Ask HN: FreeBSD, a realistic choice as OS X replacement? If not, which Linux?

5 pointsgotofritz5 comments

So I've seen the posts about alternative laptops to the MBP (for example https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12846516 ). I am now looking at OS alternatives. Given that OS X is based on FreeBSD, wouldn't it make sense to use FreeBSD as a replacement? Or is it just a dumb idea?

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If you're fed up with Macs, chances are you want a beautiful "modern" device with a hidpi touch screen. I haven't used Linux as a primary dev machine for a few years now, but last time I looked, support for all of these things were half baked (KDE/GTK, X11/Wayland etc). Whether the kernel is this or that probably matters a lot less. People used to speak fondly about Lenovos, but less so lately. Now the high end Dell XPS gets high praise, but Dell typically fuck up their systems from time to time (I still remember when they changed out Synaptics touchpads for something cheaper with significant movement "lag"). "Modern" hardware typically also come with very proprietary drivers only supporting one or the other platform, or best case only Windows+Mac. Even web browsers barely support touch events yet. But hey, now is a good time for a vendor - any vendor - with anything that can compete with iMacs/Macbooks or Surface Studio/Surface Book (essentially anything not based on Windows or macOS) to speak up and get some attention!

I was more interested in the OS than the hardware, but thanks!

If you are coming from OSX use Ubuntu.

I would recommend Elementary OS (Based on an Ubuntu).It is closer to an OsX experience imho. However, make no mistake, it won't replace OsX and its rich ecosystem… https://elementary.io

Looks interesting, thanks

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