FreeBSD: The Really Alternative Desktop OS

FreeBSD desktop operating systems, including GhostBSD, MidnightBSD, helloSystem and NomadBSD.

The websites for the distros included in this video are as follows:

Chapters:
00:00 Titles & Intro
00:47 FreeBSD Basics
03:10 GhostBSD
11:53 MidnightBSD
13:57 helloSystem
16:11 NomadBSD
18:48 Wrap

#FreeBSD #GhostBSD #NomadBSD #MidnightBSD #helloSystem #ExplainingComputers

[lbsiuk]

FreeBSD is also used as the base of the OS for the PS3, PS4, PS5 and PS Vita operating systems, with the PS4's fork of FreeBSD 9 being called Orbis OS.

[RoboNuggie]

Chris, what can I say but thank you for covering this and giving me a shout you sir, are a legend!

[gregholloway]

Chris, thanks for making a video on FreeBSD. The BSDs don’t often get the spotlight, and I suspect many Linux users are unaware of them. Speaking as an OpenBSD user for the past 20 years. I find the BSDs fabulous, IF the software you want to run is available, and IF your hardware is supported. So much more cohesive than many Linux distros.

[MichelMorinMontreal]

Thank you for (re) introducing us to FreeBSD, which too often flies under the radar of Linux users. Its stability and choice of programs can easily meet the needs of many users... You are once again doing a useful job for the community! Thanks again!

[legojenn]

Another great video. Thanks for the honest look. You went into the video without obvious preconceptions. You didn’t criticise design choices and didn’t lay blame on failure. It’s refreshing to just be presented with information and anecdotes without feeling sold on one over another.

As I mentioned in your Friday post, I have a GhostBSD installation on an expansion drive that I can insert into my laptop. It’s nice but at this point is solution looking for a problem category. Maybe I can do a one-week challenge.

[derekr]

I use GhostBSD on my Lenovo laptop and it runs very nicely. I have tried NomadBSD and liked that but like you Chris I had no joy with MidnightBSD, a very enjoyable video and a nice change from Linux .

[zachkurth]

Snow outside my house, coffee in one hand, and a fresh Explaining Computers video on my screen. ☺️

[turanamo]

More power to FreeBSD! A beacon of light for freedom in authoritarian times.

[kojakdurham]

I worked for a large tech company a few years ago, supporting their storage appliance, which was built on FreeBSD. Because that's what I supported at work, I used GhostBSD as an OS on a laptop at home, and absolutely loved it. I wanted that educational reinforcement of the administrative aspects from work at home and vice-versa.

[Felix-vehs]

The one thing I like about GhostBSD the most is the ability to install it on an ZFS NVMe mirror, which makes the system incredibly responsive and effortless to back up via ZFS snapshots + ZFS send / receive. :D

[Graham_Rule]

That takes me back to some of my first experiences with BSD Unix. Typed in a program from a textbook showing how to read filenames from a directory. Very pleased to have it working. Came back after the weekend and there had been an upgrade that stopped it working. Directories no longer held fixed format records but had flexible length directory entries. Must have been early 1982. Nearly put me off unix for life. 😊I've just spun up a VM and am playing with BSD for the first time in ages.

[piizog]

I've been running FreeBSD as my main operating system on my ThinkPad for a number of years. The driver support can be hit-and-miss at times, which is what I suspect your issues were caused by, but if everything lines up, it is extremely nice. The CPU idles significantly lower than on Linux or Windows, making the system very responsive and extends the battery life 20-30% compared to the other OSs. Installing a desktop or a window manager is pretty simple with the Handbook if one is at all comfortable with the terminal. But the graphical distros do a huge favour to the community by simplifying the process.

[Cyco_Nix]

Great video. I love FreeBSD. I don't get to use it as a desktop as it is just not practical due to my work and the systems I use, so Linux is what I run. However, I keep a GhostBSD system at home for testing and side work. I love seeing it still growing and getting better. Awesome to see more people getting exposed to it.

[pnadk]

Really appreciate this video. I have tried to install one of the BSDs a few times but never succeeded. Now I have motivation to try again, probably with that Ghost version.

[michaelheimbrand]

Thank you for doing a FreeBSD video. The BSD's are very nice OS's. My main machines are old iMac's running OpenBSD and FreeBSD. And anyone considering themselves Linux enthusiasts should very quickly learn to install any of the "original" BSD's manually. I find installing a desktop system with FreeBSD much more easy than on systems like Arch Linux. And both OpenBSD and NetBSD comes pre-installed with a configured GUI. Again, thanks for including FreeBSD.

[t.v.]

FreeBSD is actually a good option for FOSS switchers out there. Also more competition in the desktop operating system area is certainly better for end users.
As always, thanks for the video Chris 😉👍!

[malek]

Oh wow helloSystem is truly gorgeous looking, with the window buttons moved it really looks like the golden era Mac OS X GUI.

[James-sije]

What timing! I was just looking into TrueNAS Core last night and was looking into what it was based off of

[Kw]

Thanks Chris for another alternative OS to run my computers on... and the puns...!
Have a great week!

[McTroyd]

As someone who's used FreeBSD on servers since version 4.7, I have no clue how RoboNuggie's channel has evaded my detection until now. Thanks for the recommend.

I did try to run vanilla BSD as a desktop once, using the Lumina desktop, but I ended up back in Debian/Ubuntu land. This was a while ago though (circa v9 or v10), so perhaps it's worth another look. Might stick with vanilla for software support reasons, but I'm also not exactly a novice user. 🤓👍