From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sat May 23 18:52:47 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A075D2DABCC for ; Sat, 23 May 2020 18:52:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dpchrist@holgerdanske.com) Received: from holgerdanske.com (holgerdanske.com [184.105.128.27]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange ECDHE (P-256) server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256 client-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "xray.he.net", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 49TstQ4J0jz4T3Q for ; Sat, 23 May 2020 18:52:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dpchrist@holgerdanske.com) Received: from 99.100.19.101 ([99.100.19.101]) by holgerdanske.com with ESMTPSA (TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:TLSv1.3:Kx=any:Au=any:Enc=AESGCM(128):Mac=AEAD) (SMTP-AUTH username dpchrist@holgerdanske.com, mechanism PLAIN) for ; Sat, 23 May 2020 11:52:42 -0700 Subject: Re: updating a FreeBSD workstation To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: From: David Christensen Message-ID: <4671487d-2a25-3c9b-05c5-523bbfed48d8@holgerdanske.com> Date: Sat, 23 May 2020 11:52:41 -0700 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 49TstQ4J0jz4T3Q X-Spamd-Bar: +++ Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=none; dmarc=none; spf=none (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of dpchrist@holgerdanske.com has no SPF policy when checking 184.105.128.27) smtp.mailfrom=dpchrist@holgerdanske.com X-Spamd-Result: default: False [3.08 / 15.00]; RCVD_VIA_SMTP_AUTH(0.00)[]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; MID_RHS_MATCH_FROM(0.00)[]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; NEURAL_SPAM_SHORT(0.64)[0.639]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; PREVIOUSLY_DELIVERED(0.00)[freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]; AUTH_NA(1.00)[]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; NEURAL_SPAM_MEDIUM(0.59)[0.588]; DMARC_NA(0.00)[holgerdanske.com]; NEURAL_SPAM_LONG(0.95)[0.949]; RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE(0.00)[184.105.128.27:from]; R_SPF_NA(0.00)[no SPF record]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; R_DKIM_NA(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; ASN(0.00)[asn:6939, ipnet:184.104.0.0/15, country:US]; RCVD_COUNT_TWO(0.00)[2]; RCVD_TLS_ALL(0.00)[] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 23 May 2020 18:52:47 -0000 > On Sat, 23 May 2020 at 09:39, Doug Denault > 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