Post by @greylinux

Genuine question - for desktop use, how far off is NetBSD from FreeBSD?

I've just bought a second hand laptop to have as a permanent BSD machine. I've played with both OS's before on other laptops and Raspberry Pi's but from my limited testing , NetBSD is more at home as a server OS, albeit still behind FreeBSD, but a solid option all the same.

I will test both OS's on it and I know NetBSD has seen a jolt in interest lately, due to its anti AI stance, but ultimately, I will probably stick with FreeBSD ,until NetBSD can offer the same experience. I may stay with FreeBSD permanently, if they decide to take a firm stance and not strandle the fence with AI.

Again all this based from my limited testing and experience and a large amount of fediverse posts on the subject.

Any advice from the BSD crowd.

(I know this seems hypocritical about AI, especially as I rely heavily still on cachyOS for a gaming PC and Alpine Linux for my servers but I really hope the future is bright for BSD's and a complete move of everything, eventually may be an option )

#netbsd
#freebsd
#unix

@greylinux Reply guy here, I think the desktop is more about the combination of hardware and feature needs/hopes than the specific OS, but there is overlap. E.g. drivers for your specific built-in hardware, need to mount random filesystems (and which ones), interaction with others (DRM support, work stuff, proprietary or less-portable software). If your needs and desires are low, just about any OS works. If your needs or desires are specific, sometimes that forces you down a specific path. I would like to prune my desires to fit within the NetBSD fold, but I'm not sure if I'll be successful. Work in progress, but I see hope in others. https://social.chinwag.org/@mike/117258195795362309

@knapjack@vivaldi.net @knapjack@vivaldi.net
I couldn't agree more and you may be right. I do most of my work on the gaming PC as it has a bigger screen. I've specifically chosen this old laptop for capatibilty with both FreeBSD and NetBSD, to give the best out of the box experience , on paper everything should work except Bluetooth.
On a laptop I tend to do basic level administration for my server remotely and web browsing when away from home. Both really are low level needs , but I do like the niceties. A nice desktop environment like xfce or plasma has always been my go to and I know plasma doesn't work well on NetBSD for example. These are the things I mean, when comparing one to the other for desktop usage , but I agree it is a very personal metric and is hard to honestly give a exact answer. Hopefully though an insight from others with more experience in both, may be enough to aid my decision and change my opinion about where each OS "is" for general use.