Best way to switch from Linux to BSD

Tue Mar 29 06:56:38 UTC 2011

Hello Jason,

(Highly Opinionated Piece)

> Are there any good tutorials for using BSD on the desktop?  I'm having much more difficulty finding good information on BSD than was the case for Linux.  In retrospect, this shouldn't be a surprise given that Linux is relatively mainst
ream while BSD is very obscure.

PC-BSD is probably your best bet.  (http://www.pcbsd.org/)

With that said, I recall some debate a while back, but it's my opinion that FreeBSD doesn't make the greatest desktop OS.  There are many obstacles to getting things working properly.  There are lots of examples to choose from, but I'll start with two in particular that are a necesity for me: skype, wine (amd64)

Naturally, it's been several months since I've tried and the above might have changed, but certianly it is a headache.  The problem is really the software vendors whom target Linux (alsa crap for example).  That doesn't mean you can't ru
n FreeBSD as a desktop (or any variant thereof), I've done it for many many years, but at this time I stick to windows as I'm a heavy gamer.

In regards to being obscure, it's my belief that FreeBSD as a desktop is limping by, but when you get right down to it, it makes for a wonderful server, probably the best there is.

>
> Some questions:
> 1.  Is it possible to install KDE, GNOME, or other DE from the FreeBSD CD in a reasonable amount of time?  KDE and GNOME are huge programs, and having to download them would take too long.

You can either a) install it from cd like you mentioned or b) install it using the pkg_add command:  pkg_add -r kdebase4

The same goes for gnome.  pkg_add -r gnome2  (I think)

> 2.  What's lighter than PCBSD and GhostBSD?  I tried the live DVDs on my laptop (1.4 GHz processor, 1.25 GB of RAM) and found both BSD distros to be very sluggish.  Ubuntu and Mint were faster and fit on a CD, and these two distros hav
e been criticized as bloatware.  Also, the keyboard didn't work in GhostBSD.

This is the FreeBSD mailing list.  The question regarding GhostBSD is probably better suited for that mailing list.  Your claim about Ubuntu and Mint being faster should be backed up with evidence.  Quite the contrary I find FreeBSD to *feel* faster than any linux distro I've tried.  Obviously this is highly opinionated.

> 3.  How do I triple-boot Puppy Linux, antiX/Swift Linux, and DragonflyBSD?  I already use a Puppy Linux/Swift Linux dual boot.  For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what to put in the menu.lst file to allow DragonflyBSD to boot.
(By contrast, antiX Linux and Swift Linux automatically add the appropriate entries in menu.lst.)

Not sure.  I don't use grub.  Sorry.

> 4.  What are the Linux Mint and Puppy Linux of the BSD universe?  I consider these two distros to set the standard in the Linux universe, because they're so user-friendly.  These are the distros I've set out to compete against in devel
oping Swift Linux.

I don't know what these distros are.  Should they be a desktop environment, I believe PC-BSD is what you should be comparing them to.  I don't think PC-BSD is as polished as any desktop linux distro.

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Just to reiterate:

Do I love FreeBSD..absolutely, my favorite OS in fact.  Does it have problems in the Desktop area of all things...absolutely...but it my perception that it's a server OS anyways.
If skype, wine and other little tidbits worked properly I'd be using FreeBSD as a desktop hands down.
Linux I keep for *other stuff* that commercial vendors won't budge on, and that's probably all, otherwise (IMHO) it's garbage.

Not sure if any of this helps...I hope it does.

>
> --
> Jason Hsu <jhsu802701 at jasonhsu.com>
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--
Paul Procacci
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