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Advantages of FreeBSD over OpenBSD [Desktop]
Im thinking about using OpenBSD or FreeBSD for my desktop. Can someone tell the advantages of FreeBSD over OpenBSD?
I have a little bit of experience with openbsd (mostly firewall/pf) |
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The most important from desktop user point of view is a list of apps available.
Since OBSD has a smaller number of them, simply have a look if most of apps that you use every day are available. Have a spin with both - OBSD and FBSD. Also DragonFlyBSD & NetBSD are good for desktop (with pkgsrc). Advantages of FreeBSD over any other BSD is a big "community" & number of ports. |
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amd64 hardware until recently was too buggy for more than 4GB of memory http://quigon.bsws.de/papers/2010/bs.../mgp00002.html OpenBSD will probably support more than 4GB of RAM on amd64 but I have a hard time to see how is that useful to a desktop user (see original question). Actually larger memory space can easily make applications more sluggish. Last edited by Oko; 31st August 2010 at 05:12 AM. |
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Nvidia graphics driver for both i386 and amd64, zfs support, same ports tree for all branches, AHCI and NCQ support, and flash plugin support are the ones I can think of off the top of my head
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You mean binary blob driver? Good luck with it.
I fail to see how zfs would be useful for a typical desktop user. On another hand udf (blue ray, dvd) is for most desktop users very important. OpenBSD has second to none support for udf file system (it is better than Windows support). You can read cvs commits. Having a great audio server in the base is also a big + for OpenBSD. You are not very familiar with OpenBSD... Quote:
Java barely works on FreeBSD on another hand the latest Icedtea is ported to NetBSD. Work is in progress on OpenBSD. Support for native SUN Java works far better on OpenBSD than on FreeBSD but that is beyond the point. Last edited by Oko; 31st August 2010 at 05:57 AM. |
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Thanks for the well wishes, but it is working excellent over here and has been ever time I've used it. Using it on amd64 actually and have never had a panic or an issue. VDPAU is truly a wonderful thing when watching movies while keeping the laptop's temp down, drawing less power, and extending the battery life.
Snapshots have saved my butt many a times. Compression saves space. Recovery from power outages is MUCH better. We typical users typically make some errors so fixing our mistakes through a rollback or running out of battery/ losing power without buying a UPS happens. Add in multiple drives and self-healing is great. Quote:
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I already posted my lack of knowledge in terms of ahci and ncq in regard to openbsd which BSDfan666 pointed out, and I provided a link to when it was added. It supports flash in that every single website I go to that has flash works perfectly with version 10 of adobe's flash implementation. Quote:
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An aside, I love both, and was merely pointing out what in day to day desktop usage I really enjoyed FreeBSD having over OpenBSD. Cheers |
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For your information the only two operating systems which were light enough to be used on the Wyse thin clients were OpenBSD and NetBSD. Wyse provided embedded Windows and Linux were so crippled to be able to run on the thin clients that were practically useless (there were missing so many libraries) that no application could be installed. It was nice talking to you too kid Last edited by Oko; 1st September 2010 at 04:52 AM. |
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QUOTE=Oko..... OpenBSD has second to none support for udf file system (it is better than Windows support). You can read cvs commits. Having a great audio server in the base is also a big + for OpenBSD.
Yes I agree. For a Desktop, music is a top priority for many and OpenBSD does it very well. This needs to be emphasized. The Raid and NFS toys are so useful and easy to use for music/video lovers -- again, the desktop becomes more fun and economical with an audio server imo I do use FreeBSD on certain hardware where OpenBSD is not ported -- i.e., on my little 35$ Rpi -- but everywhere else I find the documentation of OpenBSD to be more helpful. There's nothing like a clean OpenBSD install ... a few dot-files added in ~/ and some tweaks to a few things in /etc and some rc.conf.local flags set; it is very beautiful in its simplicity of layout and the logic of its configuration. I know it is similar to FreeBSD, but its subtle differences do make a "significant" difference over an extended period of use. Familiarity can breed strong affection. Not all things loved are old, though, as the new dhclient in OpenBSD is fantastic for wireless laptop use, which is important to many for both portable 'desktops' and others, too. SMTP is another but perhaps not that useful for a desktop user. Last edited by thomasw_; 14th May 2013 at 05:36 AM. |
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OpenBSD supports AHCI and NCQ.
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I didn't know that; Thank you. Seems they've had it since 4.2 for ahci
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FreeBSD has ahci. Not sure about NCQ, but most desktop drives don't support it anyway.
I've used both as a desktop a fair amount, and both have their merits. In the end I prefer FreeBSD slightly because it runs Opera*. Otherwise I would probably go with OpenBSD. I could write a long story about the merits of both, but trying each for a few months will be the only way for you to decide what you prefer. * I know OpenBSD can run Opera in Linux compatibility mode, but SMP has to be off and it's not really as stable/fast as I would like. And yes, I tried firefox for months, it's shit.
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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. |
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With the rise of WebKit based browsers, it's worth looking at them for a replacement for Firefox and Opera in situations where neither are suitable. Marco Peereboom has a vi-inspired browser based around WebKit, it's strictly a no frills experience though, others include midori and an old chromium port. Comparing OpenBSD and FreeBSD for desktop usages is kind of difficult to do fairly, they both have arguably comparable feature sets.. but sometimes in different areas. The websites of each project attempt to highlight these, and with further research you can dig up more information, but in the end I believe it's safe to say that most of the regulars here started out trying several different systems before settling on the one that came closest to matching all our needs, technical and philosophical. Some end up deciding to use a wide variety of different OS's, in tandem, perhaps that just fits their requirements. Anyway, it's all debatable in the end, listing out the reasons for choosing one or another doesn't really serve much of a purpose in the end. Last edited by BSDfan666; 30th August 2010 at 04:19 PM. |
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I would actually like to bring one fact commonly left out when it comes to desktop use. What do developers use on their desktops? A typical FreeBSD developer uses MAC and runs OS X. A typical OpenBSD developer eats his own soup. Last edited by Oko; 31st August 2010 at 05:22 AM. |
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Now this is a big +1 for OpenBSD.
What stops me from even trying OBSD/NetBSD is the lack of img file - I use BSD on my netbook since it has a "good hardware for BSD" but it has no cd-rom (as most netbooks). Is there a way to install OBSD form an usb-stick? OT: To be honest, I like DragonFlyBSD with HAMMER fs which works very well on even small ssd (20GB). I had (or dfbsd) a problem with packages and pkgsrc after an upgrade of some of it part & I'm waiting for new release which is scheduled on this september. Can't wait |
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If you own another system that has a floppy or CD-ROM drive, which also has a USB port, you can boot the floppy/CD-ROM and prepare the USB drive for booting on the netbook.. either manually or just by doing a full installation of OpenBSD right onto the USB drive. Other options from FAQ 4.13.6 include PXE booting (..if BIOS/Ethernet support it) or simply obtaining a USB floppy/CD-ROM drive and use the regular installation media. No need to make it complicated.. |
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Sure? I have a lot of "desktop-drives", each one is capable of NCQ. Most of the time the FBSD driver is just PITA, has its caveats.
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use UNIX or die :-) Last edited by Oliver_H; 2nd September 2010 at 10:42 AM. Reason: silly typo |
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