FreeBSD Foundation Executive Director Tries Daily Driving FreeBSD On Laptop (phoronix.com)
- Reference: 0183380964
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/26/05/24/213229/freebsd-foundation-executive-director-tries-daily-driving-freebsd-on-laptop
- Source link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-On-Laptop-Driver
> With FreeBSD [3]having worked on improving its laptop support over the past two years with [4]some big changes and ongoing efforts for [5]making a nice KDE desktop experience on FreeBSD , FreeBSD Foundation's Executive Director has been trying to daily drive FreeBSD on laptops...
>
> With the Framework Laptop, the touchscreen "just worked" as did other basic functionality from the KDE desktop on FreeBSD, including peripherals like a wireless mouse. Among the challenges were Zoom failing for video calls but eventually working, the web camera took steps to enable, and Microsoft Teams only partially worked. With the help of online resources, ultimately she was able to succeed in her journey of running FreeBSD daily on a laptop.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-On-Laptop-Driver
[2] https://osselcna2026.sched.com/event/2JQsf/what-running-freebsd-on-a-modern-laptop-taught-me-deb-goodkin-the-freebsd-foundation
[3] https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-Laptop-Matrix
[4] https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-Laptops-2025
[5] https://www.phoronix.com/news/FreeBSD-15.2-KDE-Desktop
I love that FreeBSD exists (Score:3)
I think it's great we have FreeBSD as a more "unix-like" operating system that is freely available and of solid quality. I remember playing with FBSD 20 years ago and even then, it felt pretty solid and would of very likely made a great server platform, depending on your particular service needs.
Trying to use it on a laptop or as my main desktop driver seems like a step to far but then again, that entirely depends on what you need it to do. If you can get it to work with your hardware and it has the apps you need for your work flow, then why not!
If I used my laptop regularly, I might very well try out BSD just to feed them some data. I sort of feel one year, possibly The Year Of The Linux Desktop, I'll be moving over to BSD to escape the enshitification of Linux. I could probably do that now if I didn't want to play games. It's rather ironic, 20 years ago, I could not move over to Linux because "games" and now I can't move over to BSD because of "games".
Re: (Score:2)
> I think it's great we have FreeBSD as a more "unix-like" operating system that is freely available and of solid quality. I remember playing with FBSD 20 years ago and even then, it felt pretty solid and would of very likely made a great server platform, depending on your particular service needs.
> Trying to use it on a laptop or as my main desktop driver seems like a step to far but then again, that entirely depends on what you need it to do. If you can get it to work with your hardware and it has the apps you need for your work flow, then why not!
Why not? When the article flexes about a working touchscreen, webcam working after fiddling, and Zoom having issues and kinda worked on Teams, and "Basic" things working, I gotta say, it's a niche thing. If you need none of that, and are really into not having systemd, then it sounds okay. Most of us have other needs.
What was he using before??? (Score:2)
> FreeBSD Foundation Executive Director Tries Daily Driving FreeBSD On Laptop
What OS was he using before?
If the executive director wasn't already using it almost solely, that's an OS I'm going to use exactly never.
Re: (Score:1)
I did this myself in Y2K or Y2K+1 before moving onto MacOS. Surely it's even better now.
Re: (Score:1)
The Framework laptop is only difference. but still... and I was one some no-name jankified laptop with serial ports and PCMCIA.
Re: (Score:2)
> What OS was he using before?
Good question, but as the summary says, "... she was able to succeed in her journey of running FreeBSD daily on a laptop."
No surprise (Score:5, Funny)
"Microsoft Teams only partially worked".
No surprise. Teams only partly works on Windows.
FreeBSD is great (Score:2)
I've been daily driving FreeBSD on my laptop since 2019. I'm posting from it right now. They've really improved wifi support in the last couple of releases.
I haven't needed much proprietary software support in a long time. I do run Google Earth, using the Linuxulator.
Never have I ever (Score:2)
Never have I ever wanted to use FreeBSD as my desktop OS. I spent several years running Nas4Free, FreeBSD based, on a server. It was a rock solid with good hardware, but a desktop? Why play everything on hard mode?
Re: (Score:2)
It's cleaner and better organized than Linux. It's actually easier than Linux.
The only hard part is getting the hardware to work, since there's less driver support for FreeBSD than for Linux. (Admittedly, that's a serious drawback if it impacts you, but nothing if it doesn't).
Re: (Score:2)
I agree that FreeBSD is easier than Linux when you stay in its narrow lane. Linux always seems to break somehow. Not so much FreeBSD. But the hardware issue is huge, and with a laptop, this will impact pretty much everything unless the laptop maker is on board. Me? I just had to buy a NIC since the built-in one did not work. The intel one I bought worked perfectly. The level of active development on Linux is much higher. More features. More software choices. More guides. More done for you. If I did
Daily driver^ (Score:2)
^ that's a hell of a qualifier:
> Using a Framework Laptop, she tried FreeBSD as a daily driver for at least 10 minutes a day.
Re: (Score:2)
Just you wait.
Re:Horses for courses (Score:5, Informative)
I'm not sure what you mean by "poorly" and "constant handholding"? Its full blown KDE on a very capable base operating system. Its at the point where Steam gaming is working, it has all the great server/developer tools needed for productivity, and pretty much any F/OSS app you can name on Linux is also on FreeBSD, but without most of the headaches of modern Linux.
Having more options for end-users is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Re: (Score:2)
The lack of consistency. I know the while "customize everything" is praised as good, but that only goes so far. We're to the point where there is so much fragmentation, its almost a form of anti-standardization. Just look at package management for example. A single application, in different packages (dnf/apt vs flatpak) for instance, will have wildly different permissions models to the point that things break in, like camera or screen sharing in Discord or similar applications. Its a complete mess, but brin
Re: (Score:2)
but without most of the headaches of modern Linux..
Yes, it had a great community of people that were never willing to assist if there was someone asking a question that had been answered 15 years prior. It might be the BetaMax vs VHS debate (sure FreeBSD was superior). FreeBSD died long ago when the community was filled with people too smart to be bothered. Maybe it still is better but it will never get the community support and only gets mentioned on Slashdot to stir these types of feedback. Only us old p
Re: (Score:2)
In this case, maybe it was because the user is the "FreeBSD Foundation's Executive Director".