What advantages does FreeBSD bring on a laptop versus Linux?
vermaden · 34m ago
If you just want a browser and notepad - then ANY system would do - even Android on X86 PC.
If you want a powerful development/work environment - and you do like what and how Linux provides here - use Linux - but as I was not satisfied with what/how Linux provided I looked somewhere else and I landed in FreeBSD.
Here are some of the reasons and conclusions I came to after using FreeBSD (and also Linux/AIX/HP-UX/Solaris in various jobs) for about 20 years.
While You can spend some hours installing Linux with ZFSBootMenu and LUKS encrypted Root on ZFS - there are ZERO Linux distributions that allow ZFS Boot Environments out of the box.
That is the reason 'why' Linux is not the first class ZFS citizen.
SvenL · 38m ago
Cool, one of the best features of ZFS on FreeBSD is to boot into a snapshot. ZFS boot environments are really cool.
chungy · 32m ago
You can get that with ZFS Boot Menu on Linux too. It was inspired by the FreeBSD boot loader.
mouse_ · 1h ago
Anecdotally speaking, in terms of battery life, BSDs (+macOS) > Windows > Linux.
Linux does not play nice with batteries.
myaccountonhn · 1h ago
I suspect it has improved. I'm getting 8 hours out of my 5 year old T480s and I recall getting 4 hours or so when I bought it.
rootnod3 · 1h ago
With which battery? Cause on my T480 with FreeBSD I can ramp it to about 14 hours.
FirmwareBurner · 1h ago
Why could that be? Maybe the Linux distro you choose was too bloated and caused battery drain?
rurban · 1h ago
Because of no proper battery management, which was only recently merged.
tracker1 · 49m ago
It seems like the 6.16 and 6.17 kernels should allow for some pretty good improvements on battery and sleep mgt across more hardware from what I understand.
vermaden · 30m ago
Earlier I used FreeBSD on ThinkPad W520 (because keyboard):
I could do FreeBSD on my laptop I think. I don't play games, and I've been wanting to play around with kqueue.
Is it sort of like OpenBSD? I liked their manpages and their built in server thing (httpd). or is it completely different...
cnst · 37m ago
Traditionally, most FreeBSD developers would actually run OS X on their laptops, whereas most OpenBSD developers would still use OpenBSD even on laptops.
This was especially notable at BSD-wide events like BSDCan, AsiaBSDCon, EuroBSDCon etc.
OpenBSD supports suspend to disk, whereas FreeBSD does not. (Is this being changed as part of this laptop project?)
OpenBSD has always supported graphics, sound and other desktop things in the default kernel, without having to tinker with kernel config or loadable kernel modules. FreeBSD? http://cr.yp.to/unix/feedme.html
Also, on OpenBSD, the basic X is part of the base system, in the xenocara repository, and it basically just works, straight from the default installer:
OpenBSD actually does NOT support loadable kernel modules at all, and you're strongly discouraged from running a customer kernel, too. This has a side effect that both graphics and sound works out of the box, since deviation from defaults is discouraged, and if it didn't work by default, it'd not be recommended in the first place.
On FreeBSD, even the most basic X stuff is part of the Ports tree, which basically implies that most installations wouldn't have it, and it's often far less integrated, and requires way more tinkering, than xenocara on OpenBSD. For example, when you know most of your installations wouldn't have X, would you have graphics and sound support in the default kernel, or would that require further tinkering of the kernel config and/or LKM?
(On both systems, you still install KDE and GNOME from ports/packages, if needed, it's only the lightweight basic X and WM stuff that's part of OpenBSD base xenocara.)
So, even though FreeBSD is faster and more popular in many ways, to most people's surprise, OpenBSD actually has better laptop support.
jcgrillo · 32m ago
This is very helpful information, thank you!
nosioptar · 1h ago
One big difference is OpenBSD is easier.
For example, I installed FreeBSD on an old laptop and had to fiddle with building Xorg to get a GUI. Same laptop on OpenBSD just worked after running the installer.
cnst · 31m ago
Yup, that's because X is part of OpenBSD base system, called xenocara, whereas in FreeBSD, you have to use the Ports tree to install Xorg.
Ports tree in general is a great way to install third-party software, but not necessarily for Xorg.
You still install KDE or GNOME through ports/packages on both systems, but X being more tightly integrated with the base system has benefits in reducing complexity for the rest of the components.
rootnod3 · 1h ago
Man pages are close enough to OpenBSD. Httpd is there, but renamed to obhttpd.
There are some differences between PF and relayd for example, but not too difficult to switch.
doublerabbit · 34m ago
I am very surprised how well supported FreeBSD has been on my MSI Modern laptop.
zfs and boot encryption make it perfect.
jcgrillo · 44m ago
I'm currently running FreeBSD on a gen3 Intel T14. It's been excellent so far, however one minor annoyance has been S3 suspend/resume. Well, suspend works fine, but resuming triggers a restart. I'm hoping the recent S0ix work might fix that.
https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-6390-wake...
Also pretty impressive because Aymeric started as a GSoC contributor and is now sponsored to work on BSD by the foundation.
* https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/schedule/
* https://www.freebsd.org/releases/15.0R/
I can't wait until the experience is good enough that I can stay on it.
Very rough notes – things were rushed (squeezing as much as possible into the end of a Friday afternoon):
https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/comments/1mey64f/hp_elitebo...
If you want a powerful development/work environment - and you do like what and how Linux provides here - use Linux - but as I was not satisfied with what/how Linux provided I looked somewhere else and I landed in FreeBSD.
Here are some of the reasons and conclusions I came to after using FreeBSD (and also Linux/AIX/HP-UX/Solaris in various jobs) for about 20 years.
Here:
- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2020/09/07/quare-freebsd/
I last ran it about two decades ago, so it's been a while.
How is OpenZFS second class on Linux?
<https://github.com/openzfs/zfs/> is not perceptibly FreeBSD-first.
While You can spend some hours installing Linux with ZFSBootMenu and LUKS encrypted Root on ZFS - there are ZERO Linux distributions that allow ZFS Boot Environments out of the box.
That is the reason 'why' Linux is not the first class ZFS citizen.
Linux does not play nice with batteries.
- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2022/04/14/freebsd-13-1-on-th...
.. and recently moved to FrankenPad T25 that is based on T480 (because keyboard):
- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/freebsd-14-3-on-fr...
I do everything on FreeBSD including work.
Some of the topics I covered:
- Unlock Laptop with Phone
- Conferencing and Meetings
- Netflix Signal Telegram
- Network Management with network.sh
- FreeBSD Power Management
- FreeBSD Suspend/Resume
- Oldschool Gaming on FreeBSD
- Minecraft Server in FreeBSD Jails Container
- Secure Containerized Browser
- Print on FreeBSD
- Scan on FreeBSD
- Sensible Firefox Setup
- Operate Android Device on FreeBSD
- FreeBSD Alongside Windows
To just name a few ... because I am slowly closing to 200 of these FreeBSD related articles.
Regards, vermadenIs it sort of like OpenBSD? I liked their manpages and their built in server thing (httpd). or is it completely different...
This was especially notable at BSD-wide events like BSDCan, AsiaBSDCon, EuroBSDCon etc.
OpenBSD supports suspend to disk, whereas FreeBSD does not. (Is this being changed as part of this laptop project?)
OpenBSD has always supported graphics, sound and other desktop things in the default kernel, without having to tinker with kernel config or loadable kernel modules. FreeBSD? http://cr.yp.to/unix/feedme.html
Also, on OpenBSD, the basic X is part of the base system, in the xenocara repository, and it basically just works, straight from the default installer:
https://xenocara.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenocara
OpenBSD actually does NOT support loadable kernel modules at all, and you're strongly discouraged from running a customer kernel, too. This has a side effect that both graphics and sound works out of the box, since deviation from defaults is discouraged, and if it didn't work by default, it'd not be recommended in the first place.
On FreeBSD, even the most basic X stuff is part of the Ports tree, which basically implies that most installations wouldn't have it, and it's often far less integrated, and requires way more tinkering, than xenocara on OpenBSD. For example, when you know most of your installations wouldn't have X, would you have graphics and sound support in the default kernel, or would that require further tinkering of the kernel config and/or LKM?
(On both systems, you still install KDE and GNOME from ports/packages, if needed, it's only the lightweight basic X and WM stuff that's part of OpenBSD base xenocara.)
So, even though FreeBSD is faster and more popular in many ways, to most people's surprise, OpenBSD actually has better laptop support.
For example, I installed FreeBSD on an old laptop and had to fiddle with building Xorg to get a GUI. Same laptop on OpenBSD just worked after running the installer.
Ports tree in general is a great way to install third-party software, but not necessarily for Xorg.
You still install KDE or GNOME through ports/packages on both systems, but X being more tightly integrated with the base system has benefits in reducing complexity for the rest of the components.
zfs and boot encryption make it perfect.