Whilst BSD isn’t linux per se, it still has a lasting legacy in the unix like space and notably has been used in game consoles like the PS4.

For you in your personal use case, have you tried a bsd distro? What was better compared to the average linux distro?

Apparently BSD is more modular with its jailing system and seems to have a lower resource usage.

I look at ones like NETBSD and FreeBSD and think, "what exactly do I get out of them that I wouldn’t with Linux say, Ubuntu or Void as an example?

What are your thoughts on BSD, you use FreeBSD before?

  • lungdart@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 months ago

    The majority of the Internet’s routing and switching architecture is BSD based. Historically it had the most stable and performant network stack of all the OSs.

    I used it extensively at one job in a previous life when I was a network appliance developer. It was rock solid and lightning fast. Tried it as a desktop at home and had a terrible experience.

    The little differences in the Unix commands used to drive me nuts as well…

    • Auli@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Had isn’t Linux faster now. I know on the very resource restrained box I used li ix had noticeably faster network. Went from 500 ish to full gigabit speeds.

  • LeFantome@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    BSD is well designed and cohesive but has many more missing bits and contraints than Linux. So, if you are in its sweet spot, it is awesome and maybe better than Linux. However, outside that it can be totally unusable.

    For me, the biggest issue is the lack of software. There is both a mountain of it as it is of course an POSIX compatible OS and at the same time it is trivial to need important software that is missing.

    As a desktop, it therefore feels very nice and also very limiting.

    I love that it is actually real UNIX with an unbroken history back to the beginning. I find that really compelling. At the same time, I always get “bored” using it because it inevitably does not support what I want to do.

    I am still hoping Chimera Linux finds a sweet spot that melds the two worlds in a nice way.

    • Presi300@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Chimera Linux is actually really nice. Been daily driving it for a little bit, and as long as you don’t have an Nvidia GPU, it should work just fine.

  • abraham_linksys@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    I use it every day. On my MacBook running MacOS 😬

    Seriously though, I tried putting FreeBSD on my Linux laptop a few years ago and it was not a fun time. Reminded me a lot of running Linux on desktop in the 2000s when I first discovered Linux.

    I’m rooting for them though. I like the idea of keeping development and documentation so tightly integrated and maintained by a single dedicated company.

  • MostRandomGuy@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    4 months ago

    I use OpenBSD as my daily driver on the desktop.

    In my opinion Linux over the years got too caught up in politics and involved with big corporations having influence on certain non-trivial decisions.

    But I also think the BSDs are better actual Operating Systems in contrast to Linux being only the kernel of which different projects make use of to provide their final products to the end user, its way more fractured.

    • dino@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Using a security focused Distro which has its use case in network devices as a “daily driver” shows that you priorities are “elsewhere”.

      • MostRandomGuy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        4 months ago

        You clearly don’t know what you’re talking about. OpenBSD is an absolutely legitimate Desktop OS and has no special use case. Its hardened and comparably slower than Net- and FreeBSD, but thats it . Guess you’re an “expert”.

          • MostRandomGuy@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            4 months ago

            Thats when you’re out of arguments, ladies and gentlemen.

            The equivalent of facebook boomers reacting with a laugh emoji.

            But seriously: several people in the BSD community use OpenBSD on the Desktop, Theo De Raadt also does in contrast to a lot of FreeBSD devs that use MacOS as a daily driver.

            Don’t know why you’re so full of yourself when you clearly have no expertise on the subject.

            • dino@discuss.tchncs.de
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              0
              ·
              3 months ago

              A bit late, but wow openbsd developers use their own distro as a desktop, you convinced me. And yes I know it might sound weird but openbsd has a special use case. Its a security focused distribution aimed at developers which want to understand the workings of an OS. Its also used as a base for some router specific operating systems.

              Everybody who used OpenBSD on the desktop knows it has its shortcomings compared to any other OS if your workload extends beyond simply checking mails and surfing the web.

              • MostRandomGuy@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                3 months ago

                You’re just wrong. There is a whole community, including me, using OpenBSD as a daily driver.

                You can mention more things turning YOU off from using it that way, but it won’t change shit, lol.

                • dino@discuss.tchncs.de
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  0
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 months ago

                  Just because people doing it doesn’t mean its the best thing to do. Also how can I be wrong, you can disagree with me. Obviously I am stating my opinion on this matter. But so far I haven’t seen any real arguments from your side contradicting what I said.

  • fry@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    For a server - it’s fantastic if you’re a reasonable adult and if you don’t have a compulsive need to install every shiny new “app” you find on the internet. Terrible if you hate reading any kind of documentation. Terrible if you already decided that some of its core concepts are stupid and try to force stuff in order to mimic your favorite Linux dist.

    Takes some knowledge and planning to set everything up properly but when it works, it works forever.

    ZFS works as intended. I hear that it’s miles better these days though in Linux.

    Jails will make your life so much easier.

    If the software isn’t available in the ports tree you don’t need it. You may want it but you really don’t need it (bro just download my Docker image, I wrote a webserver in rust bro I promise it’s super stable and it’s never been done before bro). Enable Linux binary compatibility or fire up a virtual machine with a tiny dist if you’re a masochist.

    I personally like the default firewall, pf. It’s got a bad reputation in some circles though.

    No systemd.

    No systemd.

    No systemd.