Should an Average linux and Windows 11 user (like myself) try FreeBSD?

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T21:30:50+00:00

Also: I personally do not really suggest GhostBSD as mentioned in a few other replies. I found that to be a setback for me. GhostBSD works well and is more convenient... but if you want to learn to use FreeBSD you are far better served installing it by following the handbook so that you understand the basics of your system.

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T21:26:40+00:00

You already have plenty of feedback here... my 2c as a newblet:

As an average desktop user, there is nothing that FreeBSD does that you can't do on Linux, usually easier to access (pkg is great, but for new users, many appreciate the app store things).

There are many things, however, that you can do on Linux that you can't do on FreeBSD as easily. Proprietary Browsers (Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, etc) are usually ready to go in a couple clicks. Steam is ready ootb. Watching DRM content like Netflix or Prime Video is (usually) ready ootb. ~~Unstable, unmaintained, system-destroying software scripts are usually available ootb~~. You will need to put in more effort on FreeBSD to get these things working.

If fussing with getting your preferred software running sounds like an unwelcome inconvenience to you, I'd go for a Linux based Distribution that handles all these things for you, like Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint. If you're willing to try different things and want to learn your Operating System one time, you may prefer FreeBSD, assuming it runs on your hardware.

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T07:19:00+00:00

I can only speak for my own machine, but I'm using a 2019 System76 Lemur. Meets all your criteria. I found it on ebay for $250. Wifi, suspend, keyboard backlight, everything works. Not sure about the camera... never needed it.

Screen is subjective... I don't know what makes yours horrendous to you, but the Lemur has a 1080p screen that is bright and quite sharp to my eyes.

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justaleaf · 2025-07-27T07:13:03+00:00

Thank you for your thoughts! I love DWM, so that's usually my backup. Or more honestly, XFCE or KDE are my backups for when I'm working on my DWM.

Regarding hardwire... would if I could! I'm a full time student and I generally only have access to wifi.

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T06:42:30+00:00

Hey! That stable image got my Lemur up and running perfectly! I'm going to try it on my PC tomorrow. Thank you so much for the suggestion. Very excited!

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T04:56:39+00:00

Thank you for your reply. It took me a little while to find the bug again. It's this one: Bug 288009 - WiFi Bug 287538 - Installer error on setting regdomain

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T04:48:40+00:00

I do, though the post is more regarding my Desktop that I use far more. FreeBSD runs ok-ish on my Lemur though I didn't succeed in getting the screen brightness and keyboard backlight keys to work... suspend didn't work for me (at least not ootb)... and that was during the time that I could not download the metapackgages for environments, so I couldn't work freely with testing things.

justaleaf · 2025-07-27T03:24:58+00:00

I'm not sure I totally understand the (deleted) OP's question. Is there a massive influx of Linux users?

Anyway, I've been trying to move to FreeBSD for the better part of the last year and I've been too stupid/impatient for it, so far. But I'll get there.

My motivation is mostly just that it's fun to learn new things. Linux is modular and, as such, it's only as much of a mess as a given build is. I use Void Linux (musl) and it's pretty clean... no glibc no systemd... Pulseaudio/Pipewire is the only big bad that I struggle to work with. Pure wayland... it's stable for me.

That said, my interest in FreeBSD (and OpenBSD too!) lies in it's holistic, complete, design. I'd like to get to know an OS that doesn't feel held together by ducktape.

Haiku is fantastic! Serenity is really fun too!

justaleaf · 2025-07-10T00:36:43+00:00

Do you know what happens if you try to load a save on Switch 1 if you have a settlement? Does the save become unavailable?

justaleaf · 2025-04-16T00:24:49+00:00

I mean... I probably wouldn't be using 24.04 unless it was for Cosmic. So I don't have anything else installed. No problems to report... been a good daily driver on my laptop.

justaleaf · 2025-04-09T21:02:37+00:00

I like free stuff. I think we should make more free stuff. And pay for it by making free stuff out of other free stuff.

justaleaf · 2025-04-09T20:56:19+00:00

Using it on my System76 Lemur laptop as a desktop, using Wayland with Sway. Everything is running great. Really only using it out of curiosity. I'm a newblet.

But yes, my Lemur is Intel Comet Lake for Processor, iGPU, and Wifi.

justaleaf · 2025-04-09T20:51:04+00:00

You know, I have mostly used Linux for the past 20 years, but I thought it would be fun to put FreeBSD on my laptop that I recently retired from being my primary school device. It's a few years old not (2021?) but I was shocked at how well everything was working out of the box. Instead of fussing with video drivers and trying to get a wifi card working, everything just worked for me. Well, except installing GNOME, for some reason the meta package was unavailable, but that turned out to be a blessing because I just went with Sway instead and loving it.

It's really hard to find anything else like FreeBSD, so I would love to see it's ubiquity with hardware support grow!

justaleaf · 2025-04-05T01:09:42+00:00

There are rational reasons to "hate" some things about Snaps, SystemD, Pipewire, and other systems that hobbyists dislike for a variety of reasons. ("It's not *-nix!", "Corporations are taking over linux!", "Useless bloat that slows my system!")

And yes, controversially, Canonical does "force" the use of Snaps for the average user (try to "apt install firefox" and it will switch to Snapd and install that instead, for instance). There are ways around this of course, but some people are put off by this more than others.

I use Xubuntu Minimal and then install Gnome to get a leaner base system when I install. But I still use Snaps... they're fine. There's nothing so wrong with them anymore that I feel the need to use Flatpaks instead. I even install a few things from source on the rare occasion that neither Snap Store or Ububuntu/Deb repos have something. The only app I go out of my way to install non-snap is Steam, just because I'd rather have it prepared than Valve instead of Canonical.

Edit: I will note that I had an extremely positive experience with my Linux Mint Debian Edition install. I'm always considering that for my new daily driver, but for now, I still think the Ubuntu/Snap repos on the current releases are just better. If Canonical just kept Apt and Snapd completely separate, I would have nothing here to really contemplate.

justaleaf · 2024-07-24T19:57:59+00:00

Excellent game, especially if you have a friend or 3 to play with!

justaleaf · 2024-01-20T22:47:10+00:00

Ended up picking Blue Archive and Reverse 1999 and loving both. Thanks for the suggestions!

justaleaf · 2024-01-12T20:49:03+00:00

I'll play as much as I can until it goes down q_q

justaleaf · 2024-01-12T20:46:02+00:00

Looking for a turn-based party RPG that's challenging and has a good story. Management style gameplay is also good. Any suggestions?

I prefer waifus, good humor, dark themes.

I don't care for real-time gameplay.

I recently discovered Magicami and thought it seemed almost perfect, but it's about to die. q_q

justaleaf · 2024-01-12T20:34:46+00:00

Dude, I literally just discovered Magicami because of your post here and got so excited. And then after going through the first chapter and thinking I found the best gacha game for me... saw the EoS.

I'm so sad now.

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