What's happening to FreeBSD?

[rotor]

Is FreeBSD going down the path of MS Windows, i.e., a wall of complexity is a goal?

The new package-oriented updates of the OS are a major step backwards from the prior ease of keeping FreeBSD up to date.

Has there been a major change in the long-term goals of FreeBSD?

 

[Alain De Vos]

There is no OS.
- There is KERNEL
- There is BASE
- There are PACKAGES

The 3 together form the OS.

- Me i just build a few ports (20) with poudriere.
- Then for all ports (1500) i do "pkg update -f" , "pkg upgrade".

"freebsd-version -kru"
"pkg prime-origins"

 

[lanin]

Is FreeBSD going down the path of MS Windows, i.e., a wall of complexity is a goal?

The new package-oriented updates of the OS are a major step backwards from the prior ease of keeping FreeBSD up to date.

Has there been a major change in the long-term goals of FreeBSD?

take a look -

Thread 'Brave New PKGBASE World'

Oct 20, 2025

Original article here.
Consider this when replying.

FreeBSD, The FreeBSD Foundation, and The FreeBSD Forums are not associated with the content of this article.

• vermaden

• 
• 

 

[drhowarddrfine]

rotor It's not complex. It's different. In the long run it's better than before cause it eases its development.
It's not difficult to learn or use and you'll find that out once you use it.

 

[MG]

take a look -

Thread 'Brave New PKGBASE World'

Oct 20, 2025

Original article here.
Consider this when replying.

FreeBSD, The FreeBSD Foundation, and The FreeBSD Forums are not associated with the content of this article.

• vermaden

• 
• 

How far is this? I made a mfsroot-based system that theoretically can run 1 program after the kernel but that's not really interesting. A solid dependency tree of world components would be nice, though. Trying something with compiler options gets complicated fast.

 

[cracauer@]

pkgbase is one thing. Whether you like it or not, nobody stepped forward to maintain freebsd-update forever.

rcd is a different matter, is it gets to be pid 1. But the proposal for that makes sense to me and the improved functionality is worth the complexity (for me).

 

[mer]

rotor It's not complex. It's different. In the long run it's better than before cause it eases its development.
It's not difficult to learn or use and you'll find that out once you use it.

Agree completely but for me personally, I can wait until it becomes the default, which implies most of the bugs are shaken out.

cracauer@ I agree on rcd.

 

[Alain De Vos]

I cannot wait for rcd. The dev is very knowledgeable, when it becomes stable, or lets say beta, i will certainly use it. It will be like Solaris...

 

[Alain De Vos]

pkgbase is one thing. Whether you like it or not, nobody stepped forward to maintain freebsd-update forever.

rcd is a different matter, is it gets to be pid 1. But the proposal for that makes sense to me and the improved functionality is worth the complexity (for me).

The most easy thing is build kernel and base from source. Works all times. No need for additional stuff.
Same for /usr/src & /usr/ports ; i just use plain simple git clone.