FreeBSD Can Compete With Ubuntu Linux, Windows 8

[phoronix]

Phoronix: FreeBSD Can Compete With Ubuntu Linux, Windows 8

Yesterday I published results that show NVIDIA's Linux driver is very competitive with Microsoft Windows 8 when it comes to OpenGL gaming performance. It turns out that the NVIDIA BSD driver, which is still mostly shared common code with Linux and Solaris and Windows, pairs very well with FreeBSD's Linux binary compatibility layer. The NVIDIA BSD performance is very good for OpenGL as shown in this article with a comparison of Windows 8 vs. Ubuntu 13.10 vs. FreeBSD 9.1. In fact, for some OpenGL workloads the Linux games are running faster on FreeBSD/PC-BSD 9.1 than Ubuntu!

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=18989

[Spectre]

I wonder how FreeBSD performs with the Source engine games. Unfortunately their compatibility mode doesn't work with steam but I bet there working on it.

[gamerk2]

The conclusion has dictated a flame war will soon commence.

[ElderSnake]

Wow, if it just had more all round desktop/hardware support, it seems FreeBSD would be a heck of a performer.

[tancrackers]

What about Windows 7?

How does Windows 7 compete?

[Guest]

Wow, if it just had more all round desktop/hardware support, it seems FreeBSD would be a heck of a performer.

If it had.. but it lacks Catalyst drivers as well, so it would still be far behind. It also lacks sane package management for typical users. It competes well just because Nvidia blob replaces Linux and BSD graphic stack, so performance is the same (+/- differences between graphic environments). I would like to hear the answer coming from FreeBSD developers who are trolls that claimed FreeBSD is faster than Linux in 3D games, because of Linuxulator: why were you lying?

[archibald]

If it had.. but it lacks Catalyst drivers as well, so it would still be far behind. It also lacks sane package management for typical users.

What's wrong with the package tools?

[mrmarbury]

What's wrong with the package tools?

Yup, would be interesting to know. I mean if you switch from Windoze or Ubuntu you probably want to use PC-BSD anyway. There's the AppCafe. Looks and Feels a lot like Ubuntu Software Center to me.
If you start out with FreeBSD and have no clue of the command line whatsoever than I guess the overwhelming number of really powerful ports mgmt tools is your smallest problem anyway ;o) And for those wanting the "apt-experience" there's always pkgng.

[lala]

Interesting, but what's the cause for the high performance on FreeBSD?

What operating system is the PS3 running on? maybe nvidia and sony tinkered around it.

[dante]

pkg_*shit fetches vulnerable and out of date packages making your system more hack-able. Also no updating or auditing capability not to mention painfully slow

PKGNG causes conflicts that can only be resolved by re-installing every package (happens when "upgrading"). Also painfully slow. And cannot be used with ports.

ports is so... slow (slower then Gentoo portage because BSD is naturally slower), messy. Also doesn't work with the piece of crap PKGN(ot)G(ood). and far less powerful and flexible then Gentoo portage. Takes up more disk space and doesn't have a standard management tool like Gentoo's emerge.

Pawlerson has a point, we certainly can't trust FreeBSD developers to produce useable software. So why should we use FreeBSD. The performance achieved here by PC-BSD has got nothing to do with FreeBSD itself, as what Pawlerson said, it's the NV's stack.

PC-BSD is just FreeBSD with a customized installer, there is no changes on the system, pkg install binary packages older than the ports packages but they are tested by the FreeBSD team, ports packages are newer but they are not tested and doesn't mean that they more stable or secure just because they are newer.