To the point, I currently run Arch (not btw), and am looking to migrate to BSD. I tried either Net or FreeBSD on my laptop (XPS 9750 I think it is) and it wouldn't boot after install. So I want to try on my mini PC first. But, I'm not sure which version of BSD to really go for.

General: * I'm a software dev * I do not use Docker/podman * I do all my work on a remote server, so I SSH to it and work, as I'm never sure when I'll be on the go and how sudden of a notice in doing so * No expectation of gaming on this, since I got a Steam Deck * I need multi-lingual typing (CJK [or at least Korean], English) * Want screen recording support (e.g., OBS) * I use Vivaldi, but I'm not a browser-loyalist

Likes about Linux: * Arch is minimal at base * Wireguard is a good VPN (also something I use daily for work) * I'm probably one of the few who likes systemd, but not loyal to it

Dislikes about Linux: * Heavier dependence and reliance on AI * Very political for something is just meant to get stuff done * I'm mostly looking to get away because of these points, as I want the OS devs to focus on the OS, not be in rage bait wars * Wayland was cool, but limited and wasn't improving things that have not worked for years, so reverted back to Xorg (Xlibre)

Hardware:

██████████████████ ████████ eric@geekmpc ██████████████████ ████████ ------------ ██████████████████ ████████ OS: Manjaro Linux x86_64 ██████████████████ ████████ Host: GT1 Mega ████████ ████████ Kernel: 6.12.104-1-MANJARO ████████ ████████ ████████ Uptime: 1 day, 4 hours, 25 mins ████████ ████████ ████████ Packages: 1712 (pacman), 7 (flatpak) ████████ ████████ ████████ Shell: fish 4.8.1 ████████ ████████ ████████ Resolution: 1920x1080 ████████ ████████ ████████ WM: i3 ████████ ████████ ████████ Theme: Breeze-Dark [GTK2], Breeze [GTK3] ████████ ████████ ████████ Icons: breeze [GTK2/3] ████████ ████████ ████████ Terminal: alacritty ████████ ████████ ████████ CPU: Intel Ultra 9 185H (22) @ 4.800GHz GPU: Intel Arc Graphics] Memory: 6214MiB / 31617MiB

Hey guys! Some time ago I published xhidecursor, a minimal (fr) X11 utility that efficiently (nocap) hides the cursor on key presses and shows it again on mouse movement. I wrote it because xbanish (a popular alternative) couldn’t satisfy my OCD for minimalism.

Some people complained that it wasn’t portable to FreeBSD and OpenBSD, so I finally did the work and made it happen. I’d be happy if some BSD users could try it out and report back whether it works or if there are still any issues.

Thank you!

A little background. I am a 20 year Linux user. I have installed probably every major Linux distribution, including Arch 10 years ago when it was an insanely difficult command line install. I now find myself having a lot of free time and some extra hard drive space (120 gb).

My needs are simple. I really don't play games other than Hearthstone and Project Diablo 2. Though I do like SimCity 4 occasionally. I'm retired and just do a lot of surfing and playing around.

Over time, trying every desktop, I have found that LXQt with Openbox is my favorite desktop. It does everything I need, low-end resources, and runs like the wind. I know how to configure it and I have created over 75 themes for it. Until recently I was the person behind SbK spins for Manjaro Linux. Sadly, age checking laws has destroyed that project.

The desktop is a deal breaker.

My hardware isn't cutting edge. This year I built a Ryzen 5 5600 system and it uses a ROG Strix B550 motherboard, 16g ram, and an RX 570 8 gig. It replaced an FX-6300 system that I used for 10 years, I still run it as a file server. Can I use NFS to access files on it?

I am also interested in backup. Experience has taught me that I'm going to break something in a OS that's new to me. Right now in Linux I use TimeShift. Is it available or an equivalent?

Honestly, I don't think I'm going to run into many problems, but I'm just doing due diligence to make sure I'm not going to. Google searches have brought up nothing so I am asking users who know the OS. Configuration problems are not a big issue as long as I know what to look for and I'm aware of it beforehand.

Edit 08/29/2026 : Thanks to everyone who posted. While I went into this hoping that everything would work out, I ran into a panic that stops me from launching the installer. I have checked the hash so the image is good. It looks like something to do with my USB. So this project got put on the shelf.

I might give GhostBSD a try. Would somebody recommend software to control the GPU fan?

Compartmentalization without virtualization. Just Unix, done right — on the BSD family. ~2,500 lines of ksh + 9 lines of C — small enough to audit in an afternoon.

… Take the core insight of Qubes OS — security through compartmentalization — and strip away the hypervisor. dropQbsd uses native BSD user separation instead of heavy virtualization. Born on OpenBSD, now targeting the BSD family. …

Via https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@nicolabaudo/117155630627859425

https://nicolabaudo.fr/

Philosophe de formation, passionné d’informatique libre, j’ai passé ma vie à croiser éthique et technique. Dans le secteur social comme dans l’édition, j’aime bâtir des outils simples, transparents et respectueux des personnes. En tant que Délégué à la Protection des Données, j’explore les liens entre pensée, responsabilité et technologie. Et quand je quitte l’écran, c’est souvent pour ramer… à la vénitienne.

Good day to all.

Ive been rooting around with different OS's as of late and recently been trying freeBSD on my laptop, it's a dell inspiron with 4gb of ddr3l sodimm ram and a pentium haswell processor, but it seems to not be able to find my track pad or let it work. I've been able to get a desktop environment working with xorg just to make sure it can handle the OS before trying to create my own desktop environment for a learning experience. I'm coming from linux OS's but I still can't figure out my trackpad situation but the mouse only works when its an actual plugged in mouse but I dont want to be walking around with both a laptop and mouse all the time, so if anyone has any tips or can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

Edit: grammatical errors and punctuation... I was just getting the thought out of my head before I even realized my mistakes or forgot to ask.

Edit2: thanks for everyone's help on this but as of now I need to pull the breaks as I am selling my laptop to help me get my car on the road but I will be try freeBSD again in the future as it seems like a very interesting OS as i love challenges

Venerable Unix-like remains reassuringly old-school, if you're willing to put in the work

<- by me on The Register

does anyone have any of the old OpenBSD CD installers or music CDs and willing to sell

How can I sandbox multiple GUI applications transparently to the user, so Firefox cannot read my SSH keys or any other directory? Or image viewer only read files in Pictures

I'm in the process of making a game with my dad and tried to add native FreeBSD support. It was not easy, and I struggled a lot, but I think it worked out great. The game is in super early access, so it's not going to be looking like this in the final version. Please have a look:

https://zeynelgun.itch.io/sarraf