Hi everyone !
I am using Ubuntu for more than a year and also using Linux mint and Bodhi in live medium for some time.A good friend of mine advised me to get acquainted with BSD.So I am thinking to use and learn BSD OS. But the problem is I don't know which one to chose.There is Free BSD,Open BSD,Net BSD,Midnight BSD,Dragonfly BSD and Ghost BSD to chose from.
So, guys please tell me which one will suit me best.I will be using it for learning the OS and some programming and also some general stuff. I want to dualboot it with windows 8 in a 64 bit HP laptop having 3red gen i5 processor,1GB AMD radeon graphics and 4 GB ram .Is it possible to dual boot BSD along with windows, if yes then how do I do it ?

FreeBSD.

https://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major

Scroll down to the section on FreeBSD.


There is also PC-BSD, which is FreeBSD with a pre-configured GUI.

https://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=pcbsd

1 members found this post helpful.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/ubuntubsd/ gets no love.
If you like or need Skype. BSDs are out, I think

UbuntuBSD is GNU + the FreeBSD kernel, it's more like GNU/Linux than like BSD. It's called GNU/kFreeBSD for that reason. It's good on servers, and it's got no systemd. It's interesting and I hope the project goes well.

But that aside, the there is a compatibility layer in FreeBSD that might allow you to inject security holes like Skype. Jitsi and some others probably run well.

PC-BSD might be the way to go if you want a gentle introduction to the desktop. If you want a really good learning experience, especially with C, then OpenBSD is the way to go. It is the most organized inside and out. However, it is more oriented to self-sufficient activity, especially C programmers that want to hack on their own systems. On hardware it works on, it works very well. But on other hardware, not so much. If you are looking for more of a generic community like with the GNU/Linuxes, then PC-BSD (aka FreeBSD) is more the way to go. But even with PC-BSD (FreeBSD) you will have less hardware options than with GNU/Linux.

Yes, I agree. I ran FreeBSD on a laptop for a few years, and it served me well. It's a good intro to BSD, and "encourages" (forces) you to learn how to set it up and maintain it. Their handbook is excellent reading, and truly is one of the best introductions to UNIX available.

2 members found this post helpful.

When you are trying out stuff, I suggest that you try all of the BSD's. You can easily run a virtual machine (most likely) to run them for testing.

Some distro's let you install the BSD kernel too like I think Debian has a spin.

I would also recommend starting with FreeBSD. The FreeBSD handbook is one of the best pieces of documentation I've seen. PCBSD, which is FreeBSD respun for desktop use, would be a good second choice (when you run the PCBSD update routine, it checks the Free BSD mirrors for updates).

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi.

If you want a DE (desktop) off the bat try PCBSD but then check the others as we actually can! http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/which-desktop-operating-system-do-you-consider-your-primary-4175581113/page19.html#post5561552

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compar...rating_systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._distributions

My next would be FreeBSD, base, like Debian(\netinst)... If I had room I'd do a Slackware it's been awhile(; other than my Pi or Slax).

Have fun!

I like FreeBSD. Unfortunately it never really runs on my hardware. Even with the CURRENT branch.

I like that you can build/install everything from source, but it's easier than Gentoo.

FreeBSD is my favorite among all those options. There's a bit of a learning curve for Linux users, but it's not really all that bad. Hope you'll enjoy running BSD.

Start with pc-bsd , then after you get comfortable you can switch to freebsd. Just check your hardware compatibility before installing .

1 members found this post helpful.

Can find somethings inresting here: http://www.livebsd.com/ know I do.

Free/PC-BSD is a good place to start into the BSDs. FreeBSD has a good deal of support for hardware. It also has ZFS support, has great support from Nvidia, and has a lot of compatibility layers with Linux based apps.

I will warn you BSD is NOT like Linux based systems in various ways, so read the handbook BEFORE you install thoroughly. A lot of stuff will work the same, and equally, a lot will not.

I will suggest you dual boot or virtualize a BSD system to try it out first.

Just do PC-BSD if you want to learn UNIX. It has all the GUI desktops all of us Linux people know and love. (KDE xfce Cinnamon LXDE MaTE etc etc)

Underneath that, the CLI is 100% intact and complete. If you want to learn the command line, there is no need to sacrifice the GUI. Even an older 32 bit machine with just 1 or 2 gigs of RAM and a single core CPU will run just fine. Overall, PC-BSD seems to be just a bit slower than Mint. The hardware list is probably less so test all your accessories and hardware before committing.

There will come a time when you just want to watch a movie or go to Amazon. You'll be happy to have the GUI. Best of all, all the codecs work & I have yet to find one that is missing. Deciding between Mint and PC-BSD is always a tough decision!!

There's nothing not to like. There is a stripped down server only option available which is basically just the BASH shell and nothing else. Even if I was doing a small server, I see no need for it.

From my understanding, OpenBSD is one of the most secure operating systems there is. Good for server stuff, I hear.