Non-Linux OSes Still Playing In An Intel UMS World

[garegin]

freebsd sucks horribly as a desktop OS, it CAN arguably be better on the server. i've actually used freebsd live cd on a desktop with a kernel bug that would render it unbootable.

[archibald]

freebsd sucks horribly as a desktop OS, it CAN arguably be better on the server. i've actually used freebsd live cd on a desktop with a kernel bug that would render it unbootable.

What version of FreeBSD did you try out? I've not seen a live CD (at least for version 9.0) available on their website.

FreeBSD works fine as a desktop OS for me (Desktop PC with Athlon II X4, Radeon 4850 (R600c)). It meets all of my requirements:

• solid as a rock
• plays music and videos
• has regularly updated software
• can create and burn video DVDs
• can rip video DVDs
• runs firefox and LibreOffice
• reads PDF documents
• has several email clients

What are your requirements for a desktop OS?

[kraftman]

What version of FreeBSD did you try out? I've not seen a live CD (at least for version 9.0) available on their website.

FreeBSD works fine as a desktop OS for me (Desktop PC with Athlon II X4, Radeon 4850 (R600c)). It meets all of my requirements:

• solid as a rock
• plays music and videos
• has regularly updated software
• can create and burn video DVDs
• can rip video DVDs
• runs firefox and LibreOffice
• reads PDF documents
• has several email clients

What are your requirements for a desktop OS?

You can drive an old Dodge, but why to choose it instead of Ferrari? BSD's re mess when comes to hardware support, audio and graphic stack, package management, availability of software, performance etc. For me an only interesting BSD is Dragonfly BSD, because of it hammer file system and its devs who are ok.

[XorEaxEax]

Well if the hardware is fully supported then it is no less a 'ferrari' than Linux would be for him when using the same applications. Personally I would recommend Linux over BSD for the desktop if someone asked me, but if someone is running BSD and all their hardware is supported then obviously it's only a question of which OS/distro one prefers.

[allquixotic]

What version of FreeBSD did you try out? I've not seen a live CD (at least for version 9.0) available on their website.

FreeBSD works fine as a desktop OS for me (Desktop PC with Athlon II X4, Radeon 4850 (R600c)). It meets all of my requirements:

• solid as a rock
• plays music and videos
• has regularly updated software
• can create and burn video DVDs
• can rip video DVDs
• runs firefox and LibreOffice
• reads PDF documents
• has several email clients

What are your requirements for a desktop OS?

Ok, I'll bite and add to the list:

• Support for running 3d applications in wine
• Hardware-accelerated composited desktop (sorry, "eye candy" is mandatory for me, as much as having > 0MB of RAM is mandatory for you)
• Ability to play native Linux games and run native 3d applications (long list)
• OpenCL for scientific computing, GPU encoding, and software development
• Runs Skype, DropBox
• Acts as a VMware Workstation host OS with full hypervisor hardware acceleration (EPT, etc)

Obviously we have different needs -- doesn't make yours right or wrong, but my definition of a "desktop OS" is definitely different than yours if you think your list is sufficient to be considered a desktop. Nothing in your list even mentions 3d acceleration, and I refuse to use an operating system that is going to turn my Radeon HD7970 into the equivalent of a VGA adapter.

[archibald]

Ok, I'll bite and add to the list:
Obviously we have different needs -- doesn't make yours right or wrong, but my definition of a "desktop OS" is definitely different than yours if you think your list is sufficient to be considered a desktop. Nothing in your list even mentions 3d acceleration, and I refuse to use an operating system that is going to turn my Radeon HD7970 into the equivalent of a VGA adapter.

I wasn't intending to be provocative with my question. I write software that generates 3D models, but the BSD drivers are good enough for what I need to do. Dropbox would be nice, but I don't really need it. There is a copy of Skype in the FreeBSD ports collection, it runs under Linux emulation but I've not tried it out.

You make fair points with your requirements though, and if you've got significant 3D requirements then it's a no-brainer. I can't standy eye-candy though - my desktop looks like it's from the 1980s :-)

[kraftman]

Well if the hardware is fully supported then it is no less a 'ferrari' than Linux would be for him when using the same applications. Personally I would recommend Linux over BSD for the desktop if someone asked me, but if someone is running BSD and all their hardware is supported then obviously it's only a question of which OS/distro one prefers.

Even in the case you mentioned there will still be differences in some cases like pointed by allquixotic or package management, how easy is to update software, performance - Phoronix article: kfreebsd vs Linux on Debian. So it's not just a matter of hardware support. However, I want to admit I'm talking overall and not about Archibald case, because I suppose he knows better what's good for him.

[archibald]

I'm talking overall and not about Archibald case, because I suppose he knows better what's good for him.

Heh, that's a highly questionable point :-)

[garegin]

pcbsd has a live cd version. but yeah, the smart thing to do would have been to report the bug instead of using another os. btw, the bug has been fixed in the recent kernel versions because the last time I tried, it worked.