[FreeBSD-Announce] FreeBSD 12.0 end-of-life

[Polytropon]

On Thu, 20 Feb 2020 13:17:01 +0100, David Demelier wrote:
> FreeBSD for desktop is still not a thing.

So I'm obviously doing something wrong. :-)

FreeBSD is my _primary_ desktop since version 4.0. This desktop
achieves the following abilities for decades now:

1. I can do what the "cool kids" can do before they can do it.

2. I can do it better / faster / more reliable / ...

3. I can keep doing it when the "cool kids" have become unable
   to do it.

This is of course specific to _my_ needs, which may be totally
different from what everyone else does with a desktop. In my
case, I use it for web browsing, multimedia, and gaming, as
well as for programming and what they call "web development"
today. :-)



> It won't change anytime soon 
> because lacks of manpower and less interest into porting things to 
> FreeBSD.

While I disagree with your first statement, I fully agree with
this one. But you need to acknowledge that most desktop software
is not directly written for FreeBSD ("native solution"), but
instead ported over from Linux. Linux, as a "moving target" kind
of platform, makes it hard to follow and port. We are still stuck
with stuff like HAL and DBus, things already abandoned in Linux
and replaced with functionally equivalent solutions in the lower
levels of the OS (system libraries and kernel), which are _not_
compatible to FreeBSD, so workarounds need to be created, or
those things need to be implemented from scratch. And that of
course is not a trivial task.



> That's why DRM, bluetooth, wireless, ACPI and wayland terribly 
> lag behind Linux.

As far as I know, Wayland is a Linux-only thing. ACPI - look at
the implementations, not at the standards. In many cases, you
can blame the manufacturers deviating from the standard, doing
their own strange thing, and supplying a "Windows" driver to
compensate what they did wrong. Wireless - yes, fully agree.
While it is not a problem with older chipsets, it sometimes is
with newer ones. Bluetooth - no idea, I'm not using that. And
DRM (digital restriction management) - if you want that, just
go to jail. ;-)



> To me FreeBSD stays a server OS (even though rolling-releases ports are 
> not appropriate).

FreeBSD's big advantage, as I already wrote, is its ability
to be _one_ OS for many things: for servers, for desktops,
for appliances, and for "mixed forms" (which you cannot easily
put in one of the three big groups, i. e., a desktop workstation
offering local server functionality). Everything comes from
the same codebase, and has, with a few limitations, the same
pool to source 3rd party applications from (the Ports colleciton).
In my opinion, this makes FreeBSD much more than "just" a
server OS.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...