# New User to FreeBSD : some questions about future design decisions



## rusk (Nov 27, 2019)

Hey everyone! First of all thanks for creating such a great operating system. I've used arch, debian, termux on android, and mint in the past and so far this is my favorite. Despite this, after about a month of use, I think I'm going to have to move to another system. 
My system is a virtualization on extremely limited hardware, so I chose a pre-compiled binary and install all of my packages as preinstalled binaries as well. I was looking foward to using FreeBSD to run some tor relays, hidden services, weather stations / mesh networks, and a clearnet web server, as I've heard that FreeBSD is probably the best for servers. There are some breaking limitations to running precompiled binaries that seem to be by design, or design flaws, that require me to recompile kernel or compile a modified version of the program.  I can't say that I will have to leave forever, but with my current setup and some limitations to the system I can't continue working effectively with FreeBSD, despite how well it seems to run.

For security and performance reasons I don't use X. Modifications to the terminal's resolution and output colors requires a recompile.  I use FFMPEG on the regular, and expect to provide a service to my friends and clients for downloading and processing a/v material without having to worry about malware, for things involving language learning and documentary filmmaking.

The LameMP3 module is not included in the binary install and there is no way to include it without a recompile. Which I won't do because my system is set up for running with binaries, and mixing them causes problems. Due to time and resource limitations I can't compile every single program that I want to run on my system-- at least for now. I read in the forum that it was not included for fears of legal repercussions. Is this a real thing? That sounds like a bogus reason, since every single binary of ffmpeg that i've encountered on other systems puts this in by default. MP3 is still the best option for audio over the web and for people in third world countries with severe bandwidth and storage limitations.
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TLDR: Any news on when these two things will change: Terminal aesthetic modifications without recompile; LameMp3 support on pre-compiled ffmpeg binaries?*


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## SirDice (Nov 28, 2019)

rusk said:


> Modifications to the terminal's resolution and output colors requires a recompile.


No, it doesn't. Read vt(4). Some changes (attributes) do require it and that's not going to change. 



rusk said:


> I read in the forum that it was not included for fears of legal repercussions. Is this a real thing?


Yes, yes it is. Most of the time we err on the safe side.


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