Preferred DE of the FreeBSD users

Which is your current DE or WM? If not listed please specify!

  • Total voters
    244
Project Trident tried to create a Freebsd desktop

For a time, the dev team at Project Trident tried their best to create a good desktop experience on top of FreeBSD. However, due to issues with FreeBSD including “hardware compatibility, communications standards, or package availability continue to limit Project Trident users” they decide to base it on something else. Their solution was to rebase their project on Void Linux in 2019.

news.itsfoss.com

After Moving From FreeBSD to Void Linux, Project Trident Finally Discontinues

Sadly, the Project Trident team announced that they will be ending development of their Linux distro. Story Time!!! For those of you who have not heard of Project Trident, let me give you a little ride down memory lane. Back in 2005, Kris Moore introduced PC-BSD as an easy way
news.itsfoss.com news.itsfoss.com
 
kpedersen said:
There are loads of projects that provide that.

Go use one of them.

Don't underestimate the niche of *not* having a default GUI desktop environment. I believe in the long run that will ensure the survival of FreeBSD above many others.
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Those derivatives the times I tried to update with the latest version of their repositories or package dependencies software, it just didn't work, or it ends up giving error breaking the system, that happened to me in the past a few times that I tried.
 
NapoleonWils0n said:
Project Trident tried to create a Freebsd desktop

For a time, the dev team at Project Trident tried their best to create a good desktop experience on top of FreeBSD. However, due to issues with FreeBSD including “hardware compatibility, communications standards, or package availability continue to limit Project Trident users” they decide to base it on something else. Their solution was to rebase their project on Void Linux in 2019.

news.itsfoss.com

After Moving From FreeBSD to Void Linux, Project Trident Finally Discontinues

Sadly, the Project Trident team announced that they will be ending development of their Linux distro. Story Time!!! For those of you who have not heard of Project Trident, let me give you a little ride down memory lane. Back in 2005, Kris Moore introduced PC-BSD as an easy way
news.itsfoss.com news.itsfoss.com
Click to expand...
Those projects come from failure to failure, from PC-BSD to TrueOS, from TrueOS to Trident, there is no derivative that comes out for the default desktop environment imitating FreeBSD, for a reason it must be that people try and they don't like it, they end up going to other systems, which is a loss for FreeBSD to continue increasing its usability quota in the world, which would draw attention to advertising marketing and revenue for FreeBSD's survival.
 
teo said:
Those derivatives the times I tried to update with the latest version of their repositories or package dependencies software, it just didn't work, or it ends up giving error breaking the system, that happened to me in the past a few times that I tried.
Click to expand...
Yeah, dependency hell bites in Open Source. When I tried to work my way through wi-fi difficulties, and posted the errors, the responses I got were:
  • Get compatible hardware. (Did that)
  • Learn to edit .conf files (did that, and discovered that the advice was incomplete every time. I finally learned to connect to a couple hotspots, including my own wifi router at home, but I'm still tethered to them)
  • Learn to live with it. (Yeah, doing that, because there's something in it for me - FreeBSD does have other good points that make the pain (of being tethered to a very limited subset of wifi hotspots) tolerable for me.
 
teo said:
Those derivatives the times I tried to update with the latest version of their repositories or package dependencies software, it just didn't work, or it ends up giving error breaking the system, that happened to me in the past a few times that I tried.
Click to expand...
Could it be that the addition of a GUI desktop environment by those projects is causing a lot of the complex package dependencies, breakage and bloat? Perhaps this experience can help you to understand why FreeBSD will not have a default GUI desktop environment.
 
kpedersen said:
Could it be that the addition of a GUI desktop environment by those projects is causing a lot of the complex package dependencies, breakage and bloat? Perhaps this experience can help you to understand why FreeBSD will not have a default GUI desktop environment.
Click to expand...
No, it's not that, lack of day-to-day software used by the vast majority of end users in other systems. Lack of hardware support. The tedious of manually updating the repositories to the latest version or ports or dependencies and that the system does not generate vulnerabilities in the system that end up breaking the system due to a minimal error of the new user, the complicated change of version of the system from one version to a new one. Some derivatives have their own repositories outside of FreeBSD, all of which is a lot of challenges and learnings for a new one that most end users end up getting bored or disappointed and going to other systems that offer them a default desktop environment on their compatible machines and all out of the box.
 
In most of your stated points:
teo said:
  • lack of day-to-day software used by the vast majority of end users in other systems.
  • Lack of hardware support.
  • The tedious of manually updating the repositories to the latest version or ports or dependencies
  • breaking the system due to a minimal error of the new user
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How would running upstream FreeBSD resolve these compared to you using i.e GhostBSD?

Sounds like a default desktop environment is the least of your problems. You almost certainly want Windows or macOS ;)
 
Installing wlroots ( wayland ) window managers is much easier on Freebsd than Ubuntu

trying to find the packages for wlroots is a nightmare on Ubuntu,
it not just they have different package names but searching for packages on Ubuntu is much harder
 
kpedersen said:
In most of your stated points:

How would running upstream FreeBSD resolve these compared to you using i.e GhostBSD?

Sounds like a default desktop environment is the least of your problems. You almost certainly want Windows or macOS ;)
Click to expand...
Personally I prefer to fight with my machine trying to install the FreeBSD system with desktop environment, than to be breaking my head with the derivatives and their system operation that usually ends up breaking the system.
 
Indeed. Fighting with the machine to install the GUI desktop environment you like is the only way. As you have seen, the alternatives of a default desktop environment *don't work*.

As you gain more experience with FreeBSD, you will find that the "fighting" lessens too.
 
Well, I'm using FreeBSD for only one month or so and so far I installed both Mate and XFCE on my laptop and I didn't have to fight with it at all. Both installed flawlessly and ran perfectly first time.
 
Voted a long time ago, but now returning to this thread.
IMHO, the problem is with the question - "Which is your current DE or WM? If not listed please specify!". Probably everybody does have one favorite, but in fact multiple of these can be installed at the same time (FreeBSD is not Windows or some Linux distro). Installing multiple WM-s is OK and they are generally not interferring.
Long time ago, when I did the initial install of my desktop machine, I installed Gnome, KDE Plasma, Mate and Xfce (all of these most prominent WM-s) and did set up x11/sddm to let me pick the WM when logging in. Over time, Gnome stopped working for some reason (ports updates), but I have still Mate, Plasma and Xfce updated and available. Further in time, I noticed that mostly I am selecting Mate over the others. Therefore voted for Mate. Still using some applications from KDE or Gnome.
 
Not to be the Linux defender here, but Linux also allows for the installing of multiple desktops. Saying it's not Windows or MacOS would be more accurate. Even the Linux distros with a pre-configured desktop usually enable other desktops or window managers to be installed.
 
scottro said:
Not to be the Linux defender here, but Linux also allows for the installing of multiple desktops. Saying it's not Windows or MacOS would be more accurate. Even the Linux distros with a pre-configured desktop usually enable other desktops or window managers to be installed.
Click to expand...
Agree. I think I probably exaggerated a bit here. But the point is that Windows and Mac users are used to have just one default WM without an option to change that. Some Linux distros have known to copy that style making users to believe that this is default. FreeBSD does not have any default and in general, this is OK for user to install multiple at the same time.
 
Hello everyone, I am trying to migrate to a FreeBSD laptop (AMD CPU and GPU, can post hardware if someone wants it) and I was trying for a while to use KDE 6 with Wayland, but it became too frustrating to set it up. The only reason why I use KDE is because of KDE Connect. I like the customization of everything else that the desktop environment offers, but I find that I cannot work too well on KDE.

I also cannot figure out my preferred way to work haha, in KDE I have 9 Virtual Desktops and I switch around using touchpad gestures, but I am finding that a bit annoying nowadays since it's not very efficient. I have terminals everywhere, firefox windows as well, and everything is maximized.

I want to try out a Wayland Tiling WM, something light and fast. Wayland is important to me because I am using a 1440p display, and I really want the touchpad gestures that are smooth :c

I think choosing a DE and WM is a decent decision, but more important is figuring out your personal workflow, and well, I cannot seem to find that yet. What elements of setting up a work ambient do you like about your chosen DE?
 
degauss4 said:
I also cannot figure out my preferred way to work haha, in KDE I have 9 Virtual Desktops and I switch around using touchpad gestures, but I am finding that a bit annoying nowadays since it's not very efficient. I have terminals everywhere, firefox windows as well, and everything is maximized.
Click to expand...
You can map your numpad to change virtual desktops and shift+numpad to move windows to those desktops.
degauss4 said:
I want to try out a Wayland Tiling WM, something light and fast. Wayland is important to me because I am using a 1440p display, and I really want the touchpad gestures that are smooth :c
Click to expand...
x11-wm/hyprland
Also https://github.com/horriblename/hyprgrass but no port yet.
 
NapoleonWils0n said:
Installing wlroots ( wayland ) window managers is much easier on Freebsd than Ubuntu

trying to find the packages for wlroots is a nightmare on Ubuntu,
it not just they have different package names but searching for packages on Ubuntu is much harder
Click to expand...
now we need py-wlroots for qtile :)
 
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