This blog by Vermaden is probably one of the most cited in the FreeBSD community when someone in a forum/subreddit asks why FreeBSD. I think it does a good job encapsulating the reasons one would choose FreeBSD over Linux or other OS’s.
I’ve become more partial to the *BSD’s in the past couple of years and respect what each one brings. I do daily drive Debian tho ;)
Is there a BSD (or a reasonably simple way to install a BSD) without any proprietary code (including drivers, microcode, etc.), like Debian?
I believe OpenBSD does not include any proprietary software in its repositories. Or at least, I know that it does not have any proprietary drivers or microcode.
Nice, thank you. I’ll have to take a look at OpenBSD
NetBSD and OpenBSD can also be completely compiled from source. The source for each of them is available to look at online.
OpenBSD is great; if you ever need help setting it up for desktop use let me know I’d be happy to help
Sounds like it would take a very long time, but it does sound interesting. I’ll keep that in mind when I decide to try it
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Nice. If I can’t get it working, I’ll pester you and @whoami with questions
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👌
it actually doesn’t take too long. OpenBSD’s install process is actually quick and really straightforward. Here are two resources that helped me:
https://www.c0ffee.net/blog/openbsd-on-a-laptop/
https://sohcahtoa.org.uk/openbsd.html
Also, OpenBSD’s man pages are updated with each new release, and the FAQ is a good thing to check out:
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/index.html
here is a discussion on Reddit about OpenBSD:
https://www.reddit.com/r/openbsd/comments/6qd3pf/openbsd_proprietary_components/
Edti: you’re original question is basically asking if one of the BSD’s has something like a linux-libre kernel correct?
I believe OpenBSD won’t ship any binary blobs for things like wifi cards, for example. the microcode is something I would have to look up. Each one should function the way Debian does in terms of how it works out of the box. But getting certain hardware to work might require binary blobs, which I think is true in Linux, with things like NVIDIA cards.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OpenBSD-Sucks-Presentation
https://www.openbsd.org/policy.html
If I understand correctly, the core of each BSD is free software (code you can see and modify), but to make things like certain wifi cards or GPU’s work you may have to use proprietary code. For example, NVIDIA releases drivers for FreeBSD, but I would imagine those are similar to what you get in linux—binary blobs.
EDIT: I was going through a NetBSD mailing list, and it looks like they do ship some proprietary code, but that discussion was more than a decade old, so I don’t know for sure.
Yes. I wouldn’t use it for anything where I’d need proprietary GPU drivers, but I do typically have to install proprietary Wi-Fi drivers on Linux. The important thing for me is that I can’t accidentally install anything that isn’t fully open-source unless I explicitly decide to (like adding “non-free” repositories in Debian)
If you have an NVidia card then you may want to look at NetBSD. They use a nouveau port from Linux.
Thanks. Luckily, I don’t think I’ve ever had an Nvidia card
https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/850-do-freenetopen-ship-with-any-proprietary-code-out-of-the-box
or tell me more about your hardware and maybe I can help more if I know specifically what you have. OpenBSD will often work with manufacturers to get them to