• theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    I like the idea of FreeBSD, but I can’t see the point of giving up on my Linux conveniences to switch over to it. What advantages does it provide, and are they worth the switch, considering I’m losing a lot of software, as well as any semblance of gaming?

    • Square Singer@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      The advantage is that you can rebrand it, close the source and sell it as your invention.

      Btw, did you know that Apple invented Unix?

      • MazonnaCara89@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Apple invented Unix?? What the hell are you talking about?

        Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna at Bell Labs developed and invented Unix.

    • duncesplayed@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      What advantages does it provide

      ZFS, mostly. There are some smaller peripheral things (like much better manpages), but these days the big one is probably ZFS. Zero licensing conflicts allows it to be an integral part of the kernel.

          • raptir@lemdro.id
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            1 year ago

            Linux is licensed under the GPL, which is described as “copyleft.” The GPL requires that if you want to use GPL code you need to license your modified code under the GPL.

            FreeBSD is licensed under the BSD license, which is a permissive license. Basically as long as you stick the license statement in your documentation you can do whatever you want with BSD-licensed code. This is why commercial uses (like the Wii’s OS) tend to be BSD-based rather than Linux-based.

      • theshatterstone54@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        like better manpages

        I want them now! I want the better manpages! Has someone decided to create inproved manpages for Linux? I think this could be a great idea for a project or an organisation. Manprove, the organisation to improve Unix manual pages.

        • dino@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          Isn’t this actually impossible because manpages are maintained by distros? And the benefit of freedbsd being everything is created by the same team? Aka FreeBSD being a complete distro and not just a kernel?

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      If you’re losing software and are no longer gaming, much of complicated driver compatibility issues from peripherals like GPUs won’t matter to you.

      FreeBSD is the *nix OS which is stable like Debian but doesn’t use Systemd like, similar to distributions like Gentoo/Antix/Slackware

      • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Systemd is not inherit to Linux. There are loads of distros out there that dont use it. I reluctantly use it but would still remain on Linux if I wanted to drop it

        • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Most linux distributions have adopted Systemd. My distaste grew as even Arch and Debian opted to use it. I do not like using it out of principle. Of course, I realise that there are distributions that do not use Systemd, but I have yet to come across a system meant for stability (similar to how Debian is perceived in the linux world but with Systemd) without Systemd. Slackware comes close, but having to use an unofficial package manager doesn’t seem great when things break.