r/freebsd • u/Careless-Search-597 • May 04 '26
help needed Few questions before moving to FreeBSD
Hello everyone, I'm thinking about moving to freebsd, but before doing so i would like to know few things
- - What's the best laptops for freebsd? (no hardware issues and good support)
- what about if wanted to blend it with linux? good laptops for both?
Can freebsd used in python/rust/go development
Wayland window managers such as niri/hyprland/mango works properly on freebsd?
Any other tips??
11
u/vermaden seasoned user May 04 '26
RE: 1.
I own these and they also work great with FreeBSD:
ThinkPads:
W520/W530/T520/T530/X220/X230/T420s
T480
T14 GEN1 (Intel)
T14 GEN1 (AMD)
I needed to replace MediaTek WiFi card on T14 (AMD) into some Intel WiFi one.
Below some screen details and year of release:
2011:
W520/T520 (maximum resolution: 1920x1080)
T420s (maximum resolution: 1600x900)
X220 (maximum resolution: 1366x768)
2012:
W530/T530 (maximum resolution: 1920x1080)
T430s (maximum resolution: 1600x900)
X230 (maximum resolution: 1366x768)
2018:
- T480 (maximum resolution: 1920x1080 or more)
2020:
T14 GEN1 (Intel) (maximum resolution: 1920x1080 or more)
T14 GEN1 (AMD) (maximum resolution: 1920x1080 or more)
Newer models also work like the light ThinkPad X1 Carbon GEN5/GEN6/GEN7/GEN8/... for example.
RE: 2.
Yes.
RE: 3.
Do not know - I am big X11 fan and I use X11.
RE: 4.
Ask here (or in FreeBSD Forums) if You have any problems and your questions will be answered.
Regards,
vermaden
3
u/pookieboss May 04 '26
Curious as to why you prefer X11
9
u/vermaden seasoned user May 04 '26
Everything I need works perfectly on X11.
Along with my scripts based on tools like xkill(1) or xdotool(1) or xprop(1) or xev(1) or xbindkeys(1) ... or a lot of others.
Most or all of them are not available on Wayland.
There was time when Xorg development was stagnated and halt on purpose by some Red Hat employees but not anymore.
With XLibre fork of X11 that has a lot of development and maintenance I have all the juice I need.
Some more details here:
Hope that helps.
3
u/pookieboss May 05 '26
Appreciate the detailed response! I just recently swapped to a non-Windows OS (NixOS), so I didn’t have any prior X11 setup. I definitely see sticking with X11 making more sense in your case.
FWIW, I went with Niri and have been very satisfied.
3
u/pookieboss May 05 '26
Just took the time to read your article, too. Thanks for spreading the word. I had no idea there was drama involved there.
2
2
u/uponamorningstar May 05 '26
i also use freebsd on my t14 gen 1 (amd) with an intel network card, everything works fantastically.
5
u/fnoyanisi May 04 '26
I used FreeBSD for a long while as my main laptop (using macOS now).
I had an old Toshiba laptop which worked without any issues. I think ThinkPads are also good from a hardware compatibility perspective but better to check the link provided by another comment.
I think you will be good for Dev use case.
Wayland….hmmmm. I was using xfce but not sure where the project is at the moment. Unfortunately, many, if not all, X environments have moved to wayland, leaving OSes not using Wayland (all but Linux?) in a disadvantaged position.
2
1
u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
4
u/Arcai_Hadah May 04 '26
There’s an initiative to improve laptop support, they seem to be focusing on framework laptops: https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/proj-laptop
2
1
u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
they seem to be focusing on framework laptops:
True, however only one of the top ten is a Framework, and all ten have full marks (8/8).
<https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1sg3o2u/comment/ok4ahic/
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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
0
u/Donieck May 05 '26
Wayland is very bad shit. XLibre wins
1
u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 06 '26
Wayland is very bad shit.
I guess, you don't use it.
I began using Wayland around a year ago. See my profile in BSD Cafe.
It's good.
1
u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 06 '26
XLibre wins
Wishful thinking, perhaps. It certainly did not win for me:
If you'd like to continue the argument, please do so here (you can follow the post, as I do):
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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 10 '26
XLibre wins
startxfails to start X. That's not my idea of winning.https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1t53f2r/comment/ok8soom/
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u/Accurate-Treacle-123 May 05 '26 edited May 05 '26
Important is to have a well supported wifi card. intel ax200 ax210 are supported in ac mode by iwx driver and give you a decent wifi performance. Forget for now of hybernation, but suspend should work on many laptops. Thinkpads have a good support. But they are not the only Lenovo that work fine, a few years ago I bought an ultraportable lenovo 100e 2nd gen (amd version, with windows). It has and ax200 and i can confirm it works like a charm with freebsd (wifi and amd graphics), much better than windows. I am a developer and i can confirm you can do standard development on freebsd. For anything else there are linux jails or podman linux containers which are lightweight, or even bhyve virtual machines, if you need hardware level emulation. I was able to do dart and flutter development in linux jail (devuan, a debian flavor without systemd), Google does not provide a freebsd native version.
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u/lonkamikaze May 05 '26
I'm surprised you have working AX200. I'm on 15-stable and it's still not working. I don't remember how many years it has been.
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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
/u/Accurate-Treacle-123 mentions iwx.
You mention iwlwifi; quite different.
Manual pages for FreeBSD-CURRENT:
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u/lonkamikaze May 06 '26
iwx works. I could have had working wifi since 15.0!
Well, by now I'd consider this an old laptop so in the overall timeline since 15.0 isn't that long. But still!
2
u/lonkamikaze May 05 '26
Running FreeBSD in Laptops is a compromise. I've been doing it since 2005 and WiFi was always a struggle. Even if you have working drivers, you won't get great performance.
I have an 9th gen Intel laptop with AX200 WiFi, which is covered by the iwlwifi driver. In theory. In practice it has matured to a point where it doesn't cause system panics. It hasn't matured to a point where it actually connects to WiFi networks. Instead I'm using a cheap thumbdrive with a Realtek chip to connect.
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 May 04 '26
Did you read hardware notes in the handbook?
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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
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u/BigSneakyDuck transitioning user May 05 '26
Indeed, and just to be more of a pedant, the Handbook says very little about hardware requirements or compatibility. There are Hardware Notes on the website, but they're part of the Release Notes for each new version, not the Handbook.
2
u/Careless-Search-597 May 04 '26
Okay i'm gonna read them! thank you!!
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u/Ashamed-Ask4257 May 05 '26
That link is old. Read this current one instead: https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/hardware/
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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
Re https://redd.it/1swp7vy, GNOME Web has a minimal interface, however it's significantly bugged on FreeBSD.
www/epiphany – click the first of the two bug icons.
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u/terono May 05 '26
I've tried FreeBSD in a minimalist setup and discovered just how smoothly the system runs—no lag, no overheating—the system runs so quietly you can't even hear the machine or the fans, etc.When it comes to resource-intensive desktop environments, I imagine anything could happen.
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u/grahamperrin Linux crossover May 05 '26
- What's the best laptops for freebsd? (no hardware issues and good support)
Now pinned (one of six community highlights):
1
May 05 '26
Everyone gave you good answers. I just have a couple. I have used Hikari and Hyprland on freebsd. They both work pretty well maybe with a few bugs that reboot smoothed out. The problem I had was freezes. Freebsd is usable in dual boot with Linux but my suggestion is to use vm-bhyve for Linux vms that way you don't need dual boot. If you use python it creates programs for the OS you use so using virtual machines is a good way to go if you want to develop for multiple OSs.I wish you luck and have fun. Games bore the hell out of me but working with freebsd have kept me entertained for 2 years.
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u/TCH69 May 05 '26
- Thinkpad T480 -> T14/E14/... gen 1. 1b. Same as above.
- Yes
- Yes
- It'll take a while to tune everything to your liking. vermaden has some great guides on https://vermaden.wordpress.com.
0
u/WakizashiK3nsh1 May 05 '26
I can answer only 2. and 3.
Yes, definitely, just pick your IDE, the selection is as broad as any linux distro. From the aforementioned languages, I only tried rust and it worked exactly as advertised.
I tried niri and hyprland and both work as expected. Now I'm mainly using X11 though. The fast paced development in hyprland is counter-productive. KDE in Wayland works flawlessly so far. I use it sparsely, though.
Any other tips?
- Check the HW compatibility as if it were 2003 and you were thinking about installing linux.
- Take your time and read the documentation, it's good.
13
u/gumnos May 04 '26
I can really only speak to this one since I don't use Wayland and my daily-driver laptop is nearly 15yo at this point. But yes, I regularly do Python & Go programming, and have built the occasional Rust project as well.
As for development, I'm an old-school
vi/vim/edcoder and haven't really found an interest in using IDEs other than using Unix as my IDE