By: Werner Fouché
I'm using GhostBSD and found it to be good desktop OS - https://ghostbsd.org/
By: tux2bsd
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139562/why-i-run-a-bsd-on-a-pc/#comment-10439336">Morgan</a>.
Gross. Luckily WindowMaker just a pkg_add away.
By: Morgan
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139562/why-i-run-a-bsd-on-a-pc/#comment-10439342">darkhog</a>.
In the words of the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi: "That's...why I'm here."
By: darkhog
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139562/why-i-run-a-bsd-on-a-pc/#comment-10439336">Morgan</a>.
Neither of which is GNOME or KDE.
By: Morgan
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/139562/why-i-run-a-bsd-on-a-pc/#comment-10439321">Marshal Jim Raynor</a>.
[q]Maybe if you`re doing nothing[/q]
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/example1.html
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/example1.html#pf
https://www.openbsdhandbook.com/services/webserver/basic_webserver/
https://paedubucher.ch/articles/basic-printing-on-openbsd/
Router, firewall, web server, printing documents...all without a single "pkg_add". That's an awful lot of "nothing". That's just the use cases I know off the top of my head, there's more to a base install than you seem to realize.
[q]but when you install GUI[/q]
No need to install a GUI when two window managers come installed by default:
https://man.openbsd.org/man1/cwm.1
https://man.openbsd.org/man1/fvwm.1
By: Marshal Jim Raynor
"Each BSD on the other hand is designed as single system. All components are created and developed together. "
Maybe if you`re doing nothing, but when you install GUI or just other apps than default install, then it`s the same mix as Linux distros.
" Everyone can take the kernel, start adding components on top of it, and a few minutes later the DistroWatch is even harder to keep up with"
The same can be done with *BSD, just there is not so much interest in forking it, so Distrowatch don`t post them so much
By: Morgan
Thom, I'm glad to hear you're doing well with your exploration of OpenBSD, and I'm happy to have helped you get started with it.
I suffer the same little "paper cuts" you do with using it as a desktop OS, which is why I eventually switched back to Void Linux on my main workstation. With that said, I find it to be the perfect fit for older hardware that I'm not in front of for hours at a time (I have it set up on an old laptop as a mobile workstation in my office at work; perks of being the sysadmin!) and of course it makes for an excellent server and network appliance OS. As I mentioned in my guide, I used it for over a year as my main workstation at home and apart from the same struggles with Firefox and unveil, it was perfect for my needs. I learned most of what is in my guide while doing so, and I'm going to give it another go soon with a focus on tackling the unveil issue as my security needs don't require it.
I'm excited to hear more about your adventures with it!
By: cpcf
In the past there were some scientific research projects that I worked on that required a BSD, so I've used it a bit and largely agree with the comments.
Historically I've found FreeBSD to offer better hardware support than OpenBSD or NetBSD, but my hardcore BSD colleagues tend to use NetBSD I suppose due to Unix heritage stuff.