Sam 
Woke up this morning #BSD curious. For all the users out there, is there a reason for someone running Linux desktop to consider running #BSDDesktop (of any kind or flavor), or is it more useful to have as a tool for servers? My only previous experience with BSD is brief dalliances with TrueNAS.
royal@spaceraser @RL_Dane, didn't you mess around with a bsd desktop?
R. L. Dane 
Ok, this is a straight-up novel / brain dump. XD
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Aye!
First of all, if you're thinking of messing around with BSD on a laptop... eh, good luck. Things like suspend and hardware compatibility on BSD is more like Linux in the "good old days."
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#OpenBSD will probably give you the best hardware compatibility, in my experience, but possibly the worst performance, because of the very heavy security mitigations (hey, there's a reason they're there. I'm not knocking it, but I *am* realistic/pragmatic about it).
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#FreeBSD is the most Linux like, and even has partial Linux binary compatibility. #OpenBSD is more security-focused, is a smaller and more focused (there's that word again) team, priorities-wise. #NetBSD probably has the strongest ties to the BSD of old, and has the least surprises for a BSD veteran. But I spent very little time on Net, so I can't say much about it.
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Whats the main pitch for BSD?
IT
IS
Unix,
period.
Not a bizarre-but-lovable-and-extremely-useful hodgepodge of unixynness, windowsiness, and maciness. (I'm talking about Linux -- and *not* hating. I'm typing on a Linux box now)
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With #BSD, there's no silly info pages or html help (at least as a primary source of documentation). There's just REALLY good manpages, especially on OpenBSD. FreeBSD comes with (or it might be an optional install) their excellent handbook as a PDF you can peruse at your leisure. Again, NetBSD I have the least knowledge of.
My experience with the big three #BSDs:
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#OpenBSD - This is an OPERATING SYSTEM, not a distro. Very nicely organized. It's created by people who love unix, and is not beholden to any corporate sugar daddies (although they *do* work with them and give their code away freely). I had horrible performance on my Core 2 Duo, sadly. BUT it dealt with S3 suspend on my laptop flawlessly.
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The installer is just a script, but it's relatively straightforward, and there's a very good install walkthrough video series on YT and #PeerTube by "Charlie Root" a.k.a. "Root BSD". Do beware, though -- he's a neat guy, but a bit of a sh*tposter and patterns himself a bit on Luke Smith, which is a rather interesting character.
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Also check out The OpenBSD Guy on youtube. Very nice guy from what I can tell from his videos, and he's got that great Persian accent, kinda like ElectroBOOM. ;)
One more thing about the OpenBSD devs... they "dog food" their stuff. I don't think you'll *EVER* see an OpenBSD presenter making a presentation on a macbook or windowze machine.
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#NetBSD - This felt like #OpenBSD minus the super aggressive security mitigations (Open is a fork of Net). It could not S3 suspend at all, so I didn't spend much time on it. I don't remember the installation process, but since I don't remember struggling with it or having to go through a video walkthrough, it must have been easy enough. ;)
One of the main (I think) NetBSD devs has a presence on the #Fediverse, and is very helpful.
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𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚜@RL_Dane @royal @spaceraser what lead to you to think NetBSD lacks exploit mitigations ? My, my...
https://man.netbsd.org/security.7
http://www.netbsd.org/support/security/
https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/the_strongest_kaslr_ever
https://man.netbsd.org/security.7
http://www.netbsd.org/support/security/
https://blog.netbsd.org/tnf/entry/the_strongest_kaslr_ever
Ok, sorry, didn't mean it as a dig against #NetBSD! XD
I was mainly comparing the performance, which I surmised was due to OpenBSD's mitigations.
I'm glad NetBSD has a good emphasis on security as well, and I look forward to trying it again. :)
P.S. I love it when FOSS folks jump up to defend their beloved projects (with facts and mostly good attitudes, heh). It's such a good thing to see, and I always enjoy the interactions.
@RL_Dane @royal @spaceraser I wouldn't bet on poor performance on OpenBSD being due to mitigations (but maybe SMT off by default?). Many OSs apply the same kind of mitigations.
What impacts OpenBSD performance is a coarse-grained lock in large chunks of the kernel (this is being improved over the years). Then you also have TCP/IP stack and i/o throughput where they don't shine. The project has always prioritized other things, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time.
What impacts OpenBSD performance is a coarse-grained lock in large chunks of the kernel (this is being improved over the years). Then you also have TCP/IP stack and i/o throughput where they don't shine. The project has always prioritized other things, which is a blessing and a curse at the same time.
@RL_Dane @royal @spaceraser
That said, it's not like NetBSD performance is *that* better (maybe somewhere in between OpenBSD and FreeBSD) . The only BSD which can almost keep up with Linux in this field is FreeBSD. System performance is a complex matter, requires a lot of work, so never take it for granted: https://www.brendangregg.com/linuxperf.html
That said, it's not like NetBSD performance is *that* better (maybe somewhere in between OpenBSD and FreeBSD) . The only BSD which can almost keep up with Linux in this field is FreeBSD. System performance is a complex matter, requires a lot of work, so never take it for granted: https://www.brendangregg.com/linuxperf.html
I wish I had spent more time in NetBSD, but it didn't seem to have the same problem as OpenBSD on that hardware.