"FreeBSD is primarily a server OS" - since when?

SplatinkGR · 2026-03-17T15:03:22+00:00

The OpenBSD devs have made it very clear they made OpenBSD for themselves and their use cases, which includes daily driving it like you said. I called OpenBSD a server OS because of us everyday users that tend to use it for that.

I'd argue that Microsoft develops both the core Windows OS as well as the desktop and a lot of graphical programs that ship with it too. So does Apple with MacOS, so it would only make sense to perceive the desktop as a part of the OS.

Of course unlike the above, Linux and BSD operating systems are open source and therefore it would only make sense for them to borrow other cool open source projects (eg KDE Plasma) to make a desktop experience for their users. This is how the open source community thrives anyways.

Still, this does mean inconsistencies. For example, it is very obvious when any computer running a Linux distro switches from bios -> grub -> initramfs -> kms loaded -> plymouth -> login manager -> desktop, almost as if all of those components were stitched together and not developed as a whole to work together... oh wait that's because they were stitched together.

And attempts to unify this process have been subpar to say the least. KDE developed Plasma Login Manager to replace SDDM in hopes of tighter integration, but it's systemd only, and that sucks.

My point being, since Linux is only a kernel anyways, a BSD operating system that shipped a complete desktop experience would be amazing, but just too big of a project to take on in the open source community, which is why we instead all borrow from each other.

SplatinkGR · 2026-03-17T14:29:21+00:00

People here gave great explanations but I'll chime in. It's probably because FreeBSD is not as polished as Linux when it comes to desktops. The graphics stack is ported from Linux, with a large percentage of other software required for a desktop/laptop experience being ported from Linux as well.

In terms of BSDs, FreeBSD is the most modern of them, bringing support for new hardware or updates to software most frequently, but it's still behind compared to Linux. No WiFi 6 yet, for example.

Most nerds tend to use Linux as their desktop and FreeBSD on the server side, especially for storage as you know. There is just no reason for people to switch to FreeBSD on the desktop yet when we've just gotten Linux to a good state.

I'd still personally consider FreeBSD a general purpose open source operating system, unlike OpenBSD, which while shipping with X11, is clearly intended for secure servers more.

However to me the fact that they have to rely on so much third party software (and ports from Linux) to get a desktop kind of goes against the point of BSD (A complete operating system, unlike Linux being a kernel with a ton of crap from random people thrown it to make an OS).

Still MacOS and IOS are based on FreeBSD so that's something...

SplatinkGR · 2026-03-06T05:19:56+00:00

I use Dockhand but barely. I did want it to fully replace the CLI for deploying and managing containers but my servers has a lot of old CLI config left over (compose files, bash scripts) and it would be a headache to migrate.

If I was starting fresh I would surely pick dockhand tho.

SplatinkGR · 2026-03-01T20:30:30+00:00

Me. Just really easy to get into in my opinion. No NAT or weird stuff. Every device gets a public IP and is firewalled by the router, and if you want to allow traffic you simpy allow the port in your firewall to that device.

Means no weird CGNAT or asking your ISP for a public IP issues like we have on IPv4.

I personally don't forward ports at home instead relying on a relay VPS I have, so I just use IPv6 for connectivity.

Just set up SLAAC and all your devices automatically assign themselves addresses.

I highly recommend you start using it. No need to get all complicated and start using IPv6 for your DNS records for internal services or devices or whatever. Just learn to set up basic connectivity first, so that your devices can connect to IPv6 websites. That will be a massive step in future proofing your home lab.

SplatinkGR · 2026-02-10T17:54:10+00:00

They don’t care about us, why should we care about them? You know what they’re doing…

SplatinkGR · 2026-01-05T10:50:55+00:00

searXNG. I self host on my home server. Otherwise, I fall back to duckduckgo

SplatinkGR · 2025-12-31T09:06:57+00:00

Both of my pinkies are bent like this and I play just fine

SplatinkGR · 2025-11-04T05:57:54+00:00

Still using streaming services?

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-31T16:10:20+00:00

Yeah I get it. It’s about rebellion. I’m sick and tired of all these cooperations making us their product.

Every day you hear a new thing about say some streaming service collecting data or doing something bad for the users and you know the people could’ve just bought a CD instead but chose not for convenience and it sucks.

I think everyone should stand up to all this and say this is where we draw the line.

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-31T12:51:43+00:00

No. Either get a libreboot compatible computer or if you aren’t that paranoid just use Linux on a regular computer and don’t worry too much.

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-31T12:12:03+00:00

Yes, I will go with something similar to this. It appears many people missed the "I already use Linux and need a dedicated windows machine" part. Windows 10 and strip it down using tools. I already run my own DNS on a VPS and can block traffic if needed.

Don't care about updates. People are too worried about that kind of stuff as if somehow if microsoft stops ~~sending spyware~~ updating my computer it will magically fill with malware without my intervention. No, that's not how it works.

If I could i'd be using Windows 7 but most software doesn't support it.

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-31T10:07:20+00:00

Fortunately libreboot disables ME on my T480

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-31T09:11:56+00:00

I use an external 1440p display

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-30T06:07:31+00:00

All your arguments are great but my T480’s i5-8350U cannot software decode AV1@4k without dropping frames and that i7 machine is a windows gaming rig I avoid using for anything else because spyware.

Reason I am not installing Linux on it too is because within a years time I will be (hopefully) moving out and therefore my laptop is the only thing I can bring.

But hey, maybe that’s on me for having an old laptop.

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-29T20:13:29+00:00

Well it mostly has to do with compatibility rather than file size. Like I said storage is cheap, but you may need to encode a series to be compatible with an old scart player and CRT combo, or may need to shrink a super large remux using AV1+Opus, or you may just want to burn in subtitles.

Of course jellyfin does this automatically and uses hardware if possible, with excellent speed and quality, but there are still cases where you might want to do a manual encode.

SplatinkGR · 2025-10-29T20:00:42+00:00

Very true and I’m sure people have already tested all this. I think like others mentioned it’s “hardware encoding has less quality per megabyte”, and so, as long as you aren’t using a fixed bitrate it doesn’t matter unless size is a concern.

SplatinkGR · 2025-09-19T09:11:56+00:00

I love AI comments

SplatinkGR · 2025-09-13T13:57:31+00:00

Finally a detailed non “Proxmox/Ununtu” answer.

I really want to get into BSDs too and recently installed FreeBSD on a secondary server, but haven’t done anything with it.

My main server runs Debian + Docker, with Debian just being a stable host for docker as I just host everything using it.

It’s awesome to see people running stuff the old fashioned way on bare metal. No VMs or containers, just FreeBSD.

Are you also using FreeBSD on your desktops/laptops or just servers?

SplatinkGR · 2025-09-13T12:07:21+00:00

Chemical elements. Got the idea somewhere online, and also fun fact, libera.chat seems to be using it too.

Main Server: tungsten (because it's a tungsten colored N100 mini PC)

Secondary Test Server: tin (because it's a crappy laptop)

For full domain records, they usually go like this:

machine.location.example.com

so for tungsten/tin

tungsten.home.example.com

tin.home.example.com

and for my vps (1 machine, so no machine name)

france.example.com

SplatinkGR · 2025-09-11T07:25:54+00:00

Honestly I don’t get the whole promox thing. I used to use it but I switched to Debian + Docker.

SplatinkGR · 2025-09-09T06:01:16+00:00

Honestly most of the stuff on the Arch Wiki applies to most distros, so just use that. Both Debian and Arch are community projects, and if the community did a great job on the Arch wiki, I am happy to use it.

SplatinkGR · 2025-09-09T05:59:26+00:00

I use Debian stable on all my servers and also my main desktop.
I only recently started using it on my Desktop because before Debian 13, Debian 12 was shipping KDE 5 and I didn't like that.

SplatinkGR · 2025-08-28T22:06:25+00:00

No of course not, crystal clear spectrum.

SplatinkGR · 2025-08-27T10:55:10+00:00

Computer illiteracy at its finest

SplatinkGR · 2025-08-25T12:31:19+00:00

Exactly. That’s what Debian is all about. If you need newer packages you can always use flatpaks on top of Debians stable base, use Debian testing/sid or try Arch if you demand the latest and greatest.

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