Wanting to Know if FreeBSD Would Meet My Needs and Work With My Hardware

T

tb58371

Hello everyone,

I'm currently a Linux user who is interested in FreeBSD. Didn't know that so many things used today are based off of BSD which is awesome. I'm thinking of switching to it full time but wanted to know if I can do the same things on my Linux machine. I run virtual machines with Virtualbox, play Linux native games on Steam and play older Windows games with Steam's Proton. I'm also curious if the hardware for both my desktop and laptop are BSD friendly as far as drivers and such go. I've posted the specs of both of my machines. I couldn't figure out exactly what thread to post this on since it contains two different topics in one post. Thanks for taking the time to read and address this!

Model: Alienware Alpha R1
RAM: 15.6 GiB
CPU: Intel Core i3-4130T CPU @ 2.90GHz × 4
Storage: 1.0 TB HDD
GPU: NVIDIA Corporation GM107M [GeForce GTX 860M]
Network: Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188EUS 802.11n USB Wireless Network Adapter

Model: Lenovo Ideapad 330-15IGM
RAM: 3.7 GiB
CPU: Intel Celeron(R) N4100 CPU @ 1.10GHz x 4
Storage: 500.1 GB HDD
GPU: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 600 (GLK 2)
Network: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
Touchpad: Synaptics TM3336-001
 
your PC should be OK, but I dont see the QCA9377 of your notebook in the list of supported HW:

www.freebsd.org

FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE Hardware Notes

FreeBSD is an operating system used to power modern servers, desktops, and embedded platforms.
www.freebsd.org www.freebsd.org

I am not sure if FreeBSD is a good choice if you want to play games. I mean, AFAIK, some of them work, but it includes tinkering. If games are what you are primarily doing with your computer, then maybe try FreeBSD dualboot and check if you can make your preffered games work. You can always reboot and play a game or two and then reboot back. I started with FreeBSD dual booting, then after a few months I realized I never boot into linux anymore, so I dumped it.
 
tb58371 said:
Hello everyone,

I'm currently a Linux user who is interested in FreeBSD. Didn't know that so many things used today are based off of BSD which is awesome. I'm thinking of switching to it full time but wanted to know if I can do the same things on my Linux machine. I run virtual machines with Virtualbox, play Linux native games on Steam and play older Windows games with Steam's Proton. I'm also curious if the hardware for both my desktop and laptop are BSD friendly as far as drivers and such go. I've posted the specs of both of my machines. I couldn't figure out exactly what thread to post this on since it contains two different topics in one post. Thanks for taking the time to read and address this!
Click to expand...

Here's the FreeBSD laptop wiki.

You should make a live USB to test. You might also use a live GhostBSD USB; it's a quick way to get into a GUI and see if there are glaring driver omissions.

VirtualBox is great on FreeBSD, but it's still version 5.2 if that's a consideration. Steam and Proton I don't know.

You might also consider running FreeBSD in a VM in Linux as step one. I had good results running a stripped down Debian then loading a FreeBSD VM at boot, although I prefer bare metal.
 
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