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Comment by mbreese | Hacker News Reader

> Why FreeBSD over Linux?

From the post:

> Linux has systemd, not my favorite thing out there, Windows is privacy nightmare. That left me with 2 major options: Linuxes without systemd (Gentoo, in my case) or BSDs.

> Since I run FreeBSD servers anyway, I just migrated to FreeBSD.

Basically because the author hates systemd (not an invalid point, but that ship has sailed) and has familiarity with FreeBSD. This isn’t really an article that’s trying to convince people to run FreeBSD. It’s trying to explain why they left macOS. Where they ended up is less consequential, IMO.

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Yes, I read that. I should have rephrased because I was posing a more general question, as it seems like OP is headed directly for another problem which is the BSD v. Linux package support deficit, which IMO is far more painful than macOS+VNC vs BSD.

I don’t disagree with you. But I don’t think that the author was all that interested in getting into Linux vs BSD. Instead, they were more interested in pointing out the problems they had with macOS and how it is moving more away from its UNIX roots. This is a fair point.

The larger question of “if not macOS, then what” is almost a throw away in this post. Which, I don’t blame the author for at all... it’s a prickly issue and includes a lot of background context that dilutes their primary point of macOS issues.

I don't like systemd (or redhat) either, it's also one of the reasons why I moved to FreeBSD. And on servers I use Alpine. I don't hate systemd as such but I definitely don't like it. I think OpenRC on Alpine is much simpler.

The ship has only sailed for the mainstream Linux OSes. With Ubuntu for example other things bother me too, like snap, I don't want all this overhead. But I see more and more people moving away from those things.

"Giving in and going with the flow" is not necessary with open OSes. It's exactly why I'm moving off macOS too, because I'll no longer be locked into some company that decides what's best for them (and not me)

There are many linux distros without systemd too. Artix (arch without systemd), Devuan (debian without systemd), and Void are the big ones off the top of my head.

It means the author is trying to avoid systems whose developers interfere with your workflow on the grounds that they know what is good for you.

There is also devuan for systemd haters.

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