What makes BSD stand out as its own system? I’ve been thinking about installing it in a new computer mainly for reading but I don’t know much about it.

  • HousePanther@lemmy.goblackcat.comEnglish
    203·
    11 months ago

    I am certainly not going to crucify you for it. While FreeBSD is a fantastic operating system, its hardware support is lacking.

    • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.orgEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      I really wish it was more popular. The userspace feels way more cohesive and the GNUisms of some Linux utilities is annoying sometimes.

      • PupBiru@kbin.social
        31·
        11 months ago

        that’s the catch though: it’s more cohesive because it’s not popular… people work and design and finesse it into a standard… linux however is popular so has a lot of opinions going into it! and that reinforces itself: it has a lot of stuff so that makes it popular and it’s popular so that means it has a lot of stuff!

        BSD is great for what it’s great for and Linux is good for… pretty much everything

      • HousePanther@lemmy.goblackcat.comEnglish
        31·
        11 months ago

        I do as well but FreeBSD made a lot of self-inflicted wounds. OpenBSD on the other hand runs surprisingly well on a variety of hardware. It won’t run well on the absolute latest but one or two generations behind it works gangbusters.

        • V ‎ ‎ @beehaw.orgEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Do you have recommendations for where to get started with OpenBSD? The only BSD distro(?) I have gotten working with my hardware (Thinkpad X1 gen9, M1 Mac) is Nomad.

          • HousePanther@lemmy.goblackcat.comEnglish
            11·
            11 months ago

            Simply get started using the OpenBSD FAQ. I think the Gen9 Thinkpad X1 should work. I just don’t know if it uses NVIDIA crap. If it does, you’re shit outta luck. As for the first generation Apple silicon, I don’t know how feature complete OpenBSD is on that platform.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.instituteEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        It’s actually amazing they got this much hardware support. Heck, they even have Nvidia driver support. It could’ve been worse.