# FreeBSD as desktop



## JazzSinatra (Sep 15, 2017)

I have used FreeBSD in my server about one year now. Couple of weeks ago I bought new hard drive to my desktop computer and installed Fedora Linux on it as a primary OS. Today I started to wonder, because I really like FreeBSD, should I switch Fedora to FreeBSD?

Software what I mainly use and what I do with my desktop computer:


Web browsing
Libre office
Steam (I like to game both on Windows 10 and Fedora)
LaTeX
Sometimes CAD softwares (although mostly in Windows 10, because of proprietary software)
Evolution
Clementine
Spotify
Programming
VLC
My hardware:

CPU Intel Xeon E3-1231v3 4x 3.40GHz

VGA 8192MB Gigabyte Radeon R9 390 G1 Gaming 

MB Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD5H Intel Z97

DDR3  16GB (2x 8192MB) HyperX FURY

3 Tb hard drive
2 Tb hard drive
I also have Windows 10 on SSD as secondary Os.

Would I lose anything if I would switch to FreeBSD from Fedora Linux?


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## aragats (Sep 15, 2017)

The only thing you may loose is the running CAD software, since the Linux compatibility layer doesn't always work for proprietary stuff.
The good thing is that you can run Windows in bhyve(8) in the base system, you don't need to install any extra software.
Regarding the _Programming_: it depends what you need, e.g. if you want to cross-compile Linux programs for, let's say, ARM, it, most likely, won't work.
But again, you can run a fully functional Linux in bhyve(8).

[EDIT] I don't know much about games...


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## tankist02 (Sep 15, 2017)

There are reports of VLC stumbling on some files, e.g. for me it did that on .mkv. Meanwhile mpv worked fine in FreeBSD.


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## JazzSinatra (Sep 15, 2017)

aragats said:


> The only thing you may loose is the running CAD software, since the Linux compatibility layer doesn't always work for proprietary stuff.
> The good thing is that you can run Windows in bhyve(8) in the base system, you don't need to install any extra software.
> Regarding the _Programming_: it depends what you need, e.g. if you want to cross-compile Linux programs for, let's say, ARM, it, most likely, won't work.
> But again, you can run a fully functional Linux in bhyve(8).
> ...


Excuse me. I was little bit inaccurate. Most CAD programs like SolidWorks are Windows only without realistic hope to work even with wine and there are not really good open source CAD software. Not even mediocre. I sometimes run FreeCAD for learning purpose, but it is really, really bad compared to proprietary.

I'm actually going to program something for ARM based embedded systems (nodemcu) so that could be a problem?


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## aragats (Sep 15, 2017)

JazzSinatra said:


> I'm actually going to program something for ARM based embedded systems (nodemcu) so that could be a problem?


Does it run an operating system? What toolchain do you use now in Linux?


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## JazzSinatra (Sep 15, 2017)

aragats said:


> Does it run an operating system? What toolchain do you use now in Linux?


It doesn't run an operating system. I haven't actually yet tried program it at home.


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## aragats (Sep 15, 2017)

I think all open-source compilers are available in FreeBSD, shouldn't be a problem.
Also, you can always install FreeBSD in VirtualBox to play with.


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## JazzSinatra (Sep 15, 2017)

aragats said:


> I think all open-source compilers are available in FreeBSD, shouldn't be a problem.
> Also, you can always install FreeBSD in VirtualBox to play with.


So, there isn't probably any problems if I switch from Fedora to FreeBSD. I have heard that there are some issues with AMD GPUs. Bad drivers? Is this true? Mine is Radeon R9 390. It's 2015 model.


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## aragats (Sep 15, 2017)

JazzSinatra said:


> So, there isn't probably any problems if I switch from Fedora to FreeBSD. I have heard that there are some issues with AMD GPUs. Bad drivers? Is this true? Mine is Radeon R9 390. It's 2015 model.


Yeah... that could be a problem. Officially Rx models are not even mentioned here.
Probably somebody on the forum can shed more light on this, I haven't dealt with AMD GPU for more that 10 years.


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## aimeec1995 (Sep 15, 2017)

I think your only issue is your radeon card and cad, as mentioned already in the thread. Radeon support is comically bad.
My intel HD 4000 something does better on freebsd than my radeon hd 5670, even for games.

but off topic: one thing you definitely need to do on your freebsd workstation is this ...


```
sysctl kern.sched.preempt_thresh=224
```


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