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Running Steam's Linux Build On FreeBSD Is Becoming Increasingly Capable For Gaming

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  • Running Steam's Linux Build On FreeBSD Is Becoming Increasingly Capable For Gaming

    Phoronix: Running Steam's Linux Build On FreeBSD Is Becoming Increasingly Capable For Gaming

    For many years it's been possible to run Linux games on FreeBSD along with other Linux applications thanks to FreeBSD's "Linuxulator" Linux binary compatibility layer. With that more recently it's becoming possible to run even more recent games thanks to improvements to FreeBSD's graphics drivers, the Linux binary compatibility code, and other FreeBSD improvements -- Steam is even working out for more titles...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    To me, FreeBSD is a nice tinkering OS for non-commercial applications (I have no experience about commercial deployment, hence I can't talk about that). The cli stuff and system configuration reminds me of 2000's Linux and makes me nostalgic. For desktop use, a few things are missing for me, i.e. more recent AMDGPU drivers, DRM support (Widevine, HDCP) and FUTEX2/Fsync support. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Soundblaster Z was 'just working' however.
    As for the tinkering factor - there is plenty of lowlevel access and configuration opportunities. I am using Gentoo on my main machine, so I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but in comparison Gentoo seems almost overly comfortable and abstracted (looking at you, portage&USE flags). Then there is ZFS, which is probably the best file system in the whole UNIXoid ecosystem. BTRFS doesn't even come close, although I like that Linux users have the choice of managing RAID on a block layer level and the FS level.
    Anyhow, I will continue to watch the future developments of FreeBSD and give it a go sometime again in the future. Keep it up, you great devs :P

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    • #3
      kiffmet
      About uses in production, I can think of Netflix and TrueNAS

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      • #4
        Originally posted by kiffmet View Post
        The cli stuff and system configuration reminds me of 2000's Linux and makes me nostalgic.
        This is my favorite thing about FreeBSD and it is like this by design. FreeBSD dug its heels in and kept being UNIX-like whereas Linux had started to explore different paths. More driven by the GNU design and philosophy. Neither is proven to be good or bad from a technical viewpoint, however I feel the UNIX design is what will stand the test of time.

        Even Windows is moving back to this a little with improved CLI capabilities and work on a new SFU-like Linux-layer.
        I think the word "modern" is greatly overused by kids but in this case Microsoft really is modernizing simply by going back more to the UNIX design. That said, I think they will stop at Linux because they can't quite see past the popularity.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by kpedersen View Post

          This is my favorite thing about FreeBSD and it is like this by design. FreeBSD dug its heels in and kept being UNIX-like whereas Linux had started to explore different paths. More driven by the GNU design and philosophy. Neither is proven to be good or bad from a technical viewpoint, however I feel the UNIX design is what will stand the test of time.
          Unix is dead, long live Unix. Unix, not as a OS because that vanished with Version 7 Unix but as a specification lives on. That specification is called POSIX.
          There were many systems that directly based upon the original OS called Unix and at many of those you would see nearly nothing you call Unix today.
          Both Linux and BSD are very unix-like in that big world of POSIX compatible OS's. Linux just chose to continue to progress while BSD is mostly where it was back 1978.

          There are so many Unix or Unix-like systems out there, each developed into different ways. Minix, AIX, Xenix, System V, Solaris, HP-UX, Augustiner-Schweinshaxe.

          There is only one thing they all have in common, they are POSIX compatible.

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          • #6
            POSIX is obviously very key here. Though SUS is in my opinion fairly underrated. Little things like having ed and nvi installed as part of an adhering standard is very useful.

            Plus there are a number of POSIX operating systems out there that I do not see as usable. So I still see it as UNIX being the winning design here. Not necessarily just POSIX. Especially with a number of Linux distros actually going for UNIX certification, they might provide a good comparison.
            Last edited by kpedersen; 07 April 2021, 08:02 AM.

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            • #7
              phoronix Proton for steam on FreeBSD is actually making progress: https://github.com/shkhln/linuxulato...utils/issues/4
              There already is a port (which is only part of what is needed to make it work): https://www.freshports.org/emulators/wine-proton/
              Also, the current beta of the NVIDIA driver now offers native vulkan for the first time: https://www.nvidia.com/download/driv...x/171982/en-us

              So things are actually coming together

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              • #8
                The linux-steam-util github repo has a wiki page with a list of games known to work (and some that are known to not work): https://github.com/shkhln/linuxulato.../Compatibility

                As h**2 mentioned, proton support is actually coming along and some games do work on it already. It's fun stuff

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by kiffmet View Post
                  To me, FreeBSD is a nice tinkering OS for non-commercial applications (I have no experience about commercial deployment, hence I can't talk about that). The cli stuff and system configuration reminds me of 2000's Linux and makes me nostalgic. For desktop use, a few things are missing for me, i.e. more recent AMDGPU drivers, DRM support (Widevine, HDCP) and FUTEX2/Fsync support. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Soundblaster Z was 'just working' however.
                  As for the tinkering factor - there is plenty of lowlevel access and configuration opportunities. I am using Gentoo on my main machine, so I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but in comparison Gentoo seems almost overly comfortable and abstracted (looking at you, portage&USE flags). Then there is ZFS, which is probably the best file system in the whole UNIXoid ecosystem. BTRFS doesn't even come close, although I like that Linux users have the choice of managing RAID on a block layer level and the FS level.
                  Anyhow, I will continue to watch the future developments of FreeBSD and give it a go sometime again in the future. Keep it up, you great devs :P
                  I agree, I love the fact that it's "cli stuff" is traditional Unix. The system layout is very very simple, but simplicity has value especially if you like to customize. New shiny is not always good. You can build complicated things on FreeBSD much easier than Ubuntu.

                  It makes for an excellent server and huge companies use it as a base for their applications and products. (NetApp, Juniper etc) Your organization probbly uses FreeBSD in the datacenter and doesn't even know it because it's hidden behind some product branding and webui. As a desktop, it's... ok.. I prefer to call it a workstation because usually if I'm going to use it on the desktop it's "for work". But.. KDE and Gnome and lots of other popular desktops work. GhostBSD might be the best "desktop spin". (btw MacOS and FreeBSD make for a really good combo for work and play if you like Unix, as they are related.)

                  Daniel Robbins the original creator of Gentoo was a FreeBSD fan and created portage as an expanded ports.

                  I do agree with others that Unix probbly will win out in the end and Linux may have a reckoning at some point and return to it's roots. They change so much so often that people tend to get frustrated with it. FreeBSD doesn't do that the choices and changes they make are well thought out and very much a progression of what you'd expect with Unix. I think Linux suffers by being just a kernel so it makes it difficult for Linus to control what organizations or companies like RedHat do (and their reasons are often to gain market control and lock-in despite being technically open source). With FreeBSD it's a unified OS so every decision about it is decided on by the FreeBSD core team and it has more of a focused direction. It's a better model.


                  Originally posted by Alexmitter View Post

                  Unix is dead, long live Unix. Unix, not as a OS because that vanished with Version 7 Unix but as a specification lives on.
                  FreeBSD's source code goes back directly to Berkley Unix (AKA BSD). Making it a direct descendant of one of the first Unix systems. All or nearly all of the old BSD code has been replaced or modernized but it is the oldest still active and living source tree in history. (it stems from a 386 port of BSD) BSD is the grandfather of Solaris and other Unix systems. It also pioneered open source and it if wasn't for the AT&T Lawsuit, nobody would have ever heard of the GNU or Linux. The fear of the lawsuit caused people to create alternatives. (Turns out CA state judges like CA state Universities more than AT&T lol) They don't own the UNIX(r) legal trademark to label themselves such but it is 100% Unix and not a hybrid with anything. The more you know.
                  Last edited by k1e0x; 07 April 2021, 06:29 PM.

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                  • #10
                    "XD".

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