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Does anyone really use an X GUI on BSD?

by tyho 2y ago

pama 2y ago
It is good to occasionaly display windows from a remote linux onto a macbook client. I wouldnt say I use it regularly but it certainly helps.
hnlmorg 2y ago
Yes. Lots of people do. There are even BSD OSs that primarily target desktop use, such as DragonflyBSD.
- crote 2y ago
  How does "lots" quantify, though? There are billions of desktop Windows users. There are tens of millions of desktop Linux users. I expect desktop BSD to go beyond the thousands, but does it reach the hundreds of thousands? I've always felt like from a purely user perspective desktop BSD doesn't really distinguish itself from Linux. The software stack is essentially the same, and they're both FLOSS so that's not a reason to switch either. Maybe I'm wrong, but the Linux/BSD choice looks a lot less relevant than the Windows/Linux choice. So if people use desktop BSD because it essentially gives them slightly fuzzier feelings, and they are essentially a rounding error in their user base, is it really fair to criticize Linux developers for not focusing on portability? You can only spend your time once, so do you use it to work on something benefiting your tens of millions of existing Linux users, or something benefiting your thousands of potential BSD users?
  - hnlmorg 2y ago
    Does it matter? The question was if anyone uses BSD as a desktop and the answer is yes people do. > You can only spend your time once, so do you use it to work on something benefiting your tens of millions of existing Linux users, or something benefiting your thousands of potential BSD users? I couldn’t care less how the Wayland devs decided to prioritise their time. But it is worth pointing out that Wayland was architected from the ground up to be agnostic. That’s why it’s the polar opposite to the the “batteries included” design of X. And as others have pointed out, Wayland is available for some BSD already.
badgersnake 2y ago
I use sway, so no.
wkat4242 2y ago
Oh yes. It's my daily driver. KDE on FreeBSD (with X11 stack still)

Does anyone really use an X GUI on BSD?

by tyho 2y ago

Does anyone really use an X GUI on BSD?

pama 2y ago

It is good to occasionaly display windows from a remote linux onto a macbook client. I wouldnt say I use it regularly but it certainly helps.

hnlmorg 2y ago

Yes. Lots of people do. There are even BSD OSs that primarily target desktop use, such as DragonflyBSD.

crote 2y ago
How does "lots" quantify, though? There are billions of desktop Windows users. There are tens of millions of desktop Linux users. I expect desktop BSD to go beyond the thousands, but does it reach the hundreds of thousands? I've always felt like from a purely user perspective desktop BSD doesn't really distinguish itself from Linux. The software stack is essentially the same, and they're both FLOSS so that's not a reason to switch either. Maybe I'm wrong, but the Linux/BSD choice looks a lot less relevant than the Windows/Linux choice. So if people use desktop BSD because it essentially gives them slightly fuzzier feelings, and they are essentially a rounding error in their user base, is it really fair to criticize Linux developers for not focusing on portability? You can only spend your time once, so do you use it to work on something benefiting your tens of millions of existing Linux users, or something benefiting your thousands of potential BSD users?
- hnlmorg 2y ago
  Does it matter? The question was if anyone uses BSD as a desktop and the answer is yes people do. > You can only spend your time once, so do you use it to work on something benefiting your tens of millions of existing Linux users, or something benefiting your thousands of potential BSD users? I couldn’t care less how the Wayland devs decided to prioritise their time. But it is worth pointing out that Wayland was architected from the ground up to be agnostic. That’s why it’s the polar opposite to the the “batteries included” design of X. And as others have pointed out, Wayland is available for some BSD already.

badgersnake 2y ago

I use sway, so no.

wkat4242 2y ago

Oh yes. It's my daily driver. KDE on FreeBSD (with X11 stack still)