People have been talking about switching from Windows to Linux since the 1990s, but in the world of open-source operating systems, there is much more variety than just the hundreds of flavors of Linux-based operating systems today. Take FreeBSD, for example. In a recent [GNULectures] video, we get to see a user’s attempt to switch from desktop Linux to desktop FreeBSD.
The interesting thing here is that both are similar and yet very different, mainly owing to their very different histories, with FreeBSD being a direct derivative of the original UNIX and its BSD derivative. One of the most significant differences is probably that Linux is just a kernel, with (usually) the GNU/Hurd userland glued on top of it to create GNU/Linux. GNU and BSD userland are similar, and yet different, with varying levels of POSIX support. This effectively means that FreeBSD is a singular OS with rather nice documentation (the FreeBSD handbook).
The basic summary here is that FreeBSD is rather impressive and easy to set up for a desktop, especially if you use a customized version like GhostBSD. Despite Libreboot, laptop power management, OSB NVENC, printer, and WiFi issues, it was noted that none of these are uncommon with GNU/Linux either. Having a single package manager (pkg) for all of FreeBSD (and derivatives) simplifies things a lot. The bhyve hypervisor makes running VMs a snap. A robust ZFS filesystem is also a big plus.
What counts against desktop FreeBSD in the end is a less refined experience in some areas, despite FreeBSD being able to run Linux applications courtesy of binary compatibility. With some developer love and care, FreeBSD might make for a nice desktop alternative to GNU/Linux before long, one that could be tempting even for the die-hard Windows holdouts among us.
Since gaming comes up at the end:
Bazzite (Fedora Linux) is currently becoming very popular as alternative to Steam OS3 (Arch Linux).
Bazzite is gaining traction because SteamOS doesn’t run on other hardware yet, besides the Legion Go S. SteamOS doesn’t have support for many hardware configurations so Bazzite is the one that people use. I don’t see a point in running Bazzite on my Steam Deck. You lack the official updates which have been very stable for me, it’s running on Fedora instead of Arch and everything I want to do just works, so I’m happy with SteamOS.
I don’t dislike Bazzite, but I have no personal need for it. I am planning on building a game PC for the living room when money allows me to do so. I am however, planning on running Arch with Steam instead of Bazzite. I used to be a Linux system administrator for a large company and I was responsible for hundreds of Linux servers, mostly SuSe and a handful of Debian systems, so I’m not very fond of RPM systems. I don’t know who came up with the idea that ‘yast update’ means you upgrade your entire system without warning, but it didn’t make me a happy admin. It’s been quite a few years so I hope they changed that but I’m still not a fan of rpm systems.
What does “without warning” mean? I’ve used immutable, “atomic” distros other than Universal-Blue Bazzite. (I also take no interest in gaming.) And I’m currently extremely enamored with Fedora Silverblue. Updates download and accumulate as they become available. But no updates are installed unless and until the user deliberately reboots the OS. And then they are applied en masse. That’s sort of the definition of an “atomic” OS.a
Also apparently Fedora is talking about dropping 32bit libraries that Steam depends on. The lead Bazzite dev said he’d just shut the project down if that happened.
I think they’ll backtrack on it, but it’s shaken confidence.
I wish there was an explainer for dummies on OpenBSD’s partition system! I really don’t grok it.
It’s just a different partition table type, really. There’s not much to explain, it’s just a different way to do the same thing. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_disklabel
Note that it’s deprecated in FreeBSD, in favor of GPT partition tables (which have been the thing for Linux and Windows for a while now).
Switch to FreeBSD? To give up excellent OS – what for?
I tried ghost bsd. But I just couldn’t get my Wi-Fi 6 to work on my laptop.
“One of the most significant differences is probably that Linux is just a kernel, with (usually) the GNU/Hurd userland glued on top of it to create GNU/Linux.”
I thought GNU/Hurd was an alternative kernel, not a userland?
Hurd is the kernel, and GNU/Hurd is the operating system with the GNU userland that was originally developed for the Hurd kernel before it also got used to create an OS with the Linux kernel.
If (most Linux distros’) userland is GNU/Hurd without Hurd, why not just say GNU like the classic reddit bot? Naming Hurd for an implementation where it doesn’t exist seems, at best, confusing.
back in the day, people just said GNU/Linux
I’m OK with FreeBSD being unfriendly to all but the most dedicated ex-Linux users. We’ve got a good thing here, and I ‘d rather not see an influx of Linux dolts demanding systemd and the rest of the I-was-a-Windows-user-before-Linux crap-ware. Keep it small and lean, as the worthy will lean and adapt.
Yeah no, year of the…nonsense on BSD. Let Linux play the popularity game. Much like fusion, they’ll get there…soon.
Meh, 9Front is where it’s at now. I found that the development of TempleOS slowed somewhat so I jumped over to something a little more mainstream.
“Distro of the day”? No thanks.
Doesn’t Playstation use BSD as their OS? If you can game on the PS, you should effectively be able to game on a BSD install.
Not an unmodified one. There is a LOT that sony changed, in the same way that there’s a lot of difference between macOS and whatever version of mach unix it’s based on. Without those changes and additions (many of which involve copy protection) you’re screwed when it comes to playing PS games.
If you’re going to game on netbsd, you’re most likely going to be running windows games through wine, as is the case on linux.
I run a UNIX called OS X. Smooth as silk, never a crash (unless Firefox is involved) and months and months without restarts. Also an “almost Linux” experience in the Terminal. Luscious video.
OS X is based on FreeBSD
FreeBSD or NetBSD? I am not certain, quite frankly, but I thought it was NetBSD based.
They are both BSD descendents, but NetBSD, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD have all diverged slightly.
I provided NetBSD kernel/platform support for a commercial wireless telecom system in the mid aughts.
Unfortunately they’re dropping support for x86 hardware after macOS 26 Tahoe, but otherwise, yeah, macOS is probably the best and easiest UNIX desktop experience.
If you’re going months and months without restarts you’re not keeping up to date on security patches!
What’s a “security patch”? :-)
Ray, if they’re using OS X they haven’t had an update for 9 years anyway ;)
Like I wanted to say… None of those Unix-like Operating Systems can compare to the real thing: macOS. :)
back in the day, i was a happy GNU/Linux and sometimes FreeBSD user
but when Mac OS X came out, i jumped ship
for the longest time, i was a macOS fan-girl, especially when people were talking about software development
however, i’ve since switched back to Windows 11, believe it or not, and Fedora 42
why?
macOS Sequoia
not the UNIX part but the DE. it’s become super unstable. Fedora 42 runs so much better that it’s not even funny
and i saw macOS Tahoe at WWDC 2025 and the new menu bar is see through, or Liquid Glass as they call it
given the right wallpaper, it looks kinda good
but i’m a dark girl, with dark wallpaper which means that the text from the new menu bar will be unreadable
also, a poll, conducted earlier this year shows the Apple users would rather have new features rather than bug fixes
and, unfortunately, the bugs were showing rather big when macOS 15.0.0 came out plus, a majority of the promised AI features were completely missing
yes, some have been fixed and the AI is there but, believe it or not, compared to Windows 11 and Android 15/16 devices, the AI is rather laughable. i mean, it’s a meme
but it’s the remaining bugs and the features over bug fixes mentality that made me switch back
i still don’t recommend Windows as a development platform unless you’re deploying to a Windows Server, either Internet or SQL Server
but if you want stability, go with a GNU/Linux distro
I can’t help myself… must post… Richard Stallman copypasta:
“I’d just like to interject for a moment. What you’re referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I’ve recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project. There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use.
Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine’s resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called “Linux” distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.”
Not sure how BSD can function without an init system that also does cron, networking, kernel log management, daemon network management, and ntp time management. Is it even a real os?
Those extras aren’t part of the init system though. They are systemd projects but they are their own separate programs. You can use the systemd ones with different init systems and say a different network daemon with systemd init…
I’m not really a fan (nor, tbh, a hater) of systemd but if systemd is bad and bloated because it has various components under the same project the BSDs are worse. They’re kernels that aso do a libc, an init system, network management, cron jobs, servers, shells, an entire userland, etc, etc…
BSD is a kernel that also does libc, init system, cron, networking, logging, servers, shell, entire userland, etc, etc, etc…
All those extras in systemd aren’t part of systemd init. They’re separate programs maintained by the same project. You can use those programs with other init systems and vice versa. The init system no more does all that than BSD cat also does time management or Linux binary compatibility.
Software License: My understanding is that Linux developers must publish changes to Linux but BSD developers have no social obligation with regards to code. So I believe that Linux is better maintained for the future.
I’d like to nuance that. Linux will have new features faster than BSD. But that does not equal to ‘better maintained’.
in the past, that wasn’t true at all
FreeBSD had multiple processor finished well before the Linux kernel did
meaning, that, for Java devs, they had multi-processing for all of the processors. with GNU/Linux, there were two options in Java to get multi-processing working, a stable, default one that was multi-processing on one processor only and an experimental, which sometimes worked on multiple processor given the right circumstances
even for non-Java apps, hardly any of the other apps had support for multiple processors. in fact, you had to compile your own kernel because none of the distros delivered a kernel with multi processor support, and, for the few apps that did support multi processors, you had to compile those as well
and the BSDs just worked
on another note, back when we were using modems to connect to the Internet, the BSDs had dial on demand long before GNU/Linux and Windows did
i have to use freebsd at work and my main observation is that it’s like redhat…when i first met it, it didn’t have a decent package system. nothing remotely as good as what debian has had ever since when apt was new. now, i know that’s changed a great deal in recent history (maybe 20 years ago), but the experience of using an OS while they’re in the process of figuring out what i consider to be package management fundamentals kind of bummed me out :)
why not switch from windows
I’ve set up file servers and desktop workstations with FreeBSD, and love it. Even though I’m back to running a Linux workstation, I would gladly go back to FreeBSD in a heartbeat. But since my Linux workstation is very stable at the moment, I’m just waiting for it to crash hard before switching back.