Share your preferred bsd or linux distribution which is not FreeBSD.

Solaris & OpenSolaris. Back in the day, I used to like OpenServer, too.

Sometimes, when I need other OS, I install FreeBSD in virtual machine. I had no contact with his "siblings" yet.

Linux? no, thanks. I don't want it even for free. I tried it few times. Every time something didn't work, or nothing worked as it should. And it takes hours, to find a way to do something I can do in seconds on Solaris or OpenServer. So, the exact answer is: NONE.

I use Windows and *Solaris for daily operations.
 
Devuan and Crux are my preferred linux distros although FreeBSD is slowly replacing almost all my personal (and some work) linux installations. I also don’t really use laptops anymore as I have multiple desktop “battlestations” at work and at home.
 
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Mac OS/OpenBSD/Xubuntu/Ubuntu.

After using Debian since 3.1 "Sarge" (reiserfs!) I gave up on it last year. Just can't be bothered. Back then I liked the GNOME 2.2 Desktop, which got forked to MATE. I heard someone recently pronounce this as "mah-tay" which caused me to vomit in my mouth and haven't used it since.

My preferred approach to a new install is to just use Ubuntu and then cripple the snapd system and unattended upgrades. Easier to cut down than build up.

Technically my OpenBSD installation is augmented with an Arch Linux VM integrated using SSHFS etc. so I guess that counts.
 
My home:
One workstation whit FreeBSD, (for me:)) and also server home FreeBSD
One workstation with Gentoo many years
One laptop for my wife, white a Fedora Mate-compiz spin
The whole thing makes it possible not to get bored on retreat ;)
 
I use Linux Mint and have never looked back. I am very satisfied with its stability and user-friendliness. You should go to the homepage to see the history of their construction.

About Linux Mint - Linux Mint

Linux Mint is an elegant, easy to use, up to date and comfortable desktop operating system.
linuxmint.com linuxmint.com
 
homeadm said:
Solaris & OpenSolaris. Back in the day, I used to like OpenServer, too.

Sometimes, when I need other OS, I install FreeBSD in virtual machine. I had no contact with his "siblings" yet.

Linux? no, thanks. I don't want it even for free. I tried it few times. Every time something didn't work, or nothing worked as it should. And it takes hours, to find a way to do something I can do in seconds on Solaris or OpenServer. So, the exact answer is: NONE.

I use Windows and *Solaris for daily operations.
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Linux is divided into desktop and server. The failure experience on the server does not mean that it will not be successful on the desktop. Maybe this is your failed experience using Linux more than ten years ago, and now they have matured a lot.
 
I use Debian at work (along with FreeBSD), also have Ubuntu running some in Azure VMs. Don't like systemd at all, but as this is work stuff and the servers need to run the MS SQL Server driver, then any "risky solutions" involving alternative init systems or not so well supported distributions like Devuan, could leave me picking up the pieces if they break... IBM/Red Hat certainly did a job on us.

My concern about Devuan in particular is that it's really just a derivative (not a fork) and will probably suffer major problems in the future due to a "hostile" upstream. They seem to be fighting a losing battle, should find a new base if they want to survive - and the project has a lot of followers who don't seem technical at all, mainly philosophical, who post a lot of totally offtopic political rants in their forums and mailing lists - and it's just allowed. So I'm not hopeful they can survive. But who can say...

sonphantrung, I'm with you on OpenBSD's wifi configuration. It's very simple, text based config and it would be nice to see that ported to the other BSDs at some point. But it's one of those scenarios where you need people with the skills and the incentives, who are willing to do the work - the code doesn't grow on trees after all. We have to remember that systemd/Linux gets the kind of development hours and bankrolling by "Big Tech", that dwarfs the four major BSD project's funding combined.
 

About Us – MX Linux

mxlinux.org mxlinux.org

Systemd

Because the use of systemd as a system and service manager has been controversial, we want to be clear about its function in MX Linux. Systemd is included by default but not enabled. You can scan your MX system and discover files bearing systemd* names, but those simply provide a compatibility hook/entrypoint when needed.

MX Linux uses systemd-shim, which emulates the systemd functions that are required to run the helpers without actually using the init service. This means that SvsVinit remains the default init yet MX Linux can use crucial Debian packages that have systemd dependencies such as CUPS and Network Manager. This approach also allows the user to retain the ability to choose his/her preferred init on the boot screen (GRUB). For details, see the MX/antiX Wiki.
Click to expand...

Not sure there's much point in that. They seem to want to be, at least partially, on the "no systemd bandwagon", yet systemd is there, just not running as PID1.

(Besides I had to put together all the unit files and get them tested and working - not an experience I wish to repeat, nor something I would have wanted to learn anything about by choice - so not going to bother changing now.)

In over two years, the systemd services have yet to fail. So far so good...

Mariadb is not an option in this case, though we do use it as well. There is one process which has to look up data on an MS SQL Server - not my choice.
 
in Linux, my heart allways be in Debian , before systemd of course, and now when a have to make a virtual machine for a developer I recomend Debian(if they want linux)
 
malaizhichun said:
Maybe this is your failed experience using Linux more than ten years ago, and now they have matured a lot.
Click to expand...
Maybe. Let's assume this is true. I still don't understand why I have to mess with Linux, when:

- Oracle left a loophole in Solaris license, so I can use it for free,
- I have FreeBSD, which - from my brief interaction with it - looks almost as good as Solaris,
- we have other alternatives, such as OpenIndiana, NetBSD, GhostBSD,
- with a little tuning, like killing automatic updates and such nonsense, Windows is rock-solid, and I can do virtually anything on it that is possible on Linux.
Not vice-versa, as WinServer has built-in type-1 hypervisor, and resilient, self-healing storage (ReFS with integrity streams on Storage Spaces) with shadow copies, dedup, wide customization options and advanced performance (tiers or/and mirror-accelerated parity).

Maybe my opinion was too harsh and Linux is not a complete disaster, but there are many better options to choose from, both paid and free.
 
homeadm said:
Maybe. Let's assume this is true. I still don't understand why I have to mess with Linux, when:

- Oracle left a loophole in Solaris license, so I can use it for free,
- I have FreeBSD, which - from my brief interaction with it - looks almost as good as Solaris,
- we have other alternatives, such as OpenIndiana, NetBSD, GhostBSD,
- with a little tuning, like killing automatic updates and such nonsense, Windows is rock-solid, and I can do virtually anything on it that is possible on Linux.
Not vice-versa, as WinServer has built-in type-1 hypervisor, and resilient, self-healing storage (ReFS with integrity streams on Storage Spaces) with shadow copies, dedup, wide customization options and advanced performance (tiers or/and mirror-accelerated parity).

Maybe my opinion was too harsh and Linux is not a complete disaster, but there are many better options to choose from, both paid and free.
Click to expand...

Linux has many more apps than freebsd. If you don’t use linux, you may not be able to use it. Under freebsd, you can only use linux to simulate it.And linux supports more hardware than freebsd. If you don’t use linux, you can’t use nvdia and wifi. Linux supports the use of win programs through wine. If you don’t use linux, you can’t run games on steam. Many programs have linux versions. macos version, win version, but no freebsd version.I tried freebsd many times, it couldn't adjust my screen brightness, it didn't have systemd, it couldn't use many advanced features of gnome, I had to give up, this also applies to devuan
 
malaizhichun said:
If you don’t use linux, you can’t use nvdia
Click to expand...

fbsd.png
 
malaizhichun said:
Linux has many more apps than freebsd. If you don’t use linux, you may not be able to use it. Under freebsd, you can only use linux to simulate it.And linux supports more hardware than freebsd.
Click to expand...
On the hardware support - it only matters that it support your hardware. Then it depends on what you're trying to do.

malaizhichun said:
If you don’t use linux, you can’t use nvdia and wifi.
Click to expand...
I seem to recall there being an Nvidia proprietary driver for FreeBSD...? Wifi has always been an issue for every OS except proprietary ones. There are many devices which still barely function with Linux as well.

malaizhichun said:
Linux supports the use of win programs through wine. If you don’t use linux, you can’t run games on steam.
Click to expand...

Though I see where you're coming from, I don't think it's a great "selling point" of Linux that it can run Steam which in turn uses Proton to run Windows games under Wine. Yet you point it out as a negative that FreeBSD uses Linuxulator?
malaizhichun said:
Many programs have linux versions. macos version, win version, but no freebsd version.
Click to expand...
Fair enough. You could say the same for Windows vs all of the above.

malaizhichun said:
I tried freebsd many times, it couldn't adjust my screen brightness, it didn't have systemd, it couldn't use many advanced features of gnome, I had to give up, this also applies to devuan
Click to expand...
If you want systemd + gnome, then I have to wonder why you ever installed FreeBSD in the first place. Why not just use the right tool for the job?

gnome is developed for Linux/systemd/wayland - there is no sense at all in try to run gnome on any other platform and its developers don't care if it doesn't run on other platforms.

You've admitted that even Devuan doesn't meet your needs, so the BSDs have no hope at all.

We have an Xbox One at home and I don't complain about it's lack of a tcsh shell, ssh server or no zfs support, for example...

I have to wonder why you bothered with any BSD, or even Devuan in the first place? Devuan is for those who deliberately seek out a Linux system without systemd - yet you've just listed lack of syatemd as a con...?
 
Debian because it's community driven and has the best security track record (I have been researching this since 2016 and with most software stack Debian is the fastest Linux distro), and I have always preferred the deb package system, however, nowadays this is not so relevant any more since everything is containers in my environment.
 
I am not a fan of any linux distro and macs! But I am a proud user of FreeBSD which runs 24/7 on my home server. Also, I use Windows 11 because that's the best for gaming. I wish in the future FreeBSD to be the on the same level with windows which regards gaming.
 
Manjaro, Plasma <https://manjaro.org/download/>. I can't recall what made me choose Manjaro, but I was very pleased with it.

I stopped using it only because I accidentally ran a dd command over part of its VirtualBox virtual disk image. I'm inspired to reinstall. Thanks, Alain.
 
Among BSD systems, I only truly used FreeBSD. I also tried GhostBSD a bit on a VM but I prefer to use barebones FreeBSD and configure my stuff from there.

On the Linux space, I use NixOS the most, with a second preference for Arch/EndeavourOS and third for Debian. I should one day try Gentoo, I believe I would like it a lot.
 
grahamperrin said:
Manjaro, Plasma <https://manjaro.org/download/>. I can't recall what made me choose Manjaro, but I was very pleased with it.

I stopped using it only because I accidentally ran a dd command over part of its VirtualBox virtual disk image. I'm inspired to reinstall. Thanks, Alain.
Click to expand...
An interesting alternative is,
garudalinux.org

Garuda Linux Official website

Garuda Linux is an appealing Arch Linux based Distro with BTRFS (modern filesystem), Linux-zen kernel, auto snapshots, gaming edition and a lot more bleeding-edge features.
garudalinux.org garudalinux.org
 
rootbert said:
Debian because it's community driven and has the best security track record (I have been researching this since 2016 and with most software stack Debian is the fastest Linux distro)
Click to expand...
I used Debian for years and I don't recall it being "community driven" in any way, shape or form. Debian was always a "do ocracy" - i.e. driven by those doing the work.

Not sure about the security "track record" either. Debian stable was and partially still is, about backporting security fixes to frozen release versions of packages. If you checked the bug tracker at any given time, there were usually hundreds of unfixed bugs along with unmaintained packages. The insistence on LTS kernels and those only getting security updates, meant suffering various other bugs for two years unless you compiled and installed a newer kernel.

"Fastest" is also rather ambiguous. I always found Slackware to be much more responsive for example, but with no reliable measure of performance, it's all pure conjecture. It used to be with Debian that the kernel was configured for servers with a lower tick rate.
 
rootbert said:
Debian because it's community driven and has the best security track record (I have been researching this since 2016 and with most software stack Debian is the fastest Linux distro), and I have always preferred the deb package system, however, nowadays this is not so relevant any more since everything is containers in my environment.
Click to expand...
Yeah I also disagree with this. 20 years of Debian use and experience has told me the first thing you do after installing Debian is compile a vanilla kernel because the packaged ones are trash. apt, as much as I appreciate it, has destroyed every installation I've ever had, but I consider this a feature/occupational hazard of package managers in general.

apt-get upgrade is a big no-no for me. That's new hard drive + installation time.
 
taiwan740 said:
experience has told me the first thing you do after installing Debian is compile a vanilla kernel because the packaged ones are trash.
Click to expand...
I would also recommend debootstrap'ping an *actual* minbase rather than whatever random bargain bin of default userland any Debian install gives (including netinst, standard, minimal).

Oh and set the systemd preset file to disable * so it doesn't enable any random service that gets pulled in as an unnecessary dependency.

Finally add:

Code: 
APT::Install-Recommends "false";

To apt.conf so it doesn't pull in more random crud for each package.

Such a mess. Linux distros are just grim. On second though, just run FreeBSD instead ;)
 
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