Weirdly enough, it works with the useragent set to FreeBSD (which, on my FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE box, it is by default.) I'm used to websites working oddly with that useragent; this is the first time I've encountered the FreeBSD useragent being an improvement over a Linux one.
Not really sure what you're talking about.
I haven't upgraded to 12-RELEASE, but I'm on 11.3-RELEASE. I have LibreOffice 6.0.7... the stable release. I have Firefox 63, just because I haven't updated in two weeks (I like to compile all my stuff with poudriere) and once my upgrade run is done this weekend I'll be caught up.
True, there isn't a Dropbox client. Sorry that's a showstopper for you.
Otherwise, I've found that oftentimes new versions of stuff will hit the ports collection before the distros update their repositories...
That's not entirely true, if you're in an urban environment in Canada.
The CRTC has mandated wholesale access to cable & telephone infrastructure. That's led to competition from folks like TekSaavy and Primus. Myself, I'm on National Capital Freenet (NCF) in Ottawa, and they've been fantastic. I have a 15 down/10 up unlimited bandwidth dry-loop service with a static IPv4 IP for $50.95 a month (plus tax.)
Now, in rural Canada, much different story. You're lucky if you can get DSL or cable internet at all. Lots of folks are stuck with satellite or terrestrial internet (ie microwave or long distance wi-fi links).My folks are on a pretty lousy 6 down/1 up with Bell Aliant and it's still the best deal available there.
Isn't running a tcp connection over another tcp connection kinda painful, performance-wise?
I don't run a VPN at home (don't have a reason to, personally) but I do maintain an OpenVPN server on my home FreeBSD desktop. Comes in quite handy, and learning how to configure it has been a lot of fun. I mostly use it to secure my tablet when I'm using open wi-fi somewhere. Sure, it doubles the bandwidth going through my home connection but hey, I'm lucky enough to have an unlimited bandwidth account, so why not?
I'm really quite surprised that FreeBSD didn't run on your old amd64 desktop. I started running FreeBSD back around 2003 and I've never yet had it fail to boot on the several, bog-standard amd64 systems I've had in that time. Weird.
I currently have FreeBSD running on three different systems: a Dell Precision Tower 3620, an old Eurocom laptop and my homebrew box, which has an AMD Fx-6300 running on an ASUS motherboard with a Nvidia GT-730 graphics card. The only one that gave me any trouble is the Eurocom... for whatever reason if it loads the DRI and DRI2 kernel modules it kernel panics. I just force it to only load the DRI2 module and everything's fine. The two desktops worked flawlessly out of the box. (I use KDE for my desktop. KF5 support on FreeBSD is in a really good place these days.)
My FreeBSD hard drive died on me a couple of month ago, and I haven't been able to replace it yet. I really need to get to that though, because being on Linux for my primary desktop at home has been annoying the h*** out of me. FreeBSD is what I'm used to, it's what I prefer, and I really, really want to get back to it soon.
On average, 3-4 books a month. Sometimes a lot more, sometimes a little less. I also read a lot of comics off of Marvel Unlimited and I'm currently using a 3-month free Texture account (thanks Rogers!) to read a bunch of magazines.
You're correct that FreeBSD doesn't have a Dropbox client.
You are incorrect about LibreOffice. I'm currently running LibreOffice 5.3.4, the "enterprise" release.
I've been running FreeBSD as my desktop for over a decade. I've yet to find anything that I really needed that wasn't available for it.
The "ever moving target" can definitely be an issue. I'm not a Linux guy primarily (although I do run OpenSuSE and Steam-OS at home.) I'm mostly a FreeBSD guy (currently 11.0-RELEASE). I like the balance FreeBSD has struck. The base system is quite stable and is supported for long stretches of time. The ports system, on the other hand, is continually updated with the latest & greatest. Works for me.
My favourite subscription has got to be Marvel Unlimited. Well worth the price per year. I also like my subscriptions to Netflix and Roll20. The only other subscription I have is to The Mary Sue, but that's more to help keep the site going than for any particular benefit I get from subscribing.
I have to agree. I went with an AMD FX-6300 for my last computer. Definitely saved money, and I have no qualms about the performance. Does a fantastic job (coupled with 8gig of RAM) at compiling LibreOffice, for example...
I don't need to buy it from Amazon. I don't need to buy it at all. In Canada, all of Orwell's stuff has been in the public domain since January 1st 2001.
While as a Blackberry fan I'm always sorry to see a company cease BB support, this won't matter too much. The Amazon app store carries WhatsApp, and BB10 devices can install Android apps through the Amazon store as easily as native apps.
Well, this is disappointing. My mom & dad are on an antique Dell with a 32-bit processor. First OpenSUSE announced they were abandoning 32-bit, and I thought "OK, I'll install Lubuntu or Xubuntu or something." Now Google does this. I had them on Chrome because of the baked in Flash support. I suppose I could get away with Chromium... I think the only site my folks ever visit with video is Youtube. Still, just one more annoying thing.
Don't get me wrong... Agency has downsides. Lots of them. It's tremendously annoying that there are no sales on Agency books. Kobo (my preferred store) gives out lots of discount codes, but they're of limited use because they don't apply to Agency books. And those publishers that choose to price their ebooks above the paperback price are extremely frustrating (although a few of them seem to be getting a clue. Tor, for example, prices Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books at a decent discount from paperback. DRM free too.)
But without Agency, it's entirely possible we'd be living in a Kindle-only world.
Amazon was using ebooks as loss-leaders to sell Kindles. $9.99 for the latest bestseller. The publishers hated it because it cannibalized their hardcover sales. But the danger went a lot further then that.
One of the boards I read (I think it might be mobileread.com) introduced me to the concept of a monopsony. Call it the flip side to a monopoly. There existed a very real possibility that Amazon would become the only practical retailer for ebooks, thanks to their willingness to take a loss to build market share (and the deep pockets to enable taking that loss.)
I much prefer the current, varied ecosystem in ebook retailing. I like owning a Kobo Touch, which lets me read ebooks from anybody selling epubs (as long as they don't use customized DRM, but hey, it's a pain getting Barnes & Noble to sell to a Canadian anyways, so who cares.) Amazon wouldn't work nearly as well for me. Canada is an afterthought market for Amazon.
The trial is proving interesting. CNN/Fortune has really good coverage on their Apple blog.
I've been using FreeBSD & KDE as my main desktop since 2002. I find it just works...for me, anyways. I certainly prefer it to Linux, but it's probably just because I'm used to it.
I'd take Linux any day over MacOSX or Windows.
I have to respectfully disagree. While it takes some getting used to, the FreeBSD ports system is, imo, absolutely awesome. Running into conflicts is extremely rare. I ran into a software conflict two months ago. It was the first time in probably five years. (I've been using FreeBSD as my main home system since 2002.)
Yes, if you install a desktop, X is not automatically a dependency. This situation works rather well for those who want to remotely log into the machine and use a GUI. Until recently FreeBSD supported FreeNX quite well (I've had trouble with the port recently. In my spare time I'm hacking away at it.). If you're remote administering a headless system, having X pulled in as a dependency is not what you want.
I'm sorry you ran into difficulties with X. The thing with X is that you have to remember to use the x11/xorg meta-port. You can install all the X components one at a time through the other ports and I imagine that if you're building a desktop it would be an exercise in extreme frustration.
If you ever decide to try FreeBSD again you might want to try PC-BSD. It's a full FreeBSD system (they just released 9.1 as well) but the installer installs a desktop by default and the PBI system is less arcane then ports can be. (Bear in mind that PBI is built from the FreeBSD ports system and ports remain available to users in PC-BSD.)
Hi all... FreeBSD user, not really a Linux guy. What's the difference between our sound system and Linux, anyways? IIRC we're based on Open Sound System, but I could be mistaken. Sound still isn't configured by default in FreeBSD, but it seems to work quite nicely once the right kernal module is loaded. I can have any number of sound-using apps open. They all open/dev/dsp and get their own sound channel.
Anyways, just curious is someone who's familiar with both OS's can fill me in. This conversation has been really interesting.
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Weirdly enough, it works with the useragent set to FreeBSD (which, on my FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE box, it is by default.) I'm used to websites working oddly with that useragent; this is the first time I've encountered the FreeBSD useragent being an improvement over a Linux one.
Not really sure what you're talking about. I haven't upgraded to 12-RELEASE, but I'm on 11.3-RELEASE. I have LibreOffice 6.0.7... the stable release. I have Firefox 63, just because I haven't updated in two weeks (I like to compile all my stuff with poudriere) and once my upgrade run is done this weekend I'll be caught up. True, there isn't a Dropbox client. Sorry that's a showstopper for you. Otherwise, I've found that oftentimes new versions of stuff will hit the ports collection before the distros update their repositories...
That's not entirely true, if you're in an urban environment in Canada. The CRTC has mandated wholesale access to cable & telephone infrastructure. That's led to competition from folks like TekSaavy and Primus. Myself, I'm on National Capital Freenet (NCF) in Ottawa, and they've been fantastic. I have a 15 down/10 up unlimited bandwidth dry-loop service with a static IPv4 IP for $50.95 a month (plus tax.) Now, in rural Canada, much different story. You're lucky if you can get DSL or cable internet at all. Lots of folks are stuck with satellite or terrestrial internet (ie microwave or long distance wi-fi links).My folks are on a pretty lousy 6 down/1 up with Bell Aliant and it's still the best deal available there.
Isn't running a tcp connection over another tcp connection kinda painful, performance-wise? I don't run a VPN at home (don't have a reason to, personally) but I do maintain an OpenVPN server on my home FreeBSD desktop. Comes in quite handy, and learning how to configure it has been a lot of fun. I mostly use it to secure my tablet when I'm using open wi-fi somewhere. Sure, it doubles the bandwidth going through my home connection but hey, I'm lucky enough to have an unlimited bandwidth account, so why not?
I'm really quite surprised that FreeBSD didn't run on your old amd64 desktop. I started running FreeBSD back around 2003 and I've never yet had it fail to boot on the several, bog-standard amd64 systems I've had in that time. Weird. I currently have FreeBSD running on three different systems: a Dell Precision Tower 3620, an old Eurocom laptop and my homebrew box, which has an AMD Fx-6300 running on an ASUS motherboard with a Nvidia GT-730 graphics card. The only one that gave me any trouble is the Eurocom... for whatever reason if it loads the DRI and DRI2 kernel modules it kernel panics. I just force it to only load the DRI2 module and everything's fine. The two desktops worked flawlessly out of the box. (I use KDE for my desktop. KF5 support on FreeBSD is in a really good place these days.)
My FreeBSD hard drive died on me a couple of month ago, and I haven't been able to replace it yet. I really need to get to that though, because being on Linux for my primary desktop at home has been annoying the h*** out of me. FreeBSD is what I'm used to, it's what I prefer, and I really, really want to get back to it soon.
On average, 3-4 books a month. Sometimes a lot more, sometimes a little less. I also read a lot of comics off of Marvel Unlimited and I'm currently using a 3-month free Texture account (thanks Rogers!) to read a bunch of magazines.
You're correct that FreeBSD doesn't have a Dropbox client. You are incorrect about LibreOffice. I'm currently running LibreOffice 5.3.4, the "enterprise" release. I've been running FreeBSD as my desktop for over a decade. I've yet to find anything that I really needed that wasn't available for it.
The "ever moving target" can definitely be an issue. I'm not a Linux guy primarily (although I do run OpenSuSE and Steam-OS at home.) I'm mostly a FreeBSD guy (currently 11.0-RELEASE). I like the balance FreeBSD has struck. The base system is quite stable and is supported for long stretches of time. The ports system, on the other hand, is continually updated with the latest & greatest. Works for me.
My favourite subscription has got to be Marvel Unlimited. Well worth the price per year. I also like my subscriptions to Netflix and Roll20. The only other subscription I have is to The Mary Sue, but that's more to help keep the site going than for any particular benefit I get from subscribing.
I have to agree. I went with an AMD FX-6300 for my last computer. Definitely saved money, and I have no qualms about the performance. Does a fantastic job (coupled with 8gig of RAM) at compiling LibreOffice, for example...
I don't need to buy it from Amazon. I don't need to buy it at all. In Canada, all of Orwell's stuff has been in the public domain since January 1st 2001.
While as a Blackberry fan I'm always sorry to see a company cease BB support, this won't matter too much. The Amazon app store carries WhatsApp, and BB10 devices can install Android apps through the Amazon store as easily as native apps.
Well, this is disappointing. My mom & dad are on an antique Dell with a 32-bit processor. First OpenSUSE announced they were abandoning 32-bit, and I thought "OK, I'll install Lubuntu or Xubuntu or something." Now Google does this. I had them on Chrome because of the baked in Flash support. I suppose I could get away with Chromium... I think the only site my folks ever visit with video is Youtube. Still, just one more annoying thing.
Don't get me wrong... Agency has downsides. Lots of them. It's tremendously annoying that there are no sales on Agency books. Kobo (my preferred store) gives out lots of discount codes, but they're of limited use because they don't apply to Agency books. And those publishers that choose to price their ebooks above the paperback price are extremely frustrating (although a few of them seem to be getting a clue. Tor, for example, prices Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books at a decent discount from paperback. DRM free too.)
But without Agency, it's entirely possible we'd be living in a Kindle-only world.
Amazon was using ebooks as loss-leaders to sell Kindles. $9.99 for the latest bestseller. The publishers hated it because it cannibalized their hardcover sales. But the danger went a lot further then that.
One of the boards I read (I think it might be mobileread.com) introduced me to the concept of a monopsony. Call it the flip side to a monopoly. There existed a very real possibility that Amazon would become the only practical retailer for ebooks, thanks to their willingness to take a loss to build market share (and the deep pockets to enable taking that loss.)
I much prefer the current, varied ecosystem in ebook retailing. I like owning a Kobo Touch, which lets me read ebooks from anybody selling epubs (as long as they don't use customized DRM, but hey, it's a pain getting Barnes & Noble to sell to a Canadian anyways, so who cares.) Amazon wouldn't work nearly as well for me. Canada is an afterthought market for Amazon.
The trial is proving interesting. CNN/Fortune has really good coverage on their Apple blog.
I've been using FreeBSD & KDE as my main desktop since 2002. I find it just works...for me, anyways. I certainly prefer it to Linux, but it's probably just because I'm used to it. I'd take Linux any day over MacOSX or Windows.
I have to respectfully disagree. While it takes some getting used to, the FreeBSD ports system is, imo, absolutely awesome. Running into conflicts is extremely rare. I ran into a software conflict two months ago. It was the first time in probably five years. (I've been using FreeBSD as my main home system since 2002.)
Yes, if you install a desktop, X is not automatically a dependency. This situation works rather well for those who want to remotely log into the machine and use a GUI. Until recently FreeBSD supported FreeNX quite well (I've had trouble with the port recently. In my spare time I'm hacking away at it.). If you're remote administering a headless system, having X pulled in as a dependency is not what you want.
I'm sorry you ran into difficulties with X. The thing with X is that you have to remember to use the x11/xorg meta-port. You can install all the X components one at a time through the other ports and I imagine that if you're building a desktop it would be an exercise in extreme frustration.
If you ever decide to try FreeBSD again you might want to try PC-BSD. It's a full FreeBSD system (they just released 9.1 as well) but the installer installs a desktop by default and the PBI system is less arcane then ports can be. (Bear in mind that PBI is built from the FreeBSD ports system and ports remain available to users in PC-BSD.)
Hi all... FreeBSD user, not really a Linux guy. What's the difference between our sound system and Linux, anyways? IIRC we're based on Open Sound System, but I could be mistaken. Sound still isn't configured by default in FreeBSD, but it seems to work quite nicely once the right kernal module is loaded. I can have any number of sound-using apps open. They all open /dev/dsp and get their own sound channel.
Anyways, just curious is someone who's familiar with both OS's can fill me in. This conversation has been really interesting.