Linux is good enough; year of BSD desktop is never coming

[kylew77]

Those who know me know me on these forums know that I believe that the assorted *BSDs, specifically OpenBSD and FreeBSD, are the most technical superior operating systems out there. BUT, much like how Plasma was the better tech of TVs and LCDs won, I feel the same thing is happening with Linux vs *BSD.

A few cases I've noticed lately:
1) I was running OpenBSD 7.5 and my sound wasn't working and it turns out no one in the project even knew about this sound chip despite it being in a popular laptop brand since 2021!
2) after that I tried to install FreeBSD 14.0 on my second NVMe disk. It failed to fetch the sets. I created a FreeBSD form post about this and was told its a know issue we are aware up but no timeline about the fix. The replier said to use the bigger image with more sets built in to get a basic install off the ground. How in the hell can you let your installer break. People make decisions on an OS from its installer. It is kinda a make or break deal! Having the mini mem stick and boot only cd image for your latest release not work is huge!

Those were just two personal antecedents.

The next two are bigger.

3) iX systems announces an end to development of the FreeBSD based TrueNAS (formally FreeNAS) to focus on Debian based TrueNAS. iX systems had been one of the largest people to devote time and resources to the FreeBSD project.

4) Possibly a joke but when I checked yesterday it has not been confirmed as a joke or not. Netgate, makers of pfSense wanting to go wit h a Linux kernel and FreeBSD user land.

I did some quick googling for a lightweight, easy to use, systemd free Linux distro and came to Antix. It has a lovely iceWM desktop experience and everything from sound to wifi to a FDE capable installer, just worked.

I still kinda want to go back to OpenBSD but am finding that AntiX linux is good enough for me and doesn't have any problems associated with the big two BSDs.

Also, I am seeing comparable if not better memory usage with Antix that I was with OpenBSD, and I don't have to do without applications, and because a native Chrome is available I am able to sync everything between my work Windows machine, my Chromebook, and my personal ThinkPad with ease. On OpenBSD it required 3+ hours of work to get Chromium to work with sync enabled and everything because you have to set up codes and what not to re enable sync since Google intentionally broke it.

So in conclusion, OpenBSD and FreeBSD are better engineered whole systems and the better option, but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter because Linux despite being a hodgepodge of software thrown together, is good enough.

[gheefkitty]

Those who know me know me on these forums know that I believe that the assorted *BSDs, specifically OpenBSD and FreeBSD, are the most technical superior operating systems out there. BUT, much like how Plasma was the better tech of TVs and LCDs won, I feel the same thing is happening with Linux vs *BSD.

A few cases I've noticed lately:
1) I was running OpenBSD 7.5 and my sound wasn't working and it turns out no one in the project even knew about this sound chip despite it being in a popular laptop brand since 2021!
2) after that I tried to install FreeBSD 14.0 on my second NVMe disk. It failed to fetch the sets. I created a FreeBSD form post about this and was told its a know issue we are aware up but no timeline about the fix. The replier said to use the bigger image with more sets built in to get a basic install off the ground. How in the hell can you let your installer break. People make decisions on an OS from its installer. It is kinda a make or break deal! Having the mini mem stick and boot only cd image for your latest release not work is huge!

Those were just two personal antecedents.

The next two are bigger.

3) iX systems announces an end to development of the FreeBSD based TrueNAS (formally FreeNAS) to focus on Debian based TrueNAS. iX systems had been one of the largest people to devote time and resources to the FreeBSD project.

4) Possibly a joke but when I checked yesterday it has not been confirmed as a joke or not. Netgate, makers of pfSense wanting to go wit h a Linux kernel and FreeBSD user land.

I did some quick googling for a lightweight, easy to use, systemd free Linux distro and came to Antix. It has a lovely iceWM desktop experience and everything from sound to wifi to a FDE capable installer, just worked.

I still kinda want to go back to OpenBSD but am finding that AntiX linux is good enough for me and doesn't have any problems associated with the big two BSDs.

Also, I am seeing comparable if not better memory usage with Antix that I was with OpenBSD, and I don't have to do without applications, and because a native Chrome is available I am able to sync everything between my work Windows machine, my Chromebook, and my personal ThinkPad with ease. On OpenBSD it required 3+ hours of work to get Chromium to work with sync enabled and everything because you have to set up codes and what not to re enable sync since Google intentionally broke it.

So in conclusion, OpenBSD and FreeBSD are better engineered whole systems and the better option, but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter because Linux despite being a hodgepodge of software thrown together, is good enough.

Your comments are very correct. Personally, I think Linux is still popular software and has user-friendly functions

[grahamperrin]

… Possibly a joke …

Certainly

https://old.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1burbiz/pfsense_software_embraces_change_a_strategic/

Particular attention to the mysterious joker whose user flair, granted by yours truly, is pfSense of humor …

[Theriverlethe]

Did I just wake up having missed the year of Linux on the desktop?

[aidasmyth]

Those who know me know me on these forums know that I believe that the assorted *BSDs, specifically OpenBSD and FreeBSD, are the most technical superior operating systems out there. BUT, much like how Plasma was the better tech of TVs and LCDs won, I feel the same thing is happening with Linux vs *BSD.

A few cases I've noticed lately:
1) I was running OpenBSD 7.5 and my sound wasn't working and it turns out no one in the project even knew about this sound chip despite it being in a popular laptop brand since 2021!
2) after that I tried to install FreeBSD 14.0 on my second NVMe disk. It failed to fetch the sets. I created a FreeBSD form post about this and was told its a know issue we are aware up but no timeline about the fix. The replier said to use the bigger image with more sets built in to get a basic install off the ground. How in the hell can you let your installer break. People make decisions on an OS from its installer. It is kinda a make or break deal! Having the mini mem stick and boot only cd image for your latest release not work is huge!

Those were just two personal antecedents.

The next two are bigger.

3) iX systems announces an end to development of the FreeBSD based TrueNAS (formally FreeNAS) to focus on Debian based TrueNAS. iX systems had been one of the largest people to devote time and resources to the FreeBSD project.

4) Possibly a joke but when I checked yesterday it has not been confirmed as a joke or not. Netgate, makers of pfSense wanting to go wit h a Linux kernel and FreeBSD user land.

I did some quick googling for a lightweight, easy to use, systemd free Linux distro and came to Antix. It has a lovely iceWM desktop experience and everything from sound to wifi to a FDE capable installer, just worked.

I still kinda want to go back to OpenBSD but am finding that AntiX linux is good enough for me and doesn't have any uno online problems associated with the big two BSDs.

Also, I am seeing comparable if not better memory usage with Antix that I was with OpenBSD, and I don't have to do without applications, and because a native Chrome is available I am able to sync everything between my work Windows machine, my Chromebook, and my personal ThinkPad with ease. On OpenBSD it required 3+ hours of work to get Chromium to work with sync enabled and everything because you have to set up codes and what not to re enable sync since Google intentionally broke it.

So in conclusion, OpenBSD and FreeBSD are better engineered whole systems and the better option, but at the end of the day it really doesn't matter because Linux despite being a hodgepodge of software thrown together, is good enough.

Any other lesser-known distros you recommend?

[kylew77]

Any other lesser-known distros you recommend?

No, I just recently made the switch on my main personal laptop back to Linux from OpenBSD. AntiX is pretty good, though in icewm it can be hard to drag windows around to where you want.

[bhptitotoss]

Linux has far more development activity, especially for the desktop but also everywhere else, and so it's not very surprising that it preferred in most cases.

For me, OpenBSD and NetBSD are novelty distros which don't fit into any of my use-cases. I'm sure they exist for other people otherwise they would be dead projects, but not me. FreeBSD has 2 things I like, (1) in-tree ZFS and (2) jails. Jails are very useful for giving each service a distinct address without using VMs, which is to say that they are useful for squeezing the most out of a memory constrained system when you have services which don't play well together.

It's been a long time since I've needed FreeBSD and I've been Linux-only for a long time.

[sa8sd]

Linux has far more development activity, especially for the desktop but also everywhere else, and so it's not very surprising that it preferred in most cases.

For me, OpenBSD and NetBSD are novelty distros which don't fit into any of my use-cases. I'm sure they exist for other people otherwise they would be dead projects, but not me. FreeBSD has 2 things I like, (1) in-tree ZFS and (2) jails. Jails are very useful for giving each service a distinct address without using VMs, which is to say that they are useful for squeezing the most out of a memory constrained system when you have services which don't play well together.

It's been a long time since I've needed FreeBSD and I've been Linux-only for a long time.

I totally get what you're saying. Linux has a ton of development activity which keeps it fresh and versatile. I've used OpenBSD and NetBSD before, but like you, they didn't fit my needs. FreeBSD's in-tree ZFS and jails are really nice features, though. Jails are great for isolating services without the overhead of VMs, which is a big plus for resource management. It's been a while since I needed FreeBSD too; Linux has just been more practical for my setups lately.