# What is the best derivative compatible with FreeBSD?



## nix1 (Oct 14, 2019)

Hello to all,
do you help me identify among the many, a derivative of FreeBSD that is compatible with pkg and ports and you don't risk dying like so many born and never developed?

Thanks


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## SirDice (Oct 14, 2019)

If you want the best compatibility, use FreeBSD itself. That's the only one that's actually supported here.


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## sidetone (Oct 14, 2019)

DragonFly was, IDK if it still is, it probably is less so now compatible with ports, but I don't know if it's better. I would rather stay with this one.


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## LakeCowabunga (Oct 14, 2019)

Yeah, thankfully I've learned enough about FreeBSD that I can do what I want with it, now.  I'm disappointed with GhostBSD and Trident.


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## shkhln (Oct 14, 2019)

LakeCowabunga said:


> I'm disappointed with GhostBSD and Trident.



We are all disappointed with TrueOS/Trident. PC-BSD was in a relatively good position to be a coordination point for desktop related things and then they decided to get weird.


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## drobison (Oct 15, 2019)

shkhln said:


> We are all disappointed with TrueOS/Trident. PC-BSD was in a relatively good position to be a coordination point for desktop related things and then they decided to get weird.



Agreed. Makes no sense to me, they basically abandoned their user base on a whim.


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## Alain De Vos (Oct 15, 2019)

I tried dragonfly but a multiboot on one drive is painfull. What became weird with PC-BSD ?


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 15, 2019)

DragonflyBSD is not exactly a derivative but a fork made long time ago. Then, unless you are looking for specialized stuff like FreeNAS, I do suppose GhostBSD is the only active FreeBSD derivative around.


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## Alain De Vos (Oct 15, 2019)

If I'm correct, Ghostbsd and void linux have some things in common. Like runit and libressl.


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## gpw928 (Oct 16, 2019)

HardenedBSD looks like an active fork to me.


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## drhowarddrfine (Oct 16, 2019)

Like almost all Linux users, one should not spend so much time trying to find the perfect OS and, instead, just learn the one they have and learn how to adjust it to their pleasure. There will be far more satisfaction along with a higher degree of how it works.


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## userxbw (Oct 16, 2019)

Not this on, even I a Linux first user, after seeing that most of the distros re just copies of an original, which there really isn't many. Slackware, RedHat, Debian, Arch,  to name a few of the forerunners, the rest are just derivatives of them. Nothing much better, just someones idea of another spin on them making a default desktop, but the guts are still the same.

Therefore one is not getting a 'better' distro by installing LinuxMint, (though that is  a nicer Linux then Ubunutu saturated distro MO).

I just got for the orginal then modify it to my liking.

Same for FreeBSD, every *BSD I seen out there branches off from FreeBSD, so why not just use FreeBSD and modify it to your own liking?

It's a pretty much from scratch OS being no desktop GUI Xorg, OS. just a barebones Server setup install.  Everyone else is trying on there own to come up with something different because of there own personal reasons, look up the history on it.

anyways as with most others in here, Might as well just use FreeBSD because all of or most all of the others pull from it anyways and some are not even being maintained anymore, or if they are not as often perhaps due to lack of people working on it to do so.
te

Just get a scripting language under your belt and the basic commands on now to run and maintain the system you're pretty much good to go, anything else... well that is what the forums are for.

It is all open source so it can be changed if you do not like what you're seeing or dealing with.


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 16, 2019)

userxbw said:


> Slackware, RedHat, Debian, Arch, to name a few of the forerunners, the rest are just derivatives of them.



Err, Arch is a derivative/copy of Slackware.


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## shkhln (Oct 16, 2019)

It would probably be more fair to count "base" Linux distributions by package managers and build systems.


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 16, 2019)

shkhln said:


> It would probably be more fair to count "base" Linux distributions by package managers and build systems.



Sabayon is Gentoo with a different package manager but same build system.


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## userxbw (Oct 16, 2019)

rigoletto@ said:


> Err, Arch is a derivative/copy of Slackware.


it is? I did not know that. 
the way it is setup I cannot even install it, I do not have a dedicated line, and the last time I looked its install process is too complected for me to deal with. even the video's I've watch on how to install the person has two systems one working to read the instructions on how to and the other to install it on.

In todays world they came up with an installer to rid themselves of such a method Arch uses to install its system.

I've used manjaro, and Artix Linux though...


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 16, 2019)

Arch Linux just got Slackware and put some user friendly tooling (like pacman, Slackware don't have/had automated package management by default) and hype on top of it. The design and the way you manage the system etc. are basically the same (except by the Arch specific tooling).

The Arch and Slackware installation is/was basically the same too, not automated.


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## shkhln (Oct 16, 2019)

I don't think Arch Linux was derived from Slackware, although their initial BSD-styled init might have been.


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 16, 2019)

In the beginning there were near no difference between Arch and Slack but pacman and related stuff.

[EDIT]

And IIRC Slack use /usr/local while Arch not.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 16, 2019)

nix1 said:


> ...and you don't risk dying like so many born and never developed?



I can't remember the last time we sacrificed a virgin to Evil Incarnate, but Halloween is coming up. 

That said, you stand less chance of a user fatal error if you stick with FreeBSD proper.


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## xtremae (Oct 16, 2019)

I think Arch Linux was inspired by CRUX but I may be wrong.


> CRUX is a lightweight distribution that focuses on the KISS principle. CRUX inspired Judd Vinet to create Arch.


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 16, 2019)

xtremae said:


> I think Arch Linux was inspired by CRUX but I may be wrong.



This is moot because both distributions appeared more or less at the same time, and in fact Wikipedia tells Arch Linux is a few months older...


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## Crivens (Oct 16, 2019)

Is it me or does that linux distro family tree look like it comes from some rural redneck place?


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## rigoletto@ (Oct 16, 2019)

Crivens said:


> Is it me or does that linux distro family tree look like it comes from some rural redneck place?


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## jardows (Oct 16, 2019)

Quite frankly, FreeBSD (at least since 11.0) has been quite easy for me to get up and running for basic usage, either server side or desktop side.  You can make it complicated, if you want a fully customized system, but I find with `pkg install` I can have a fully operational FreeBSD desktop system going in no time.  Sure, I've done several installs in a VM, learned a bunch along the way, and continue to learn more and find configurations or utilities that make it easier to use, but at this point I think (as long as you have compatible hardware) FreeBSD is as simple to setup as anything.  Now, if you are looking for some special appliance-like derivatives, like pfsense or FreeNAS, that's a different story.


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## Minbari (Oct 16, 2019)

Offtopic:


rigoletto@ said:


> This is moot because both distributions appeared more or less at the same time, and in fact Wikipedia tells Arch Linux is a few months older...


The inspiration source for Arch Linux was CRUX and PLD (Polish Linux Distribution) not Slackware.
On topic:


> What is the best derivative compatible with FreeBSD?


The simplest answer is: FreeBSD.


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## Beastie7 (Oct 16, 2019)

Crivens said:


> Is it me or does that linux distro family tree look like it comes from some rural redneck place?



 That's great. hahahah


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## neel (Oct 17, 2019)

A lot of FreeBSD-based OSes variants die out because it's easy to customize FreeBSD itself, and on the desktop, because hardware support is behind Windows and Linux and people want something that "just works".

People who want an easy to use Unix desktop just go for something like Ubuntu/Mint/Elementary or macOS. They don't want to struggle with bad hardware support on their random consumer-level laptop or be told to buy a refurbished ThinkPad to have good support when they already have a laptop which works well with Linux.

I have struggled with FreeBSD on a Dell Inspiron N5010 and a 2018 HP Spectre x360, of the latter which I'm using right now to type this message. I have to use CURRENT with special patches on the Spectre and a WIP HID-over-I2C module to have a working setup, and I even had to write kernel code (that has been committed). And on top of this, I have to put up with stability issues. At least my name is in the commit logs now, I always wanted this.

But I'm really an exception: I have to use FreeBSD even if support is mediocre (using Docker on Ubuntu LTS is more painful, and that's for college credit). However, I'm the exception, most people won't be willing to do this, especially beginners, but even many "experienced" users. They want something which works. Heck, there's a reason why Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu are popular: they are easy to use and generally work well.

There's no good reason to use TrueOS over FreeBSD since TrueOS refocused. You might very well just run CURRENT. It's not like Ubuntu or Devuan where there is a great reason to use a fork over raw Debian, it's like how Scientific Linux or Oracle Linux aren't much different from RHEL or CentOS.

The FreeBSD-based OSes who are strong are the ones who serve a specific purpose, like pfSense or FreeNAS, and aren't desktop-focused where you only need to support already well-supported hardware NICs and RAID controllers which have corporate funding, not GPUs, Wi-Fi, HD Audio, and I2C touchpad which is done on 100% volunteer time.


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## Beastie7 (Oct 17, 2019)

You can't have a desktop system that 'just works' when the developers are too reluctant to ship xorg (at the minimum) by default..


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