Please help me build my dream FreeBSD box!

[sidetone]

It's all I've ever used, fvwm2 specifically. Have yet to figure out how I could benefit from a desktop environment. Isn't that kind of a Linux or Windows idea? You know install and go. Have yet to find something I couldn't do with a window manager and the addition of one or more packages.

My guess is that those are a lot of packages that are meant to be intermingled with each other, but is done in such a way like tangled knots. It's proven that that much interweaving between applications is not necessary for full function.

libcanberra for instance sends basic sounds out from applications, but it wants to add a graphic display banner in a way, that is not output only, so the messages go back and forth when not needed, and dependencies recursively go back and forth between graphics and sounds.

Dbus seems to go back and forth between applications, sending messages back and forth. Really, a like application would have everything output to it, for essential processes like printing and scanning, and be simplified, then everything that needs to know the status links to it from one point, instead of so many, because each application wants its own controls.

Maybe, desktop developments have constant reinventions of the wheel, especially on Linux, so there's redundant applications that do the same thing, then they try to link back to each other.

 

[20-100-2fe]

Have yet to figure out how I could benefit from a desktop environment.

A desktop environment consists in a window manager and a set of conventions and utilities aiming at providing a consistent user experience.

Now, depending on what you put in the term "user experience", you can create a basic DE which is little more than a WM, or a "monster" such as Gnome 3 or KDE.

I use MATE instead of a plain VM because it is visually clean and comes with a set of good quality utilities I use daily (file manager, text editor, calculator, terminal emulator...). It also offers all the customization capabilities I need but not more, so it doesn't add unnecessary complexity.

I also like the look and feel of XFCE, but its utilities are not as well finished as MATE's or don't cover all my needs. This is what makes the difference for me.

A bare WM with a nice look and feel bundled and good third-party utilities would do as well for me.

 

[Sevendogsbsd]

Mate` is probably my favorite DE. How is it in FreeBSD? I have never actually used a DE in FreeBSD, only window managers. I have the same impression and feelings about Xfce as well.

 

[20-100-2fe]

MATE works a little bit better on FreeBSD than on Linux : I have a display bug on Void that doesn't affect FreeBSD.
I've just seen a new version of XFCE has been released last summer, I'll have a look at it when I'll have some time, the screenshots are promising.

 

[Phishfry]

I really like my XFCE desktop but I do not think the move to GTK3 was for the better (visually).
There are only a few things I can think of off the top of my head but disappearing vertical scroll bar in Thunar is an annoyance,
The GTK3 version seems softer but I liked the chiseled look of GTK2 XFCE. Even if ancient.

 

[Sevendogsbsd]

I agree with the GTK3/3 comparison. GTK2 apps look much sharper and professional to me.

Will have to give Mate` a shot - normally I am a fluxbox guy but I do like the Mate` file manager better than pcmanfm.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Same for me. I've once been paid to work with Apple hardware and I resigned after a couple of months.

That said, OS X is not "advanced", it's just different, it is simply a matter of taste, and alternatives to Apple products exist precisely because one size doesn't fit all.

This is why people in love with Apple products should stick with them rather than expect the rest of the world to convert to their taste.

Of course, Appleware is very expensive, but you can't have a cake and eat it!

I'm only interested in macOS because it's SUS-compliant. So, being Unix, it naturally should come with a Terminal, and it does! I got it running in a VM, but my fellow Linux-using buddy on the East Coast said macOS is actually BSD-based. So, I then asked myself: "Okay, macOS has a nice interface, but really, I could imitate it in something like Lumina or XFCE or Gnome 3. Plus there is the other BSDs that are FOSS (MIT License and similar-in-scope Licenses)." No hate towards Apple. Just not my thing.

 

[RedPhoenix]

I really like my XFCE desktop but I do not think the move to GTK3 was for the better (visually).
There are only a few things I can think of off the top of my head but disappearing vertical scroll bar in Thunar is an annoyance,
The GTK3 version seems softer but I liked the chiseled look of GTK2 XFCE. Even if ancient.

KDE 4 Masterrace. ;D

 

[rootbert]

just for the info: I am writing this from my new system. Besides the quirks that I cannot use wifi (preferring cable anyway) and I cannot use the native console because of the Nvidia driver everything went fine. My setup: AMD Ryzen 3700X, Gigabyte X570 Aorus Ultra, 4x16GB Crucial DDR4/2666 ECC, ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1650 graphics card, 1x PNY CS3030 M.2 2280 1TB, 1 x Gigabyte NVME M.2 2280 1TB and 5 disks WD Red 4TB. So far a great system, however, I lack long-term experience with it due to the uptime of 10 minutes ;-)

 

[Barney]

Like a bunch of old ladies who still wash their clothes on a rock in a stream.

 

[drhowarddrfine]

Like a bunch of old ladies who still wash their clothes on a rock in a stream.

But a bunch of old ladies that know more than you. They don't need the hand holding like you do as you work on your off-the-shelf equipment that you have no clue how it works.
See. I can be insulting, too, as your posting history seems to be mostly about.

 

[rootbert]

btw: my system mentioned above is running nicely under FreeBSD 12.1 ;-) The Gigabyte mainboard needs some time for initialisation but I rarely reboot - just for kernel updates ;-). I chose that mainboard over the Asus Pro-WS-X570-ACE because the Asus has just 4 SATA connectors.