Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 07:43:59 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: David Gruhk <suvzer@gmx.com> Cc: SOUL_OF_ROOT 55 <soulofroot55@gmail.com>, "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Can I use FreeBSD as a desktop system? Message-ID: <20170720074359.cf3edf1c.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20170720044136.GA9146@localhost> References: <CAN7_dzeDRZvH_wqZFmq6vxC%2BAdxwc-inuV8BVVmevs0xVbTpag@mail.gmail.com> <20170720044136.GA9146@localhost>
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On Thu, 20 Jul 2017 06:41:36 +0200, David Gruhk wrote: > On 17.07.18Tue 23:32, SOUL_OF_ROOT 55 wrote: > > Can I use FreeBSD as a desktop system? > > > There are 2 problems with FreeBSD. > > > 1. We are without boot/mfsroot since FreeBSD 9, > so you can not start the installer from Grub. > This is problematic, if you can not use CD, FDD, PXE, USB booting. > You can start the NetBSD, OpenBSD and Linux installer from Grub. For a common desktop installation today, this shouldn't be a problem. Modern (and not-so-modern) desktop systems boot from USB and optical media just fine, so supplying the installer should be easy. > In this case you can use dd: > dd if=installed_in_other_PC of=not_boot_media_capable_PC > I am in this situation now, I hope the dd > or maybe dump-restore method will work!!! The recommended method for a system transfer is to initialize the disks as needed, then use dump | restore. But other methods also can work, but it depends on many factors. > 2. We have not LVM (deprecated, not recommended) with UFS, > only with ZFS, but ZFS has too big memory claim. > I don't dare use ZFS with 512MB-1GB (neither 4GB) RAM with a few > 100 GB HDD space. With UFS, you can use gstripe and gmirror for LVM; I don't know if "vinum" is still supported... > FreeBSD has a big advantage compared with NetBSD and OpenBSD: > 3 month long supporting binary packages, > where you get only security and bug fix (quarterly branch). FreeBSD is also a great "never touch a running system" kind of system. In case you don't want (or can't) update, things installed once usually keep running well for a very long time, as long as your requirements don't change. I still have systems running the old versions FreeBSD 4, 5, and 8, for internal purposes. :-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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