer during the day and a freebsd user at home and via ssh at work, I'll second your friends recommendation.

As for what makes it great, I think coming from windows only a few weeks ago anything that most of the people around here will says is going to leave you with more questions that answers because you did even have an option to deal with it in the windows world (e.g. the jails answer).

But I'll throw this at you, I can do more with less hardware and memory than on windows. I can download torrents, encoded divx movies, watch a movie, compile a program and browse the web all at once on FreeBSD machine without the machine crawling. I can't do that on the same machine when I dual boot into XP. So I removed XP :)
 
Why i prefer FreeBSD over Linux and Windows?


I love FreeBSD for it's performance (compare OOO compilation from sources. For example GNU/Linux Gentoo vs FreeBSD)

I love that i can compile heavy stuff, watch movies, do upload/download, write programs and surf internet all at same time without lags.

I love FreeBSD community, because it's very friendly

I love the documentation and manual pages that actually explain what you can do and how to do it.

I love that it makes me learn (Gentoo also made me learn, but FreeBSD ... :D)

I love multiple virtual monitors. I can switch from one, (unlike under windows where you have everything in one stupid panel, that would explode if i run as apps at same time, as i do under freebsd)

I love that I can customize about everything (I have completely customized desktop environment)

I love that I don't have to pay for it, and it doesn't eat crazy amount of resources.

I love that 3-5 seconds after login, I can already surf web.

I love that I don't have to reboot every time I install/unistall/update app (unlike in windows).

I love that when I ask people for help (to solve problems), they know what they say and do

I love it because it's fun (also painful sometimes, but mostly fun)

I love that I'm not forced to install 200 unneeded dependencies, not to mention Gnome/KDE.... etc

I love that when shit happens it's 99.99% my shit that happens, and I'm responsible for it.

I love that there are much more Power/Advanced users than trolls using it.

I love it because it invents/implements cutting edge IT technology.

I love it because /bin/sh is Bourn Shell, not a link to bash

I love that i have to deal with terminal, instead of point and click all the time.

I love it because installed apps are where they are supposed to be. In /usr/local/

I love it because in 2 years of using FreeBSD, I learned much more about Unix, than in 3 years using GNU/Linux

I love it because i have tried all windows since 95 and about 8-10 GNU/Linux distros. And it just feels right.

I love it because..... I love it

 
I actually don't know what's so great about FreeBSD. It just feels logical, I think.
Years ago I was trying to build a 486-home router. I tried several Linuxes and a FreeBSD iso, but the FreeBSD docs on the install cd seemed to be helpfull enough to build a working router and stay with FreeBSD.
It is one of few operating systems that seems to get faster and easier in newer releases.
 
I hope that I don't ruin this thread.
Anyway. memory management is better.
Dependencies are easy to find. The ports have lists of closed/unstable ports.
The configuration options are upfront. No searching for them in the make files.
Xorg is always dynamic. I've only had to change the resolution.
Disk failure can usually be healed with another BSD. I've used NetBSD to fix ther MBR when FreeBSD didn't work.
It mounts, reads, and writes but your items are safe. This is a reference to the ext2/3 systems.
With 256M you can: Run fluxbox with gaim, run qemu with blackbox and another gain in that, and run a qemu terminal with naim in that.
Run lame and blender while surfing the web.
I*'ve only installed twice: 6.2 i386 and 7.0 amd64.

The system requires work, dedication, and patience. I'm short on all of these.
 
FreeBSD is one of the GREATEST OS for me...

1. BEST ever documentation
2. ports and packages RULZ! and no other OS can match to this
3. ONE complete OS from kernel to other stuff
4. You can learn a lot of what's going on INSIDE in an OS usage point of view
5. Dedicated developers and volunteers..

What more?

it is the best!
 
drhowarddrfine said:
I didn't notice anyone saying this but, to be sure, FreeBSD is not Linux.


Yeah I also noticed it...... I dont know the reason why many people associate non-windows OS to be Linux.... Well in fact, there are a lot more...
 
If you are reasonable in your expectations, freebsd is very usable and not too much of a hassle, once you learn a lot of the basics of the system. If you constantly try to push it (install the latest software, do major changes to your system to fix minor problems) it can become a major hassle. Installing/upgrading software can take a very, very long time. (e.g. 12 hours), depending on how fast your machine is. Eventually that gets very frustrating.

I find that there is almost always one or two things I can't get working - right now it is the gnome terminal and the flash plugin.

It won't replace everything about Windows - there isn't very much commercial software that runs on freebsd. That means you have to use free software - which you will probably have experienced in linux.

I like freebsd as a desktop, quite a bit more than linux. But this depends what you intend to do with it. If you just want a good OS that is not Windows, I don't think freebsd is the right choice. You pretty much have to enjoy tweaking, 'hacking', maybe developing etc., at least a little bit. I am pretty sure most of the significant advantages of freebsd are in those areas anyway.
 
I like to cook my own food, too

mdg583 said:
I like freebsd as a desktop, quite a bit more than linux.
I was having this discussion with my Ubunutu-using S.O., and my preference for FreeBSD comes down to its non-desktop nature. I explicily do not need/want
  • a graphical, menu-based package manager
  • radio-buttoned network configuration
  • 3D effects
  • dying moose/cat/garden-hose sounds when I start my computer desktop
  • a unified, themed desktop
  • a "desktop" (such as it is) at all, actually
But I stopped liking integration after wfw3.11 and mac system 7.
 
Back
Top