Small sample set aside, the performance differences here are much bigger than I've seen in previous linux comparisons. Something has to be off right? Curious if anyone is able to reproduce these results.
this post was submitted on 28 May 2026
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It's just a matter of learning Linux before dealing with the Arch way of doing things, at the end of the day. As there are guides and shit, but it's a task that someone should only undertake if they feel ready...Prepared with snacks, the Arch Wiki, and good curse words in case of failure. Personally as a graphical install king, I think vanilla Arch is just TOO barebones, but archinstall is just right. Shame it needs internet to install. However, there is nothing inherently wrong with the Arch way, as long as it is recommended to the right people, there is simply no issues with it. As it is for people that are ready for the next step, a fully minimal system that is set-up in the way they like. However, perhaps Gentoo would be better for maximal precision, as there are a lot of ways to shape the system and the applications you install to suit user purposes on Gentoo. Not that I would know how at the moment, perhaps when I have plenty of time to learn.
I honestly wanted to point out the whole FreeBSD thing in case someone took it at face value. As yah know, sometimes sarcasm doesn't translate well for people (note that I laughed with a ROFL myself thinking your being silly not serious).
I think FreeBSD is actually great, I’m looking for a reason to install it on anything just to have it around.
And Gentoo too. I’m currently on a MacBook Pro (2014, Intel era) with Arch Linux. Weirdly, the hardware support is great, and it feels like even better than macOS. For some reason, some other MacBooks I have are much worse with some things Linux. Eg sleep and battery life estimation. But apart from that, they’re better than macOS, as they’re long obsolete.
I want to have Gentoo somewhere, and I’m just not sure where to start. It surely have to be a separate machine to not hurry with the install and setting it up. (However, I expect that most if not all my user configs would just work, assuming the same software stack.) But that machine is expected to be powerful too!
At this point, I think of getting a MacBook Air M1, perhaps the next year. Or maybe even years, depending on real life events, that’s rather a cool toy to me at this point than a real need. But ideally, I’d like to have it when being obsolete (not supported with macOS updates) and Neo having at least two or better three generations. Which would make its price to value very attractive. I thought of having Gentoo there, since Arch is not supported, and I’m not a big fan of Arch Arm project.
I would like to use Gentoo so much, I thought of actually getting a used somewhat broken MacBook Air (I’ve seen one with partially broken screen for like a bit over €100), and use it as a test machine. Then, just buy another one, in a better shape when it would enter its obsolete state, which would inevitably happen at some sooner rather than later point.
I expect it would be just perfect for Gentoo. FreeBSD, I have no idea. Thought of getting a tiny PC just for it, without any purpose in mind. Perhaps I’d find one along the way. I’ve researched briefly, and there are either Mac minis of 2014 with a very nice idle energy consumption and price locally (about €100 or even less). Or some N100 Chinese similar computer, but I have no idea about the hardware support.
There are some security issues and poor defaults with FreeBSD, these issues are ultimately what made me swerve left for the time being until these issues are resolved by the FreeBSD security team and devs. It makes me sad, because in my opinion FreeBSD is holistically developed as a unit, so it flows together! It feels coherent and sane, unlike Linux distros which are a disparate parts that are fused into a singular thing. In a way that is pretty fucking metal that all these separate projects are fused into working Linux distros which for the most part are stable...Kinda like a multicellular organism.
Yeah, honestly, it does sound like you have a good idea of where to start at least in terms of either learning Gentoo or FreeBSD. Purchasing recent/old but capable hardware that won't put your current hardware at risk of getting borked due to experimentation, is for the best (as long as it won't hurt the old pocketbook). I wouldn't choose anything Apple because that hardware can be particularly annoying when it comes to driver support and the like, but if you want to live on the wild side. It's your life and you can have all that smoke, because I can't imagine the troubleshooting is going to be much fun.
For my part, I plan on learning about Gentoo in a sane timeframe because there is literally no hurry, my spare laptop is recent enough that compiling won't take long and it will be supported by Gentoo. I love the idea of being able to set specific compiler flags within the package manager that automatically compile programs based on those user designated flags. I've wanted to test the viability of stripping systemd out of my life for a while now, openrc (which Gentoo uses as an init service) seems pretty cool and simple. The Gentoo Handbook is okay in terms of describing the process of installing Gentoo...So I hope after reading it several times, I will find the courage to actually install it on my spare laptop. ROFL As right now, it has Solus on it and that is a usability dream.
@LostWanderer @darcmage @unexposedhazard @9tr6gyp3 @wltr Much of that list is outdated or invalid, and the overall view of the FreeBSD project and security team is quite misguided. That said, there are indeed a couple of good points in there still waiting to be picked up.
Anyhow, there are many good reasons to choose FreeBSD, or not choose FreeBSD, but it would be a mistake to let that post drive your decision.
As an outsider and not very familiar with FreeBSD or it's inner workings...I do appreciate multiple viewpoints on the matter. The post (opinionated as it was) seemed like a dev who had some serious enough experience with the guts of the system, that it felt credible. Still might not go for FreeBSD yet until I do some more research, as I still feel a bit leery. I would like to know the specifics of the points that needed to be picked up, as I am genuinely curious about it. I prefer to know the parts of the post that had merit, so I can tell bullshit from truth better in the future.
Personally, some of my reasons were the Linux Binary Compatibility, using Jails to run non-BSD software in...Based on my understanding it's akin to distrobox, just a container built with a particular distro in mind. While still being able to use a unique operating system and being able to learn how to do things that I am not used to needing to do. As a bit of safety net is always nice, while still being able to explore something that I've never experienced before. A lot of WMs are supported on FreeBSD, so it's not like I would be leaving my comfort zone completely.
@LostWanderer @darcmage @unexposedhazard @9tr6gyp3 @wltr
- OpenSSH: Mostly ancient history
- Mailer daemon: Mostly ancient history, and Sendmail is no longer in the base system
- Firewall: There are indeed 3 firewalls, which is unfortunate. Just use pf. Most of what this article says about FreeBSD's pf is wrong.
- Ports and Packages: Many operations shouldn't be done as root. There are opportunities to improve documentation and enforcement (e.g. disallow running as root)
Thank you for the clarifications on some of the issues with the article in question. It does help to know what is bullshit and what is truth, I might consider FreeBSD in the future. Especially the Ports and Packages issue...As I feel there is some room for improvement there. The Firewall issues isn't very severe and could easily be overcome.