Hello, Bestie!
I started the hobby of testing operating systems somewhere between 2006 and 2009. However, like many of you, I relied solely on social media to document my experiences. Unfortunately, much like the Library of Alexandria, Orkut is lost — though not necessarily as significant in terms of historical relevance.
Back then, I experimented tons of different Linux distros, including a Brazilian one called Kurumin Linux!
I also explored some unconventional systems, like BeOS, OpenSolaris, OpenDarwin, and others I can no longer recall. VirtualBox was a lifesaver when hardware support was lacking — unsupported hardware is always the ultimate barrier — but whenever possible, I tested systems directly on my machine.
I remember spending hours downloading images and burning them onto CDs. My desktop was decent but still slow and limited, so installations could take up to an hour, not to mention the configuration and updates. Any mistake meant starting over from scratch. Actually, my first Debian experience came from a CD I requested online, which I received a few weeks later. I can’t fully express the mix of emotions I felt with each attempt: exhaustion, joy, frustration, accomplishment, anger, happiness, and even occasional anxiety.
All of this is just to illustrate how challenging it could be, and FreeBSD was no exception. I managed to install it after a couple of attempts. Everything needed to be compiled locally, including Java! It was the only time I ever had the opportunity to recompile a kernel!
The result was an exceptionally fast and lightweight operating system. I used it for a while, but the challenges of version upgrades and limited compatibility with browser technologies of that time (e.g., Silverlight and Adobe Flash) eventually pushed me back to Linux.
In 2015, I bought my first laptop, and that hobby came to an abrupt halt. Laptops often come with hardware specifically tailored to the software they ship with, sometimes even locked down. After a while, I just accepted using Windows with the Linux Subsystem. Everything worked as expected, and I gradually forgot the thrill of testing new operating systems.
My old lad survived nearly 10 years with just a couple of upgrades — extra RAM and replacing the HDD with an SSD — but it's no longer functional, or perhaps I just didn't want to try fixing it. I immediately disassembled it to show my daughter what it looked like inside. I was time to move on.
While searching for a new laptop, all those memories came flooding back. I decided then to buy relatively older hardware (released in 2022), without an operating system or any warranty restrictions. I wanted freedom.
Now it's 2024, and the FreeBSD ecosystem has evolved for the better. Ports and compilation are still necessary for things like certain drivers and DRM-protected content (e.g., Netflix and Spotify), but they are no longer the default or the only option available. It takes just 5 minutes to install the entire OS, followed by several extra hours to configure every possible aspect — from screen brightness adjustments and automatic switching when headphones are detected, to automounting USB drives and optimizing CPU frequency.
The result is once more fantastic, a fast, reliable and secure operating system.
P.S.: I will follow this post with instructions on how to install FreeBSD 14.1 on my hardware.
See you | Bis geschwënn | Até mais | À bientôt | Ciao
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