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Anyone uses FreeBSD on laptop? How is your impressions?

Much better than it used to be. The biggest challenge historically has been video drivers, but with the recent Linux kernel compatibility bits everything has running very smoothly.

Do you know if there are any plans to add some desktop option into the installer? Something simple like tasksel [0] that just adds some curated (and minimal?) selection of packages after the base installation and starts the appropriate display manager right after the first boot. I think that this alone would help a lot to increase FreeBSD's desktop usage and the perceived scope of the project.

[0] https://wiki.debian.org/tasksel

For about a decade now, the easiest way to get FreeBSD on your desktop is to install TrueOS (formerly called PC-BSD) - http://www.trueos.com. TrueOS is FreeBSD, and the last time I installed it, you were given an option of simply installing a base FreeBSD system with a minimal package selection, exactly what you are looking for.

TrueOS is run by iXsystems, the same folks who do FreeNAS.

The TrueOS folks have shifted their focus toward more server-oriented stuff, and work on a graphical development has shifted to project Trident[0].

[0]https://project-trident.org/

We should probably revive the "instant desktop" package.

It takes some effort but works well.

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