 Visitor Reviews |
FreeBSD
|
Reader supplied reviews for FreeBSD
Average rating
8.7 from 66 review(s)
Version: 13.3
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-04-24
Votes: 87
|
Works decently - some inevitable rough edges. Good hardware support - although I wouldn't attempt to use it on hardware that just came out. Stable, fast and reliable. Been using for 15 years. Rarely ever have any issues with it.
Probably one of the best things though is how unified the project is. It's a complete system and everything centers around it, including the many ports/packages. No worrying about distros and inconsistent package availability.
I should point out that FreeBSD is about being an excellent, free, open source Unix. It is not, nor was ever intended to be a free Windows replacement. If that's your expectation then you are at the wrong place.
|
Version: 14.0
Rating: 6
Date: 2024-04-04
Votes: 0
|
I'm just speaking as a layman. I'm not an IT expert, just a naive user and mainly a win user. I tried this system, but it has some drawbacks. For example, if the additional hdd has an nt file system, in many cases the files copied there will disappear after switching off or restarting. And this is only solved if we unmount the nt hdd before switching it off!
There was a package that he didn't install because it said it wasn't in the repo, but it was there on freshports. There was another one that did not start a file manager, and a third was also not on the desktop or in the start menu.
The free (and other) bsd supports very little vga by default. It only supported 2 of my 5 PCs. Few web browsers have it. Chromium and firefox. But there is no Vivaldi, Edge, Brave, etc. for it.
Obviously, this is a fast, secure, free system, but the same can be said about Linux. And there are also commercial software under Win.
Long and short of it is, this system is still far from replacing win...
|
Version: 14.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-03-22
Votes: 127
|
I'm running FreeBSD 14.0 with Mate desktop on a panasonic fz55 for several months now. It's not a drop-in replacement for Fedora, but I'm able to replicate almost everything I used previously (I'm not a graphics-intensive person). There are rough edges, but no deal-breakers for me.
Pros- obscurity! The intel components in this laptop are mostly cooperative. ZFS is good stuff.
Cons- Doesn't make the slightest attempt to be energy efficient (but no problems with dual battery configuration). Wifi is painful.
Thank you for the access! Not sure yet, but I maybe belong here.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 2
Date: 2024-03-11
Votes: 0
|
the most common use of any distro is live boot to desktop, wifi to internet.
neither of these options are available and wifi support even on the command line almost zero.
Basic utilities like gui backup and restore do not exist.
This does work on my very old hardware and looks very old.
not a serious contender to linux in any way or useful to me or anyone I know.
variations are available
midnignt bsd did not install a gui and could not connect via wifi
nomad did not install to ssd and could not connect via wifi
ghostbsd would not boot on my old nucs
I bought a $40 wifi to ethernet bridge and will play further, but I would not get this to anyone I know
|
Version: 14.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-03
Votes: 135
|
Switched from Big Corps Linux to FreeBSD to revive my last "purchase" a PackardBell DOT S, well I've purchased only the power supply the netbook is a gift of a friend unable to use other than windows so it has dismissed the netbook, cause Linux acpi seems designed to make old hardware unusable and make tanking hardware manufaturers sell unsold.
I used for a while ten years ago PC-BSD but I was anyway scared cause FreeBSD is not for everyone as PC-BSD instead was.
What to say... really impressed!
Yes, it has been a loot easier for me with a *nix net admin certificate and 22 years GNU/Linux experience but if someone is tired of Big Corps possessed Linux FreeBSD is the only quick way.
It works flawlessly with only 2GB ram on an old Intel Atom N280 also with XFCE and Firefox.
I gave 9 instead of 10 only cause it's easier to get rid of local_unbound and install port's unbound than to figure out how to configure local unbond to resolve the addresses written in browser, the only thing I use it for cause in Italy DNS are poised by ISP 's and a lot of sites, especially of android's app are obscured, and cause to configure wireless with WPA it's better to master a little the command line.
To dirt hands pays, this is written with FreeBSD 14 running on the DOT S, give it a try if you have old PC's cause Big Corps Linux has been designed to let users scrap still functioniing hardware.
Btw. If FreeBSD guys would make the installation and configuration a little more noobs proof... :-D
|
Version: 14.0
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-01-09
Votes: 0
|
I struggled with updating from 13.2 to 14.0, so I did a fresh install. I prefer XCFE but I was unable to to get it to initialize with startx using Xfwm, so I installed plasma. XFCE (Xfwm4) is now a login option with SDDM. Plasma Wayland did not work on my Lenovo 730 i7-8550U, but Plasma X11 works fine.
I am unable to activate wifi; pciconf -lv shows Realtek 'RTL8822BE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi adapter'. WiFi is not needed for my installation. I did not get wifi running on 13.2 either.
I use "# ntp 0.freebsd.ntp.ntp.ord" to correct to local ime from UTC, even though configuration seems correctly set to CST.
FreeBSD 14.0 is fully functional otherwise and a satisfying desktop solution for my laptop. I wouldn't recommend it for a machine where WiFi is needed.
|
Version: 14.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-28
Votes: 107
|
The new FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE is definitely stacked with improvements all over the place!
Early Phoronix tests also seem to confirm these improvements (performance-wise), I think specifically linked to the upgrade of OpenZFS version...
The Linux emulation layer is better now as well, which is pretty useful when you want to run a certain app not yet available on FreeBSD.
It's good to see the project continuing its growth, especially given the far less human resources it has, compared to Linux.
Totally recommended to people who value and prioritize stability.
|
Version: 14.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-27
Votes: 100
|
FreeBSD 14.0 has proved to be very good so far.
It is perfectly stable, soft-journaling on UFS2 and TRIM work well
on Samsung Evo SSD, and the boot is fast.
On Thinkpad T450 brightness control did not work, earlier this year.
However, after last update the "powerdevil" in KDE5 was updated
among other software. That might explain why now everything related
to the brightness control is working fine. The brightness icon
appears on the screen as well as the brightness slider.
The only "con" would be the acpi_ibm module, for
all function keys to work out of the box, or almost out of the box. The module seems
to need update.
It works well on T430, but less so on T450 (both having 1080p panels, AUO and LG).
All f-keys work and can be mapped easily in KDE5 for example.
However, the "opposite function" of each f-key gives only code like
0x10, 0x11, 0x1b, 0x20 etc. using sudo cat /var/run/devd.pipe
They can not be mapped as "Browser" or "Tools". They can however be enabled via DEVD (the xev command gives no code for the same purpose).
This is not a problem in most cases. However, full function of
the keys (both as f-keys and the opposite function of each key)
would make the usability of FreeBSD perfect. A module like acpi_ibm
is of course not a part of FreeBSD as such but makes it highly useful
on Thinkpad (old and new).
Thank you for a very good job! Thanks.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-09
Votes: 74
|
FreeBSD 14.0-RC4 has been running on my Thinkpad for a few days. Upgraded from 13.2.
A few pros:
1) Seems to be very stable [though still a "testing version"];
2) Running fast;
3) Rather easy to upgrade;
4) Good hardware support;
A few "cons":
Support for brightness control not out of the box but works very well after manual intervention [0x10+0x11+devd].
KDE5 Plasma runs absolutely smoothly on top of FreeBSD. No problems there. Use the SDDM login manager in addition.
The only thing which is not visible in KDE is the brightness slider. It is missing.
But it's not to blame since f5 and f6 are connected, via devd, to the backlight driver.
(No brightness icon however).
A very good job done! Thank you all who still maintain freedom of action and open source software.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-28
Votes: 57
|
FreeBSD 14.0 has a lot of improvement and the booting speed is totally amazing. It is a rock solid OS. It now has full support for Wi Fi, and Bluetooth. Out of all the Unix like OS, I personally think, this is the BEST of them all. If you are looking for a very stable rock solid OS, your search is over. I was distro hopping for a long time, and I now have found the OS for daily usage, it's very secure and has a lot of software available for it. If you like to run other OS, you can do so inside jails. FreeBSD has support for Linux binary.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-18
Votes: 45
|
I love this OS. It is easy to install and runs very fast. The directory system is very well thought out and efficiently implemented. I do not play very many games, preferring to use my system to design and develop software and hardware engineering systems for industrial control systems. I use this OS on my 2 Lenovo laptops as well. I highly recommend people who have never tried it to read the reviews and learn some of the history of FreeBSD. Some of the apps I use are Kicad, LTSpiceVII, Qucs, FreeCAD and Arduino.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-08-17
Votes: 37
|
I installed FreeBSD this spring, on two laptops, and it has turned out very well. I decided to go an unusual way to create the slices on the hard drives. Have a new 1TB Samsung disk on one computer, specifically for FreeBSD, but share the 500GB Samsung disk on the other computer with Linux systems. There, I went the route of opening Gparted in Linux and creating 5 swap partitions, of the size that fits well on FreeBSD. Then booted FreeBSD from a USB stick and started the installation. Selected the relevant swap partitions, for root /, /tmp, /usr, /var and swap. Used freebsd-ufs on the slices. The only downside to this method is that Gparted on Linux doesn't detect the ufs partitions afterwards. It can be easily fixed with wipefs in Linux and run it on the relevant partitions and change the partition-table signatures, so it conforms to FreeBSD [wipefs -o "device signature"]. The signature for "Linux Swap" must be removed from the partitions. Takes no time in a Linux shell.
After that, ufs appears normally in Linux. Then you can start in single user mode and install TRIM on the disk drives [tunefs].
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-06-28
Votes: 39
|
I installed FreeBSD this spring, on two laptops, and it has turned out very well. I decided to go an unusual way to create the slices on the hard drives. Have a new 1TB Samsung disk on one computer, specifically for FreeBSD, but share the 500GB Samsung disk on the other computer with Linux systems. There, I went the route of opening Gparted in Linux and creating 5 swap partitions, of the size that fits well on FreeBSD. Then booted FreeBSD from a USB stick and started the installation. Selected the relevant swap partitions, for root /, /tmp, /usr, /var and swap. Used freebsd-ufs on the slices. The only downside to this method is that Gparted on Linux doesn't detect the ufs partitions afterwards. It can be easily fixed with wipefs in Linux and run it on the relevant partitions and change the partition-table signatures, so it conforms to FreeBSD [wipefs -o "device signature"]. The signature for "Linux Swap" must be removed from the partitions. Takes no time in a Linux shell.
After that, ufs appears normally in Linux. Then you can start in single user mode and install TRIM on the disk drives [tunefs].
KDE5 works great on FreeBSD. Fine adjustments need to be made in several config files and after that everything works very well. Installed Tinyproxy and the Pf firewall. Both work well.
It is well worth the time to install FreeBSD. Video, streaming, internet search, LaTex, LibreOffice, everything works very well.
BSD Help pages are also generally very good. Chainboot (chainboot) from GRUB works fast and well [boot.efi].
No specific cons, just questions about different settings to suit everyone. Thank you.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-05-15
Votes: 13
|
I installed FreeBSD 13.2 recently, with KDE5 desktop and UFS file system. I run it along three Debian systems,
on Samsung Evo SSD (Thinkpad). It took a while to configure everything manually but the BSD documents are very good.
It is stable and fast, so is the KDE5 and all the applications I have used, like Firefox and LibreOffice.
For those who want to refresh their knowledge of Vi and config files, FreeBSD is great, everything is done
manually.
When I first ran spectre-meltdown-checker, I got 10 CVE´s "red". By running the checker with --explained
I could eliminated the "red" by putting four lines in /etc/sysctl.conf.
After that only two CVE´s are now red; CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2018-3646. Everything else is now "green".
For people interested in UNIX and UNIX-like systems, FreeBSD is a great choice. Grade 8/10.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-05-09
Votes: 0
|
I've used FreeBSD since version 7.* and here is my opinion on it's strengths and weaknesses.
PROS:
- Can be stable if deployed correctly and on the right hardware
- Can be used effectively but excels at specific tasks rather than being a general computing platform
- Freedom to use and deploy as you see fit
- Administration via the FreeBSD tools is fairly straight forward and utilitarian
- Has cleaner userland than GNU/Linux
- Can be considered a more complete OS than most GNU/Linux distros from a design stand point *However this is debatable now a days if you consider usability being a factor when comparing to current GNU/Linux solutions.
- It's not forked from multitudes of other sources like many of GNU/Linux distros are
CONS:
- Requires high amount of effort to lock down properly from it's original distributed form
- Has limits in regards to scalability
- You will encounter issues with no solutions in sight (spanning across months or years different versions/releases)
- Documentation is outdated and often requires online research, this scales with your general knowledge of
the system but can be an issue if time sensitive projects are at stake
- Not a good daily OS for general purpose computing due to effort involved to get things done
- Ports collection looks good on paper but compiling from source will quite often fail you and consume much of your time
- Package versions are way behind in most cases
- Development team is fairly small compared to most popular GNU/Linux solutions, this of course slows down it's development and its beginning to show these days
- Getting support is not easy and can be a quick turn off depending on the type of user you are and what your expectations are
In practicality, to me it feels like FreeBSD has ran it's course now and is now a hobbyist platform for most part.
If you have lots of time to burn and don't care about cutting edge developments you might be able to use it to fulfil some specific task but it won't be long before you feel like you are missing out on features that just aren't there and aren't coming any time soon.
I still like it though :D
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-04-17
Votes: 5
|
I have the intention to make FreeBSD my second OS besides macOS and learn it. I have bought the book "Absolute FreeBSD" by Michael W. Lucas for this purpose.
The main obstacle so far have been hardware support. On my Thinkpad T410i suspend/resume didn't work properly. When waking it up the screen was black. From what I have read this is because of some issue with the Nvidia driver, and there is no real solution.
On my Lenovo Ideapad the wifi chip is not supported unfortunately.
Because of these obstacles I have mainly evaluated the OS in a VM.
The experience has been good this far, it works for the things I intend to do and want to use. There is more manual work involved setting up a desktop environment than in NetBSD or OpenBSD, but it's not hard and the documentation is excellent.
To run FreeBSD on real hardware I'm going to buy a new PC. Thinkpads seems to be a safe bet.
FreeBSD is a very good OS, I just wished to hardware support was a bit better, so I can't give it a rating of 10.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-04-16
Votes: 21
|
Probably the best operating system I have used. Almost everything from Linux I used was packaged and maintained in the repositories (Sway, Librewolf, etc.), and it all worked flawlessly.
The only big issue I had was that my audio was constantly crackling which (for me) made it almost unusable when using my motherboard's audio. Also the way programs will leave .core files everywhere is extremely annoying, I believe this is fixable, but I did not try it while I had it installed.
9/10 simply because of the audio issue.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-04-05
Votes: 6
|
I have tried FreeBSD. The system itself has easy installation which lasts about up to two hours but it doesn't mean the system is easy to use and maintain (some knowledge about networking, unix and FreeBSD itself is necessary to use it without any problems, not to mention the basics of computer science). For people who are familiar with Linux for some time and have been doing most things manually, it shouldn't be hard to use FreeBSD.
This system is mostly installed on servers, so it's worth mentioning that its goal is to provide good performance for these devices, which are security, stability, assured advanced network software, settings and capabilities. It's just perfect for servers. During installation we can choose to have UFS( Unix file system- like it says, it's provided by every unix system) and ZFS filesystem( the newer one). I can't say anything more about that because I have been using this system for almost a month and I'm just a simple Linux user, who didn't have to do many configurations.
Some problems can also occur. The most serious one is lack of driver support(especially for laptops, but mostly it shouldn't after all. The most common problem is with wireless access. I heard about some problems with SSD support but my disk is HDD, so I can't say anything about that). Other problems with FreeBSD are not that bad and it can be fixed manually, but sometimes it needs to seek deeply to solve some problems.
In conclusion, it is perfect for servers, can work on Laptops but not always, and using it wisely should make it one of the most helpful OS for work and ONLY work. Using this for other purposes is only pain with no gain.
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2023-04-03
Votes: 0
|
XFCE works fast. However, don't install this on Dell's Studio XPS. It is a nightmare, to say the least. I finally got XFCE installed after viewing videos by people who experienced issued with it. The instructions to install 13.1 do not apply to Dell's Studio XPS. After spending 9 hours attempting to install sound and the HP Printer, it still does not work. While I am not experienced with BSD, except FreeBSD 9, I have installed Gentoo, Arch, Desktop BSD, FuryBSD, NomadBSD, and GhostBSD, without a single issue. None of the BSD flavors work on my system since FreeBSD-13.0 was introduced.
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-01-15
Votes: 102
|
I am using FreeBSD from 2018 onwards for all of my tasks by default. Because this is Excellent UniX-like Server Operating System.
(Time-Sharing => ETSS -> CTSS => (BTSS) -> Multics => UniX => BSD Unix => 386BSD+4.4BSD => 4.4 BSD-Lite2 => FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p5 => ...)
tcsh - c shell is logically right shell which is following c syntax, than b language syntax shells like ash/bash
I feel FreeBSD is = Freedom Base System Distribution
For General purpose Server : No Comments, simply Excellent Excellent Excellent
For Desktop purpose am using Enlightenment window manager
/usr/home/username/.xinitrc
exec enlightenment_start
startx
day to day tools for tasks from FreeBSD :
terminology
nautilus
firefox
gedit
Bhyve for virtualization
Jail for containerization + Web Assembly runtime will be awesome
with this am using GNU Debian Linux(upwork tracker, any linux only) via TigerVNC Viewer
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-12-17
Votes: 83
|
FreeBSD is an amazingly solid server OS. Having ZFS be a first-class citizen, the clean separation of base and user software, and the great documentation make it a pleasure to use. I also like their Policy of Least Astonishment (no breaking change for the sake of change). Jails are also a step up from LXC in my opinion.
It's not as easy to get going on a desktop/laptop as most Linux distros but it's still definitely usable, though you may have some pain points if trying to use newer hardware. It doesn't seem to be their focus, and that's fair.
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 5
Date: 2022-11-15
Votes: 0
|
I’ve been using freebsd over the years but always ended back on Linux due to various incompatibility issues (I think the last version I used was 10.x). So thought I would give 13.x a go so I installed in a vm and used for 6 months and got everything set up to match my workflow in Linux with no issues. The current Linux distro I’m using announced they would be going to a container based workflow next year which fits their enterprise model and it is one of the best in my opinion but I tried a beta version and it’s ok but not really aimed at home users anymore so started looking around for a replacement. I build my own pc’s and know what to avoid with Linux so keep things simple and not using anything fancy but it is a ryzen 7, asus board, 64GB memory, 2 ssd’s, and 3 large data drives, no fancy video card, etc. I started going through the freebsd install and noted that it did not pick up the realtek Ethernet port or the wireless which Linux has never failed to pickup, I knew I would have to probably configure the wireless later but this is honestly the first time a *nix has never saw an Ethernet port and that Realtek port has been around for over 2 years. So I finished the install and did some searching and found a driver and downloaded it as well as the ‘pkg’ installer since it apparently is not part of the base install but pkg add is so used that. Then went to install the missing driver and it said missing signature file or something to that effect. I powered it off and came back to it later and when it booted was giving some other weird error that I had never seen before and would not even boot to a prompt so for the heck of it wiped it a tried again with the same exact result so thinking it is a kernel issue, tried searching but did not find anything that helped. I was hoping that freebsd would work out, was getting ready to send a nice donation their way but looks like I’ll be sticking with Linux and hope the upcoming 14.x will have better results. I think freebsd only works on minimum 5-7 year older hardware, too bad because I really like it and will continue to use in the kvm but really want to get it working on bare metal.
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2022-10-12
Votes: 24
|
It's just rock stable, using it as a primary home server, on my private laptop.
Takes some time to get used to in certain areas but it's worth it.
It's "set and forget" and unless you screw up anything it will just work all the time.
The installation in 13.x is so easy that someone coming straight from Windows will probably understand everything right away.
Pro:
- Fast and rock stable
- Neat and tidy
- Logical structure
- Highly configurable
Cons:
- Can be difficult to operate as first time user
- Out of the box some window managers can be a struggle (recommend xfce,mate,kde or something like i3,awesomewm etc etc)
- Wi-Fi still lacking compared to Linux distros and Windows releases.
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2022-10-11
Votes: 0
|
From time to time I install FreeBSD to test if it is usable as a desktop os for my daily work.
This time I tested FreeBSD 13.1.
After 3 days configuring, reading the FreeBSD Handbook and searching the web I was
able to use it like I use my openSUSE System. I installed XFCE and all the software that
I use on Linux runs on FreeBSD. All my hardware was supported by FreeBSD ... so far so bad ...
I installed the binary packages with pkg. But the binary package of LibreOffice comes without GTK integration
and PostgreSQL drivers. I need both for my daily work. So I compiled LibreOffice from ports.
Afterwards I locked LibreOffice and most of its dependencies. I never updated ports afterwards.
After installing the quarterly updates with pkg upgrade LibreOffice didn't start anymore because
some libraries were updated which LibreOffice depends on. So I had to update ports and recompile
LibreOffice. This took 7 hours on my notebook.
I also installed FreeBSD 13.1 in a VM. After installing the quaterly updates via pkg upgrade, I couldn't start
XFCE anymore because lightdm was broken and I wasn't able to get it working, again.
Conclusions:
Pro:
- Fast and stable os unless you install updates
- a lot of software available - good hardware support
Cons:
- very hard to install and configure
- binary package of LibreOffice comes without GTK integration and PostgreSQL-Drivers
- LibreOffice from ports has to be recompiled at least every 3 months (takes about 7 hours)
- High risk that quaterly updates make the system unusable
Not mature and stable enough to use as a Desktop OS for daily work.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-09-23
Votes: 106
|
I've been a Unix user/admin since 2001 and I'm pretty new to FreeBSD. While I do like Linux, I love the tidiness and stability of FreeBSD. It's a lot easier to manage and ZFS is pretty awesome. I have no problem recommending this OS. Especially for servers.
If you're going to use a desktop environment, my recommendation would be MATE. In Linux, Gnome is pretty popular and MATE is a lightweight version of it. It's a pretty painless install and works well. As an alternative, use XFCE. It works pretty well and is also a pretty quick install.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-09-13
Votes: 76
|
After many years of trying, I finally got the desktop to work. I already use the server, and it has been the most stable and reliable OS I have used. It is amazing how many packages are available. It takes some skill to set up and customize but much less work than in the past. I think version 14.0 can be a mainstream platform for desktops and laptops. I had no network or sound card issues, and the 1920 resolution worked without tinkering. I have been a long-time user of Solaris, but now I think FreeBSD will be my primary OS. The RC init easy to use compared to the nonsense that has become Linux systems. I think FreeBSD is more responsive than most of the LINUX OS I tried.
I have never recommended an Operating System on Distrowatch, but I would recommend FreeBSD now after installing the latest version on my desktop system. I have always preferred UNIX for servers, but now I think it is 'now' ready for the desktop.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 5
Date: 2022-09-11
Votes: 0
|
Bootable USB drive generator software supports should be added and/or optimized.
Multiple architecture releases should be added.
Live System Releases should be added.
Translation management project should be started for web pages and releases.
Encryption option should be added.
Mobile phone hardware support should be added.
Hard Real-Time Support should be added.
Web pages and software interfaces should be dark themed by default.
The overall purposes of the this operating system should be further diversified.
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-08-27
Votes: 60
|
FreeBSD is a beautiful thing. I use it for everything, even my Desktops and Laptops. Quick and easy installs. After that I install desktop-installer. I'm a pretty lazy person, not so lazy I use Ubuntu, but lazy enough to install desktop-installer. Let that do the vast majority of the work setting up what most people coming from Linux would expect to find. Ports or pkg for software. Honestly pkg couldn't be easy, # pkg search xyz, # pkg install xyz, pretty easy. No systemd too ;)
What's not to like!
11/10
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-07-07
Votes: 52
|
FreeBSD is an excellent distro overall. It doesn’t have a GUI by default, but you can install one and there are a lot of easy-to-follow instructions on how to do things: the manual is legendary and very helpful. The forum is very active and full of helpful, nice people. I use this on 2 home servers and 3 desktop computers and it runs well and gets the job done. I haven’t noticed any crashes while using FreeBSD for a couple years and the stability is great. It feels a lot speedier and stable than Linux.you have tons of applications you can install to get so many jobs done, whether it’s for a server, regular use for internet browsing, reading email, watching videos, etc.
Overall, I highly recommend FreeBSD- give it a try!
|
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-06-15
Votes: 56
|
Indeed, FreeBsd is not like Ubuntu, linux Mint or other distros that come right away with a fully fledge working DE, but when followed the instruction videos (and there are quiet a lot of good onces) to install the GUI (Graphical Environment / DE), FreeBSD is then working nicely. I've got the full Kde/Plasma environment installed and all looks very neat and works fast and perfectly.
Another plus of the FreeBSD is that you can install whatever on it, like more DE's and when you remove it (Delete followed by Autoremove) no crap is left behind, this in contrast with whatever linux-distros.
I was a linux user for over years, from which the last few years 'plain' Arch, but I'm very satisfied with FreeBSD and use it now as my main OS.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-05-31
Votes: 63
|
I run FreeBSD on servers but I did install it on a new Framework laptop just to see what would happen. Much to my surprise everything worked.
For servers FreeBSD's stability and the ZFS filesystem can't be beat. I also find administration straightforward and documentation excellent. I'm sure having the kernel and core utilities developed together helps.
Bug fixes come in maybe once a month, a much smaller volume than Linux. In years of use I can't remember a single crash.
ZFS does a lot for servers which you can't get on Linux. I've heard of too many problems with btrfs, XFS lacks too many useful features (IMHO Red Hat's Stratis doesn't make it any better), and the promising bcachefs isn't ready yet.
I haven't noticed any lack of support for server hardware but I've heard that can be a problem for desktop use. I'm not one who likes problems so I use Linux on my desktops.
I like the philosophy of OpenBSD but its lack of ZFS is a killer for me. Dragonfly BSD seems like a perpetual experiment and for me NetBSD gives up too much for compatibility with hardware I'll never use.
So I'll say FreeBSD is great for servers but for other purposes your mileage may vary. It's nice to have choices.
|
Version: 12.3
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-05-30
Votes: 57
|
On/Off FreeBSD user since 1998. In the past I have hosed my private server after a botched major upgrade (back when that was difficult to get right) and installed Linux of some sort. I have pendulated between RedHat, Debian, Ubuntu and FreeBSD for the last two decades and always comes back to FreeBSD as the install of choice when it comes to stuff that just has to work.
Some times I want to run a game server or software that is not ported (properly) yet. The few times I have done a base install of a Linux for that I always regret it and turn back to FreeBSD after a short while.
Besides - VMs are easy and encapsulates the dirty stuff that break all the time in a great way.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-05-13
Votes: 45
|
The best system for servers in the world.
Of the more than 30 Linux distros that I have tested, only Arch Linux, Slackware, and Gentoo are any good.
If you want privacy, there's Tails and for those with hardware hardware like QubesOS.
Of the BSDs, FreeBSD and OpenBSD are the standouts, especially in security and performance. I have absolutely nothing to complain about, except that it is a little complex to configure, but nothing that a little research can't handle, the documentation is excellent and easily accessible. The documentation is excellent and easily accessible. Only the Arch Linux Wiki is the best there is.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-03-18
Votes: 45
|
Lean, efficient, much easier to be a sysadmin on FreeBSD than on our previous CentOS based servers. Network latency and memory management are a performance boost to our specific use case (traditional n-tier architecture). Jails seem to be an interesting alternatives to dockering, according to our lead software architect.
Would like to deploy on workstations too : the main obstacle to that happening now is actually the easiness of installation for our support team. They require a full graphical standard setup "out of the box", base on Gnome.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-02-09
Votes: 52
|
I switched to FreeBSD last year and I presently have a new desktop, 3 years old laptop and a 10 years old laptop, running FreeBSD 13. Performance is solid, resource usage is minimal and system management is very easy. Mine is primarily desktop usage, with KDE-Plasma, several KDE applications, Firefox, Libreoffice, QGIS, Python, R, some VMs on Virtualbox, etc. Everything that matters to my day to day use works perfectly. The FreeBSD Handbook has been a valuable source of information. The Forums has been helpful in sorting out some of the difficulties that I had as a beginner.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-01-16
Votes: 59
|
I am using FreeBSD from version 5.? (forgot). !3.0-RELEASE I have on Lenovo laptop and it works without problems.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-19
Votes: 71
|
Very stable,solid OS.Some things are not easy but I like FreeBSD.Security is a tool we all need nowadays and FreeBSD ist very secure.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-12-15
Votes: 14
|
A rocksolid System. I use it as OS on a NAS and a Thinkpad with qtile-WM and SDDM.
The only thing i dislike is the usage of jack and other audioproduction-tools. So I cant use Virtual Piano with an MIDI-Keyboard. But als an everyday-OS its realy, realy fine, fast and stable.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 1
Date: 2021-12-14
Votes: 0
|
It looks like FreeBSD was made for the powerusers. God bless the powerusers, but I am not one of them. I am "most people."
Most people are expecting a GUI & Desktop in a Live Demonstration version. I see plenty of FreeBSD GUI desktops in various Youtube videos, but I have never found one in a demonstration of FreeBSD. It's like test driving a car that has no body, no trunk and no dashboard---you really don't know what the car looks like or what it can do.
FreeBSD Live Demo needs a GUI. Even a simple one.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-12-12
Votes: 19
|
Pros and cons of running FreeBSD:
+ ZFS
+ safe upgrades using boot environments
+ small number of processes running (unlike linux & macos)
+ the system is well organized and in a logic way
+ the system can be understood
+ good documentation
+ using binary packages is very simple
+ minimal system by default, good for running as server
+ community is mostly professionals
+/- desktop system can be built, but requires some effort
- wireless support is inferior to linux
- proprietary software often does not run (e.g. zoom)
- some open source projects focus only on linux and may require some tweaking to run
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-12-10
Votes: 1
|
Great for server applications. The standard TCP/IP services are unrivaled. Netflix uses this for streaming. The workstation is another thing. The configuration needed for an everyday workstation is quite complicated. You have to look elsewhere to get a FreeBSD workstation distribution. GhostBSD works fine but runs off of packages and not ports.
|
Version: 12.3
Rating: 3
Date: 2021-12-10
Votes: 0
|
No usable graphical desktop. It should be included and pre-configured by default.
I installed xorg and invoked startx as described in the FAQ, but the graphical desktop that came up was nothing more than three crude xterm windows. No menus. No icons.
Through Distrowatch, I have tried various BSD releases including previous FreeBSD releases and have yet to find one that delivers a usable desktop system.
Perhaps there's something good in this release, but only experts will be able to find it.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-09
Votes: 58
|
Very good, fast, stable and strong Unix-like operating system ! i use it for a workstation and it's very pleasant to configure and use it as you want (with help : books and web).
Recommanded
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-07
Votes: 46
|
FreeBSD is a fast, stable, easy to use (after getting a desktop environment installed) and works great for everyday use. There are lots of packages in the repository and lots of customization-personalization too, I have FreeBSD installed on 2 computers, 1 as a server OS and 1 as a general purpose OS. This has great and easy to follow documentation too. I recommend.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-03
Votes: 48
|
FreeBSD is fast, very stable, customizable and works great as a desktop and server OS. It may be hard for people to use at first because you don’t get a GUI installed by default, but there is a lot of easy-to-follow documentation on how to get a GUI installed and right after that, you can get up and running quickly. I’ve had no crashes or lockups using this and FreeBSD keeps getting better as the years go on.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-11-24
Votes: 18
|
FreeBSD is a little hard to set up since you don’t get a desktop environment by default which I wish there would be an overhaul of the installer to have a GUI and to be able to choose a desktop environment in that GUI. FreeBSD has everything you need for day to day usage, whether it’s day-to-day usage of web browsing, listening to music, office work, using as a server, etc. FreeBSD can do it all.
I’ll give it a 9 out of 10 because the unfriendliness of the installer and having to research so many commands to get what I wanted installed because of the CLI.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-11-22
Votes: 54
|
I use it as a point-click system for desktop to get work done. It was easy to setup to my liking, The Documentation is probably only rivaled by Arch linux.
I have no degree in Computer Science, just an average user and with my first experience i have to say, it's perfectly balanced. It can do anything, be anything you'll ever need!
If you don't like DIU, this is NOT for YOU!
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-11-15
Votes: 64
|
I have been using FreeBSD since version 2.1 (1994, I think). We use it to serve Postgres, Apache and as a development machine using Jails. FreeBSD has served us reliably and consistently well with few problems as we have migrated across the years. We used FreeBSD and Mac/OSX systems as desktops, with equal efficiency. The system has exceptional reliability, and fault recovery, even when a show stopping programming error is made to low level routines. Recovery from these errors is generally prompt and complete. FreeBSD architecture has proven resistant to the steady stream of outside "hacker attackers" and had a very efficient move to IPv6 with few glitches. It works on minimal hardware and scales up very well. Device support is less than ideal, compared with Linux boxes, but we have been able to use embedded devices on raspberry Pi cards to interface well with FreeBSD. On laptops, especially in early releases, there was some hocus pocus to keep the wifi working well, but as later versions were released, this stabilized. ZFS is a dream and has been extremely stable, fast and configurable as our needs have changed. We program in c, python, perl, php using a variety of program development environments and the unix environment. We migrated to FreeBSD from DEC ULTRIX, IBM AIX, and VAX/VMS operating systems originally for high precision imaging and graphics and calculation intense work. It is our present work horse for CAD using FreeCAD as an alternative to Solidworks for internal product development. We are well pleased with this system.
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-11-09
Votes: 56
|
Since 2007 I abandoned the most popular operating system, installing on my laptops at home and workstations in the office various distributions of linux. For some time I've been trying to get to know Freebsd, first installing it on a laptop and then from this year on the office computer where I work daily. I am very satisfied for many points 1) very responsive system 2) solid system 3) updated system 4) scalable system for my needs.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-11-01
Votes: 50
|
This system is definitely not for some newbies. The forum people tend to refer noobs the manual. But if they don't really understand the manual instructions, then they would definitely give up on it. Those who are tenacious will be rewarded with a great system that's fast, unbloated, and highly configurable to their tastes.
I learned a lot after getting the system up and running with Slim and the Mate DE. I didn't like the fact that it doesn't have a built-in network manager aplet. I thought Mate lacked the aplet, but this was also the case with xfce. Overall, Freebsd is definitely a keeper.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-10-24
Votes: 28
|
I use FreeBSD as a server and it works great. Programs respond quickly, lots of different applications for me to use if I want to as a general purpose OS (which I may do that on another machine). It’s rock solid for stability and most applications are up-to-date too. This is pretty responsive and I haven’t had any issues.
Did I mention this is very stable? :)
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-10-18
Votes: 22
|
Works great, is stable, I’ve experienced no crashes or freezes/lock-ups. It just works.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-09-25
Votes: 25
|
Amazing performance, simple, makes sense, just great.
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-07-30
Votes: 26
|
Your Play Station runs on FreeBSD. Many websites you visit are hosted on FreeBSD. It's capable of great things. It's neat and sane. It's picky about hardware (it runs nicely on X1 Carbon laptops) It can handle anything you throw at it and more. It has less frequent updates which won't drive you mad. Upgrading from release to release is easy. Installing packages is easy. It has jails, bhyve and zfs. It has full disk encryption available during setup/install (ZFS). Yes you can definitely use it as a daily driver. Yes you can game on it. It will most likely outlast your hardware if you install it right and administer it right. Some articles on the man pages are outdated. All in all it's an awesome and complete system, what you decide to run on top of it is your choice. The more you learn about FreeBSD the more you will be drawn to it, like a moth to a flame...go ahead and try it, I dare you!
|
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-06-18
Votes: 29
|
If it works for you, its great. It feels so much more solid and nice to use than any Linux distribution. The only real problems are hardware support and software support. But for me its not much of a problem. I recommend trying it out and if you like it you should stay with it.
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 4
Date: 2021-05-01
Votes: 0
|
It either works for you or it doesnt - and for me it doesnt as I need a distro to completely work, not necssacarily out of the box, but even with a little adjustment it will work.
Faults - squid seems to drop the connection, and when this happens tor-privoxy is by-passed - so a completely open transparent connection - which I dont want; Cannot configure libinput to work completely with a touchpad; choppy video playback in browsers on a radeon card (yes drm is enabled); dropped hal for automount which even though auto mounts will not mount as the device label, which hal does; crashing file managers.
Its just too much for me; used to be good - has gone backwards.
I deleted it from my laptop and replaced with ubuntu-mate with no problems.
|
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-04-28
Votes: 22
|
The best, most stable, secure rolling release operating system I have ever used and use on all my machines (server/ workstation/ laptop). This is the good old, free and open-source Unix-like operating system !!!
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-04-26
Votes: 35
|
An operating system that does only what you ask it to do, can do a lot, and does it well.
Lots of packages available, with choice between quarterly and latest package sets. Quarterly is a great balance between up to date and stable, which is in my opinion unmatched in the Linux world where you mostly have to choose between a frozen (Debian-style) system with outdated packages and a rolling (Arch-style) system which will upgrade almost your entire system every week.
Upgrades are reliable. My current system tracked 12.1 -> 12.2 -> 13.0 without any issue.
ZFS is fast and comes with very nice unique features like copies=2 (store each file at two different parts of the disk, which is useful to ensure data integrity of backup disks or even your /home if you have enough free space).
The OSS audio system is fantastic, so much better than ALSA/PulseAudio. It's highly configurable without being unnecessarily complex and offers great performance at low latency.
I used both Linux and MacOS X in the past and FreeBSD is to me a kind of a perfect mix of the two: the stability and reliability of MacOS X combined with the flexibility and powerful features of the GNU/Linux ecosystem, plus a few extras.
Try it out!
|
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-04-17
Votes: 29
|
Amazing. That's it. Improvements all over the place. Working better than ever.
My SD Card reader is now supported, fn backlight keys are now recognized by xev, suspend/resume just works, and so much more!
FreeBSD rocks :)
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 5
Date: 2021-03-22
Votes: 0
|
It just is such a shame, but I cannot seem to run FreeBSD...ever... Something in FreeBSD always attracted me. I had nice experiences with GhostBSD and Nomad BSD, but for some reason, the real stuff just refuses to work. I tried on an Asus X75V laptop, an el-cheapo HP (something 15), a quadcore Dell Vostro 470, a Dell Optiplex 3100 (all of these had 4 Gig RAM) and a custom built Celeron machine (2Gig ram). Either the USB is not bootable, or the 802.11n wireless stick is not working, nor the Netgear that I have lying around, nor the builtin Realtek in the laptop, or the GUI is not working. I've read the handbook, manual pages and countless forum and internet pages...to no avail. My last ditch effort was with RC3 for version 13, as I had my hopes up that, just maybe, this time it could work. It ended with a two hour session trying to get Openbox to work and resulted in a mangled login manager. So I finally gave up.
This might be a top end system and I am just too dumb to get it working. Or, I just have sheer bad luck with my hardware choices and therefore it just doesn't work (?)... However, the end result is the same: I cannot use it.
So I can only say that I liked the pkg tool. It seems so much faster and more "logical" than the linux equivalents. I will take anybody's word for it that it is a perfect server system. My conclusion is that FreeBSD is exactly that: a system to run servers and maybe I should not try to use it as a desktop system.
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-03-18
Votes: 28
|
The operating system for system administrators and network professionals. A complement to Cisco's robust IOS software running on switches and routers.
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-02-25
Votes: 55
|
Been using it since version 5.1.
- VNET Jails are easy to configure (not in the handbook yet but there is documentation out there) and allow you to have loads of FreeBSD systems running on a single host. If you have a lot of jails I highly recommend template jails (there is a section in the handbook).
- ZFS is amazing. Once I switched to it I never went back to UFS, although UFS is great as well.
- Ports system
- Sane kernel configuration file
- rc.conf keeps it simple
- I don't understand those who complain about hardware support, I mean you are using a network card which uses the "em" driver, right? If you choose to use inferior hardware that isn't meant for a server (such as Realtek) that is on you.
- ifconfig is ridiculously easier to use than Linux distributions' ip command
- Set up your host, set up your jails, check sockstat to make sure your bindings are correct, then just relax.
- Separate base system from 3rd party software
- Low abstraction compared to Linux distros. Once you get used to it you truly understand what is going on. This is a strength.
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-01-26
Votes: 37
|
Stable OS for running as server on dedicated hardware or as VM. Easy to manage and support remotely.
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 8
Date: 2021-01-20
Votes: 14
|
A stable, fast and reliable operating system,
only cons are to the lack of support for even common hardware, even years after. and
undocumented/ unspoken-of bugs which are impossible to fix
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-01-07
Votes: 29
|
Because it has a clean separation between the simple base operating system and the large repository of third party software, it takes some work to get a customized desktop, but it is well worth the effort.
|
Version: 12.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-01-06
Votes: 30
|
Great OS. Very stable. Makes for a good desktop or server.
|
|
Latest Reviews
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.3
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-04-24
Votes: 87
|
Works decently - some inevitable rough edges. Good hardware support - although I wouldn't attempt to use it on hardware that just came out. Stable, fast and reliable. Been using for 15 years. Rarely ever have any issues with it.
Probably one of the best things though is how unified the project is. It's a complete system and everything centers around it, including the many ports/packages. No worrying about distros and inconsistent package availability.
I should point out that FreeBSD is about being an excellent, free, open source Unix. It is not, nor was ever intended to be a free Windows replacement. If that's your expectation then you are at the wrong place.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14.0
Rating: 6
Date: 2024-04-04
Votes: 0
|
I'm just speaking as a layman. I'm not an IT expert, just a naive user and mainly a win user. I tried this system, but it has some drawbacks. For example, if the additional hdd has an nt file system, in many cases the files copied there will disappear after switching off or restarting. And this is only solved if we unmount the nt hdd before switching it off!
There was a package that he didn't install because it said it wasn't in the repo, but it was there on freshports. There was another one that did not start a file manager, and a third was also not on the desktop or in the start menu.
The free (and other) bsd supports very little vga by default. It only supported 2 of my 5 PCs. Few web browsers have it. Chromium and firefox. But there is no Vivaldi, Edge, Brave, etc. for it.
Obviously, this is a fast, secure, free system, but the same can be said about Linux. And there are also commercial software under Win.
Long and short of it is, this system is still far from replacing win...
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-03-22
Votes: 127
|
I'm running FreeBSD 14.0 with Mate desktop on a panasonic fz55 for several months now. It's not a drop-in replacement for Fedora, but I'm able to replicate almost everything I used previously (I'm not a graphics-intensive person). There are rough edges, but no deal-breakers for me.
Pros- obscurity! The intel components in this laptop are mostly cooperative. ZFS is good stuff.
Cons- Doesn't make the slightest attempt to be energy efficient (but no problems with dual battery configuration). Wifi is painful.
Thank you for the access! Not sure yet, but I maybe belong here.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 2
Date: 2024-03-11
Votes: 0
|
the most common use of any distro is live boot to desktop, wifi to internet.
neither of these options are available and wifi support even on the command line almost zero.
Basic utilities like gui backup and restore do not exist.
This does work on my very old hardware and looks very old.
not a serious contender to linux in any way or useful to me or anyone I know.
variations are available
midnignt bsd did not install a gui and could not connect via wifi
nomad did not install to ssd and could not connect via wifi
ghostbsd would not boot on my old nucs
I bought a $40 wifi to ethernet bridge and will play further, but I would not get this to anyone I know
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2024-02-03
Votes: 135
|
Switched from Big Corps Linux to FreeBSD to revive my last "purchase" a PackardBell DOT S, well I've purchased only the power supply the netbook is a gift of a friend unable to use other than windows so it has dismissed the netbook, cause Linux acpi seems designed to make old hardware unusable and make tanking hardware manufaturers sell unsold.
I used for a while ten years ago PC-BSD but I was anyway scared cause FreeBSD is not for everyone as PC-BSD instead was.
What to say... really impressed!
Yes, it has been a loot easier for me with a *nix net admin certificate and 22 years GNU/Linux experience but if someone is tired of Big Corps possessed Linux FreeBSD is the only quick way.
It works flawlessly with only 2GB ram on an old Intel Atom N280 also with XFCE and Firefox.
I gave 9 instead of 10 only cause it's easier to get rid of local_unbound and install port's unbound than to figure out how to configure local unbond to resolve the addresses written in browser, the only thing I use it for cause in Italy DNS are poised by ISP 's and a lot of sites, especially of android's app are obscured, and cause to configure wireless with WPA it's better to master a little the command line.
To dirt hands pays, this is written with FreeBSD 14 running on the DOT S, give it a try if you have old PC's cause Big Corps Linux has been designed to let users scrap still functioniing hardware.
Btw. If FreeBSD guys would make the installation and configuration a little more noobs proof... :-D
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14.0
Rating: 8
Date: 2024-01-09
Votes: 0
|
I struggled with updating from 13.2 to 14.0, so I did a fresh install. I prefer XCFE but I was unable to to get it to initialize with startx using Xfwm, so I installed plasma. XFCE (Xfwm4) is now a login option with SDDM. Plasma Wayland did not work on my Lenovo 730 i7-8550U, but Plasma X11 works fine.
I am unable to activate wifi; pciconf -lv shows Realtek 'RTL8822BE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi adapter'. WiFi is not needed for my installation. I did not get wifi running on 13.2 either.
I use "# ntp 0.freebsd.ntp.ntp.ord" to correct to local ime from UTC, even though configuration seems correctly set to CST.
FreeBSD 14.0 is fully functional otherwise and a satisfying desktop solution for my laptop. I wouldn't recommend it for a machine where WiFi is needed.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-28
Votes: 107
|
The new FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE is definitely stacked with improvements all over the place!
Early Phoronix tests also seem to confirm these improvements (performance-wise), I think specifically linked to the upgrade of OpenZFS version...
The Linux emulation layer is better now as well, which is pretty useful when you want to run a certain app not yet available on FreeBSD.
It's good to see the project continuing its growth, especially given the far less human resources it has, compared to Linux.
Totally recommended to people who value and prioritize stability.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-27
Votes: 100
|
FreeBSD 14.0 has proved to be very good so far.
It is perfectly stable, soft-journaling on UFS2 and TRIM work well
on Samsung Evo SSD, and the boot is fast.
On Thinkpad T450 brightness control did not work, earlier this year.
However, after last update the "powerdevil" in KDE5 was updated
among other software. That might explain why now everything related
to the brightness control is working fine. The brightness icon
appears on the screen as well as the brightness slider.
The only "con" would be the acpi_ibm module, for
all function keys to work out of the box, or almost out of the box. The module seems
to need update.
It works well on T430, but less so on T450 (both having 1080p panels, AUO and LG).
All f-keys work and can be mapped easily in KDE5 for example.
However, the "opposite function" of each f-key gives only code like
0x10, 0x11, 0x1b, 0x20 etc. using sudo cat /var/run/devd.pipe
They can not be mapped as "Browser" or "Tools". They can however be enabled via DEVD (the xev command gives no code for the same purpose).
This is not a problem in most cases. However, full function of
the keys (both as f-keys and the opposite function of each key)
would make the usability of FreeBSD perfect. A module like acpi_ibm
is of course not a part of FreeBSD as such but makes it highly useful
on Thinkpad (old and new).
Thank you for a very good job! Thanks.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-11-09
Votes: 74
|
FreeBSD 14.0-RC4 has been running on my Thinkpad for a few days. Upgraded from 13.2.
A few pros:
1) Seems to be very stable [though still a "testing version"];
2) Running fast;
3) Rather easy to upgrade;
4) Good hardware support;
A few "cons":
Support for brightness control not out of the box but works very well after manual intervention [0x10+0x11+devd].
KDE5 Plasma runs absolutely smoothly on top of FreeBSD. No problems there. Use the SDDM login manager in addition.
The only thing which is not visible in KDE is the brightness slider. It is missing.
But it's not to blame since f5 and f6 are connected, via devd, to the backlight driver.
(No brightness icon however).
A very good job done! Thank you all who still maintain freedom of action and open source software.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-28
Votes: 57
|
FreeBSD 14.0 has a lot of improvement and the booting speed is totally amazing. It is a rock solid OS. It now has full support for Wi Fi, and Bluetooth. Out of all the Unix like OS, I personally think, this is the BEST of them all. If you are looking for a very stable rock solid OS, your search is over. I was distro hopping for a long time, and I now have found the OS for daily usage, it's very secure and has a lot of software available for it. If you like to run other OS, you can do so inside jails. FreeBSD has support for Linux binary.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-10-18
Votes: 45
|
I love this OS. It is easy to install and runs very fast. The directory system is very well thought out and efficiently implemented. I do not play very many games, preferring to use my system to design and develop software and hardware engineering systems for industrial control systems. I use this OS on my 2 Lenovo laptops as well. I highly recommend people who have never tried it to read the reviews and learn some of the history of FreeBSD. Some of the apps I use are Kicad, LTSpiceVII, Qucs, FreeCAD and Arduino.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-08-17
Votes: 37
|
I installed FreeBSD this spring, on two laptops, and it has turned out very well. I decided to go an unusual way to create the slices on the hard drives. Have a new 1TB Samsung disk on one computer, specifically for FreeBSD, but share the 500GB Samsung disk on the other computer with Linux systems. There, I went the route of opening Gparted in Linux and creating 5 swap partitions, of the size that fits well on FreeBSD. Then booted FreeBSD from a USB stick and started the installation. Selected the relevant swap partitions, for root /, /tmp, /usr, /var and swap. Used freebsd-ufs on the slices. The only downside to this method is that Gparted on Linux doesn't detect the ufs partitions afterwards. It can be easily fixed with wipefs in Linux and run it on the relevant partitions and change the partition-table signatures, so it conforms to FreeBSD [wipefs -o "device signature"]. The signature for "Linux Swap" must be removed from the partitions. Takes no time in a Linux shell.
After that, ufs appears normally in Linux. Then you can start in single user mode and install TRIM on the disk drives [tunefs].
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-06-28
Votes: 39
|
I installed FreeBSD this spring, on two laptops, and it has turned out very well. I decided to go an unusual way to create the slices on the hard drives. Have a new 1TB Samsung disk on one computer, specifically for FreeBSD, but share the 500GB Samsung disk on the other computer with Linux systems. There, I went the route of opening Gparted in Linux and creating 5 swap partitions, of the size that fits well on FreeBSD. Then booted FreeBSD from a USB stick and started the installation. Selected the relevant swap partitions, for root /, /tmp, /usr, /var and swap. Used freebsd-ufs on the slices. The only downside to this method is that Gparted on Linux doesn't detect the ufs partitions afterwards. It can be easily fixed with wipefs in Linux and run it on the relevant partitions and change the partition-table signatures, so it conforms to FreeBSD [wipefs -o "device signature"]. The signature for "Linux Swap" must be removed from the partitions. Takes no time in a Linux shell.
After that, ufs appears normally in Linux. Then you can start in single user mode and install TRIM on the disk drives [tunefs].
KDE5 works great on FreeBSD. Fine adjustments need to be made in several config files and after that everything works very well. Installed Tinyproxy and the Pf firewall. Both work well.
It is well worth the time to install FreeBSD. Video, streaming, internet search, LaTex, LibreOffice, everything works very well.
BSD Help pages are also generally very good. Chainboot (chainboot) from GRUB works fast and well [boot.efi].
No specific cons, just questions about different settings to suit everyone. Thank you.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-05-15
Votes: 13
|
I installed FreeBSD 13.2 recently, with KDE5 desktop and UFS file system. I run it along three Debian systems,
on Samsung Evo SSD (Thinkpad). It took a while to configure everything manually but the BSD documents are very good.
It is stable and fast, so is the KDE5 and all the applications I have used, like Firefox and LibreOffice.
For those who want to refresh their knowledge of Vi and config files, FreeBSD is great, everything is done
manually.
When I first ran spectre-meltdown-checker, I got 10 CVE´s "red". By running the checker with --explained
I could eliminated the "red" by putting four lines in /etc/sysctl.conf.
After that only two CVE´s are now red; CVE-2017-5753 and CVE-2018-3646. Everything else is now "green".
For people interested in UNIX and UNIX-like systems, FreeBSD is a great choice. Grade 8/10.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-05-09
Votes: 0
|
I've used FreeBSD since version 7.* and here is my opinion on it's strengths and weaknesses.
PROS:
- Can be stable if deployed correctly and on the right hardware
- Can be used effectively but excels at specific tasks rather than being a general computing platform
- Freedom to use and deploy as you see fit
- Administration via the FreeBSD tools is fairly straight forward and utilitarian
- Has cleaner userland than GNU/Linux
- Can be considered a more complete OS than most GNU/Linux distros from a design stand point *However this is debatable now a days if you consider usability being a factor when comparing to current GNU/Linux solutions.
- It's not forked from multitudes of other sources like many of GNU/Linux distros are
CONS:
- Requires high amount of effort to lock down properly from it's original distributed form
- Has limits in regards to scalability
- You will encounter issues with no solutions in sight (spanning across months or years different versions/releases)
- Documentation is outdated and often requires online research, this scales with your general knowledge of
the system but can be an issue if time sensitive projects are at stake
- Not a good daily OS for general purpose computing due to effort involved to get things done
- Ports collection looks good on paper but compiling from source will quite often fail you and consume much of your time
- Package versions are way behind in most cases
- Development team is fairly small compared to most popular GNU/Linux solutions, this of course slows down it's development and its beginning to show these days
- Getting support is not easy and can be a quick turn off depending on the type of user you are and what your expectations are
In practicality, to me it feels like FreeBSD has ran it's course now and is now a hobbyist platform for most part.
If you have lots of time to burn and don't care about cutting edge developments you might be able to use it to fulfil some specific task but it won't be long before you feel like you are missing out on features that just aren't there and aren't coming any time soon.
I still like it though :D
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-04-17
Votes: 5
|
I have the intention to make FreeBSD my second OS besides macOS and learn it. I have bought the book "Absolute FreeBSD" by Michael W. Lucas for this purpose.
The main obstacle so far have been hardware support. On my Thinkpad T410i suspend/resume didn't work properly. When waking it up the screen was black. From what I have read this is because of some issue with the Nvidia driver, and there is no real solution.
On my Lenovo Ideapad the wifi chip is not supported unfortunately.
Because of these obstacles I have mainly evaluated the OS in a VM.
The experience has been good this far, it works for the things I intend to do and want to use. There is more manual work involved setting up a desktop environment than in NetBSD or OpenBSD, but it's not hard and the documentation is excellent.
To run FreeBSD on real hardware I'm going to buy a new PC. Thinkpads seems to be a safe bet.
FreeBSD is a very good OS, I just wished to hardware support was a bit better, so I can't give it a rating of 10.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-04-16
Votes: 21
|
Probably the best operating system I have used. Almost everything from Linux I used was packaged and maintained in the repositories (Sway, Librewolf, etc.), and it all worked flawlessly.
The only big issue I had was that my audio was constantly crackling which (for me) made it almost unusable when using my motherboard's audio. Also the way programs will leave .core files everywhere is extremely annoying, I believe this is fixable, but I did not try it while I had it installed.
9/10 simply because of the audio issue.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 8
Date: 2023-04-05
Votes: 6
|
I have tried FreeBSD. The system itself has easy installation which lasts about up to two hours but it doesn't mean the system is easy to use and maintain (some knowledge about networking, unix and FreeBSD itself is necessary to use it without any problems, not to mention the basics of computer science). For people who are familiar with Linux for some time and have been doing most things manually, it shouldn't be hard to use FreeBSD.
This system is mostly installed on servers, so it's worth mentioning that its goal is to provide good performance for these devices, which are security, stability, assured advanced network software, settings and capabilities. It's just perfect for servers. During installation we can choose to have UFS( Unix file system- like it says, it's provided by every unix system) and ZFS filesystem( the newer one). I can't say anything more about that because I have been using this system for almost a month and I'm just a simple Linux user, who didn't have to do many configurations.
Some problems can also occur. The most serious one is lack of driver support(especially for laptops, but mostly it shouldn't after all. The most common problem is with wireless access. I heard about some problems with SSD support but my disk is HDD, so I can't say anything about that). Other problems with FreeBSD are not that bad and it can be fixed manually, but sometimes it needs to seek deeply to solve some problems.
In conclusion, it is perfect for servers, can work on Laptops but not always, and using it wisely should make it one of the most helpful OS for work and ONLY work. Using this for other purposes is only pain with no gain.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2023-04-03
Votes: 0
|
XFCE works fast. However, don't install this on Dell's Studio XPS. It is a nightmare, to say the least. I finally got XFCE installed after viewing videos by people who experienced issued with it. The instructions to install 13.1 do not apply to Dell's Studio XPS. After spending 9 hours attempting to install sound and the HP Printer, it still does not work. While I am not experienced with BSD, except FreeBSD 9, I have installed Gentoo, Arch, Desktop BSD, FuryBSD, NomadBSD, and GhostBSD, without a single issue. None of the BSD flavors work on my system since FreeBSD-13.0 was introduced.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-01-15
Votes: 102
|
I am using FreeBSD from 2018 onwards for all of my tasks by default. Because this is Excellent UniX-like Server Operating System.
(Time-Sharing => ETSS -> CTSS => (BTSS) -> Multics => UniX => BSD Unix => 386BSD+4.4BSD => 4.4 BSD-Lite2 => FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p5 => ...)
tcsh - c shell is logically right shell which is following c syntax, than b language syntax shells like ash/bash
I feel FreeBSD is = Freedom Base System Distribution
For General purpose Server : No Comments, simply Excellent Excellent Excellent
For Desktop purpose am using Enlightenment window manager
/usr/home/username/.xinitrc
exec enlightenment_start
startx
day to day tools for tasks from FreeBSD :
terminology
nautilus
firefox
gedit
Bhyve for virtualization
Jail for containerization + Web Assembly runtime will be awesome
with this am using GNU Debian Linux(upwork tracker, any linux only) via TigerVNC Viewer
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-12-17
Votes: 83
|
FreeBSD is an amazingly solid server OS. Having ZFS be a first-class citizen, the clean separation of base and user software, and the great documentation make it a pleasure to use. I also like their Policy of Least Astonishment (no breaking change for the sake of change). Jails are also a step up from LXC in my opinion.
It's not as easy to get going on a desktop/laptop as most Linux distros but it's still definitely usable, though you may have some pain points if trying to use newer hardware. It doesn't seem to be their focus, and that's fair.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 5
Date: 2022-11-15
Votes: 0
|
I’ve been using freebsd over the years but always ended back on Linux due to various incompatibility issues (I think the last version I used was 10.x). So thought I would give 13.x a go so I installed in a vm and used for 6 months and got everything set up to match my workflow in Linux with no issues. The current Linux distro I’m using announced they would be going to a container based workflow next year which fits their enterprise model and it is one of the best in my opinion but I tried a beta version and it’s ok but not really aimed at home users anymore so started looking around for a replacement. I build my own pc’s and know what to avoid with Linux so keep things simple and not using anything fancy but it is a ryzen 7, asus board, 64GB memory, 2 ssd’s, and 3 large data drives, no fancy video card, etc. I started going through the freebsd install and noted that it did not pick up the realtek Ethernet port or the wireless which Linux has never failed to pickup, I knew I would have to probably configure the wireless later but this is honestly the first time a *nix has never saw an Ethernet port and that Realtek port has been around for over 2 years. So I finished the install and did some searching and found a driver and downloaded it as well as the ‘pkg’ installer since it apparently is not part of the base install but pkg add is so used that. Then went to install the missing driver and it said missing signature file or something to that effect. I powered it off and came back to it later and when it booted was giving some other weird error that I had never seen before and would not even boot to a prompt so for the heck of it wiped it a tried again with the same exact result so thinking it is a kernel issue, tried searching but did not find anything that helped. I was hoping that freebsd would work out, was getting ready to send a nice donation their way but looks like I’ll be sticking with Linux and hope the upcoming 14.x will have better results. I think freebsd only works on minimum 5-7 year older hardware, too bad because I really like it and will continue to use in the kvm but really want to get it working on bare metal.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2022-10-12
Votes: 24
|
It's just rock stable, using it as a primary home server, on my private laptop.
Takes some time to get used to in certain areas but it's worth it.
It's "set and forget" and unless you screw up anything it will just work all the time.
The installation in 13.x is so easy that someone coming straight from Windows will probably understand everything right away.
Pro:
- Fast and rock stable
- Neat and tidy
- Logical structure
- Highly configurable
Cons:
- Can be difficult to operate as first time user
- Out of the box some window managers can be a struggle (recommend xfce,mate,kde or something like i3,awesomewm etc etc)
- Wi-Fi still lacking compared to Linux distros and Windows releases.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 4
Date: 2022-10-11
Votes: 0
|
From time to time I install FreeBSD to test if it is usable as a desktop os for my daily work.
This time I tested FreeBSD 13.1.
After 3 days configuring, reading the FreeBSD Handbook and searching the web I was
able to use it like I use my openSUSE System. I installed XFCE and all the software that
I use on Linux runs on FreeBSD. All my hardware was supported by FreeBSD ... so far so bad ...
I installed the binary packages with pkg. But the binary package of LibreOffice comes without GTK integration
and PostgreSQL drivers. I need both for my daily work. So I compiled LibreOffice from ports.
Afterwards I locked LibreOffice and most of its dependencies. I never updated ports afterwards.
After installing the quarterly updates with pkg upgrade LibreOffice didn't start anymore because
some libraries were updated which LibreOffice depends on. So I had to update ports and recompile
LibreOffice. This took 7 hours on my notebook.
I also installed FreeBSD 13.1 in a VM. After installing the quaterly updates via pkg upgrade, I couldn't start
XFCE anymore because lightdm was broken and I wasn't able to get it working, again.
Conclusions:
Pro:
- Fast and stable os unless you install updates
- a lot of software available - good hardware support
Cons:
- very hard to install and configure
- binary package of LibreOffice comes without GTK integration and PostgreSQL-Drivers
- LibreOffice from ports has to be recompiled at least every 3 months (takes about 7 hours)
- High risk that quaterly updates make the system unusable
Not mature and stable enough to use as a Desktop OS for daily work.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-09-23
Votes: 106
|
I've been a Unix user/admin since 2001 and I'm pretty new to FreeBSD. While I do like Linux, I love the tidiness and stability of FreeBSD. It's a lot easier to manage and ZFS is pretty awesome. I have no problem recommending this OS. Especially for servers.
If you're going to use a desktop environment, my recommendation would be MATE. In Linux, Gnome is pretty popular and MATE is a lightweight version of it. It's a pretty painless install and works well. As an alternative, use XFCE. It works pretty well and is also a pretty quick install.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-09-13
Votes: 76
|
After many years of trying, I finally got the desktop to work. I already use the server, and it has been the most stable and reliable OS I have used. It is amazing how many packages are available. It takes some skill to set up and customize but much less work than in the past. I think version 14.0 can be a mainstream platform for desktops and laptops. I had no network or sound card issues, and the 1920 resolution worked without tinkering. I have been a long-time user of Solaris, but now I think FreeBSD will be my primary OS. The RC init easy to use compared to the nonsense that has become Linux systems. I think FreeBSD is more responsive than most of the LINUX OS I tried.
I have never recommended an Operating System on Distrowatch, but I would recommend FreeBSD now after installing the latest version on my desktop system. I have always preferred UNIX for servers, but now I think it is 'now' ready for the desktop.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 5
Date: 2022-09-11
Votes: 0
|
Bootable USB drive generator software supports should be added and/or optimized.
Multiple architecture releases should be added.
Live System Releases should be added.
Translation management project should be started for web pages and releases.
Encryption option should be added.
Mobile phone hardware support should be added.
Hard Real-Time Support should be added.
Web pages and software interfaces should be dark themed by default.
The overall purposes of the this operating system should be further diversified.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-08-27
Votes: 60
|
FreeBSD is a beautiful thing. I use it for everything, even my Desktops and Laptops. Quick and easy installs. After that I install desktop-installer. I'm a pretty lazy person, not so lazy I use Ubuntu, but lazy enough to install desktop-installer. Let that do the vast majority of the work setting up what most people coming from Linux would expect to find. Ports or pkg for software. Honestly pkg couldn't be easy, # pkg search xyz, # pkg install xyz, pretty easy. No systemd too ;)
What's not to like!
11/10
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-07-07
Votes: 52
|
FreeBSD is an excellent distro overall. It doesn’t have a GUI by default, but you can install one and there are a lot of easy-to-follow instructions on how to do things: the manual is legendary and very helpful. The forum is very active and full of helpful, nice people. I use this on 2 home servers and 3 desktop computers and it runs well and gets the job done. I haven’t noticed any crashes while using FreeBSD for a couple years and the stability is great. It feels a lot speedier and stable than Linux.you have tons of applications you can install to get so many jobs done, whether it’s for a server, regular use for internet browsing, reading email, watching videos, etc.
Overall, I highly recommend FreeBSD- give it a try!
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-06-15
Votes: 56
|
Indeed, FreeBsd is not like Ubuntu, linux Mint or other distros that come right away with a fully fledge working DE, but when followed the instruction videos (and there are quiet a lot of good onces) to install the GUI (Graphical Environment / DE), FreeBSD is then working nicely. I've got the full Kde/Plasma environment installed and all looks very neat and works fast and perfectly.
Another plus of the FreeBSD is that you can install whatever on it, like more DE's and when you remove it (Delete followed by Autoremove) no crap is left behind, this in contrast with whatever linux-distros.
I was a linux user for over years, from which the last few years 'plain' Arch, but I'm very satisfied with FreeBSD and use it now as my main OS.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-05-31
Votes: 63
|
I run FreeBSD on servers but I did install it on a new Framework laptop just to see what would happen. Much to my surprise everything worked.
For servers FreeBSD's stability and the ZFS filesystem can't be beat. I also find administration straightforward and documentation excellent. I'm sure having the kernel and core utilities developed together helps.
Bug fixes come in maybe once a month, a much smaller volume than Linux. In years of use I can't remember a single crash.
ZFS does a lot for servers which you can't get on Linux. I've heard of too many problems with btrfs, XFS lacks too many useful features (IMHO Red Hat's Stratis doesn't make it any better), and the promising bcachefs isn't ready yet.
I haven't noticed any lack of support for server hardware but I've heard that can be a problem for desktop use. I'm not one who likes problems so I use Linux on my desktops.
I like the philosophy of OpenBSD but its lack of ZFS is a killer for me. Dragonfly BSD seems like a perpetual experiment and for me NetBSD gives up too much for compatibility with hardware I'll never use.
So I'll say FreeBSD is great for servers but for other purposes your mileage may vary. It's nice to have choices.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 12.3
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-05-30
Votes: 57
|
On/Off FreeBSD user since 1998. In the past I have hosed my private server after a botched major upgrade (back when that was difficult to get right) and installed Linux of some sort. I have pendulated between RedHat, Debian, Ubuntu and FreeBSD for the last two decades and always comes back to FreeBSD as the install of choice when it comes to stuff that just has to work.
Some times I want to run a game server or software that is not ported (properly) yet. The few times I have done a base install of a Linux for that I always regret it and turn back to FreeBSD after a short while.
Besides - VMs are easy and encapsulates the dirty stuff that break all the time in a great way.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-05-13
Votes: 45
|
The best system for servers in the world.
Of the more than 30 Linux distros that I have tested, only Arch Linux, Slackware, and Gentoo are any good.
If you want privacy, there's Tails and for those with hardware hardware like QubesOS.
Of the BSDs, FreeBSD and OpenBSD are the standouts, especially in security and performance. I have absolutely nothing to complain about, except that it is a little complex to configure, but nothing that a little research can't handle, the documentation is excellent and easily accessible. The documentation is excellent and easily accessible. Only the Arch Linux Wiki is the best there is.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-03-18
Votes: 45
|
Lean, efficient, much easier to be a sysadmin on FreeBSD than on our previous CentOS based servers. Network latency and memory management are a performance boost to our specific use case (traditional n-tier architecture). Jails seem to be an interesting alternatives to dockering, according to our lead software architect.
Would like to deploy on workstations too : the main obstacle to that happening now is actually the easiness of installation for our support team. They require a full graphical standard setup "out of the box", base on Gnome.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-02-09
Votes: 52
|
I switched to FreeBSD last year and I presently have a new desktop, 3 years old laptop and a 10 years old laptop, running FreeBSD 13. Performance is solid, resource usage is minimal and system management is very easy. Mine is primarily desktop usage, with KDE-Plasma, several KDE applications, Firefox, Libreoffice, QGIS, Python, R, some VMs on Virtualbox, etc. Everything that matters to my day to day use works perfectly. The FreeBSD Handbook has been a valuable source of information. The Forums has been helpful in sorting out some of the difficulties that I had as a beginner.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2022-01-16
Votes: 59
|
I am using FreeBSD from version 5.? (forgot). !3.0-RELEASE I have on Lenovo laptop and it works without problems.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-19
Votes: 71
|
Very stable,solid OS.Some things are not easy but I like FreeBSD.Security is a tool we all need nowadays and FreeBSD ist very secure.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-12-15
Votes: 14
|
A rocksolid System. I use it as OS on a NAS and a Thinkpad with qtile-WM and SDDM.
The only thing i dislike is the usage of jack and other audioproduction-tools. So I cant use Virtual Piano with an MIDI-Keyboard. But als an everyday-OS its realy, realy fine, fast and stable.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 1
Date: 2021-12-14
Votes: 0
|
It looks like FreeBSD was made for the powerusers. God bless the powerusers, but I am not one of them. I am "most people."
Most people are expecting a GUI & Desktop in a Live Demonstration version. I see plenty of FreeBSD GUI desktops in various Youtube videos, but I have never found one in a demonstration of FreeBSD. It's like test driving a car that has no body, no trunk and no dashboard---you really don't know what the car looks like or what it can do.
FreeBSD Live Demo needs a GUI. Even a simple one.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-12-12
Votes: 19
|
Pros and cons of running FreeBSD:
+ ZFS
+ safe upgrades using boot environments
+ small number of processes running (unlike linux & macos)
+ the system is well organized and in a logic way
+ the system can be understood
+ good documentation
+ using binary packages is very simple
+ minimal system by default, good for running as server
+ community is mostly professionals
+/- desktop system can be built, but requires some effort
- wireless support is inferior to linux
- proprietary software often does not run (e.g. zoom)
- some open source projects focus only on linux and may require some tweaking to run
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 12.3
Rating: 3
Date: 2021-12-10
Votes: 0
|
No usable graphical desktop. It should be included and pre-configured by default.
I installed xorg and invoked startx as described in the FAQ, but the graphical desktop that came up was nothing more than three crude xterm windows. No menus. No icons.
Through Distrowatch, I have tried various BSD releases including previous FreeBSD releases and have yet to find one that delivers a usable desktop system.
Perhaps there's something good in this release, but only experts will be able to find it.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-12-10
Votes: 1
|
Great for server applications. The standard TCP/IP services are unrivaled. Netflix uses this for streaming. The workstation is another thing. The configuration needed for an everyday workstation is quite complicated. You have to look elsewhere to get a FreeBSD workstation distribution. GhostBSD works fine but runs off of packages and not ports.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-09
Votes: 58
|
Very good, fast, stable and strong Unix-like operating system ! i use it for a workstation and it's very pleasant to configure and use it as you want (with help : books and web).
Recommanded
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-07
Votes: 46
|
FreeBSD is a fast, stable, easy to use (after getting a desktop environment installed) and works great for everyday use. There are lots of packages in the repository and lots of customization-personalization too, I have FreeBSD installed on 2 computers, 1 as a server OS and 1 as a general purpose OS. This has great and easy to follow documentation too. I recommend.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-12-03
Votes: 48
|
FreeBSD is fast, very stable, customizable and works great as a desktop and server OS. It may be hard for people to use at first because you don’t get a GUI installed by default, but there is a lot of easy-to-follow documentation on how to get a GUI installed and right after that, you can get up and running quickly. I’ve had no crashes or lockups using this and FreeBSD keeps getting better as the years go on.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 14-CURRENT
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-11-24
Votes: 18
|
FreeBSD is a little hard to set up since you don’t get a desktop environment by default which I wish there would be an overhaul of the installer to have a GUI and to be able to choose a desktop environment in that GUI. FreeBSD has everything you need for day to day usage, whether it’s day-to-day usage of web browsing, listening to music, office work, using as a server, etc. FreeBSD can do it all.
I’ll give it a 9 out of 10 because the unfriendliness of the installer and having to research so many commands to get what I wanted installed because of the CLI.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-11-22
Votes: 54
|
I use it as a point-click system for desktop to get work done. It was easy to setup to my liking, The Documentation is probably only rivaled by Arch linux.
I have no degree in Computer Science, just an average user and with my first experience i have to say, it's perfectly balanced. It can do anything, be anything you'll ever need!
If you don't like DIU, this is NOT for YOU!
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 12.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2021-11-15
Votes: 64
|
I have been using FreeBSD since version 2.1 (1994, I think). We use it to serve Postgres, Apache and as a development machine using Jails. FreeBSD has served us reliably and consistently well with few problems as we have migrated across the years. We used FreeBSD and Mac/OSX systems as desktops, with equal efficiency. The system has exceptional reliability, and fault recovery, even when a show stopping programming error is made to low level routines. Recovery from these errors is generally prompt and complete. FreeBSD architecture has proven resistant to the steady stream of outside "hacker attackers" and had a very efficient move to IPv6 with few glitches. It works on minimal hardware and scales up very well. Device support is less than ideal, compared with Linux boxes, but we have been able to use embedded devices on raspberry Pi cards to interface well with FreeBSD. On laptops, especially in early releases, there was some hocus pocus to keep the wifi working well, but as later versions were released, this stabilized. ZFS is a dream and has been extremely stable, fast and configurable as our needs have changed. We program in c, python, perl, php using a variety of program development environments and the unix environment. We migrated to FreeBSD from DEC ULTRIX, IBM AIX, and VAX/VMS operating systems originally for high precision imaging and graphics and calculation intense work. It is our present work horse for CAD using FreeCAD as an alternative to Solidworks for internal product development. We are well pleased with this system.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13.0
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-11-09
Votes: 56
|
Since 2007 I abandoned the most popular operating system, installing on my laptops at home and workstations in the office various distributions of linux. For some time I've been trying to get to know Freebsd, first installing it on a laptop and then from this year on the office computer where I work daily. I am very satisfied for many points 1) very responsive system 2) solid system 3) updated system 4) scalable system for my needs.
|
Project: FreeBSD
Version: 13-STABLE
Rating: 10
Date: 2021-11-01
Votes: 50
|
This system is definitely not for some newbies. The forum people tend to refer noobs the manual. But if they don't really understand the manual instructions, then they would definitely give up on it. Those who are tenacious will be rewarded with a great system that's fast, unbloated, and highly configurable to their tastes.
I learned a lot after getting the system up and running with Slim and the Mate DE. I didn't like the fact that it doesn't have a built-in network manager aplet. I thought Mate lacked the aplet, but this was also the case with xfce. Overall, Freebsd is definitely a keeper.
|
|
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx 
