Date: Sat, 23 May 2020 11:52:41 -0700 From: David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: updating a FreeBSD workstation Message-ID: <4671487d-2a25-3c9b-05c5-523bbfed48d8@holgerdanske.com> In-Reply-To: <CAAdA2WNSZaLLb1t6qeEX8ESwCYTorwOg%2BTXE4y1S_zY-SWFSjQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <alpine.BSF.2.00.2005230221460.75395@bucksport.safeport.com> <CAAdA2WNSZaLLb1t6qeEX8ESwCYTorwOg%2BTXE4y1S_zY-SWFSjQ@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> On Sat, 23 May 2020 at 09:39, Doug Denault <doug@safeport.com> > wrote: > >> Thoughts/questions on updating a FreeBSD desktop. >> My solution has been every so often start fresh because I can not >> afford the time to risk a non-working desktop. On 2020-05-23 00:47, Odhiambo Washington wrote: > Use your Linux of choice On 2020-05-23 01:02, Polytropon wrote: > ... if you want a "just works", use Linux. +1 I have been using Debian for desktops for many years (currently Debian 9 amd64 xfce). I try very hard to keep my installs as close to OOTB as possible. Xfce has more features and is better integrated on Debian. Almost all of the software I need is available as binary packages. By choosing hardware with Intel graphics, I avoid problems with proprietary graphics drivers. Debian, plus Ubuntu and other derivatives, have a large enough install base that some software projects/ vendors release binary packages and/or operate package servers (Google, Mozilla, Oracle). Minor version updates/ upgrades are easy, and rarely fail. (I backup/ wipe/ install/ restore for major version upgrades.) That said, there are non-trivial differences between FreeBSD and the various GNU/ Linux distributions. It is not uncommon that you have to learn two ways to accomplish the same goal -- one for each platform. For interactive terminal use and for shell scripts, I install GNU tools on FreeBSD. The FreeBSD feature I miss the most on Debian is ZFS. While I can install ZFS on Debian and use it successfully for data disks, using ZFS for a Debian system disk has too many costs and risks. David
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4671487d-2a25-3c9b-05c5-523bbfed48d8>