Comment by bxparks
No, unless you have a laptop used by their developers. Every 2 years, I try to install FreeBSD on some of my Dell laptops, find that the wifi doesn't work, then give up. Been doing that for about 8 years..
No, unless you have a laptop used by their developers. Every 2 years, I try to install FreeBSD on some of my Dell laptops, find that the wifi doesn't work, then give up. Been doing that for about 8 years..
Also framework laptops work (mostly): https://github.com/FrameworkComputer/freebsd-on-framework
Even if true, not having great support for laptops doesn't mean "no one uses FreeBSD". Obviously it's supported by essentially all server hardware and is used there, as well as many routers and the Playstation.
I haven't tried FreeBSD on a laptop in about a decade (~2016-2017), and I had similar issues. I couldn't get WiFi working even though I thought it should be supported, I couldn't get the laptop brightness controls working, the sound would just randomly cut out, and after a certain point I have to ask myself how much time I am realistically willing to spend on getting this working. I was trying to run it because of Jails and ZFS, but by 2016 Linux containers were generally "ok enough" nowadays, and ZFS On Linux seemed to work ok on Arch after a bit of finagling, and Linux stuff seemed work more consistently.
FreeBSD is pretty neat, don't get me wrong, I have played with it on servers and I ran an OPNsense router for years, so this isn't a dig on the OS as a whole, just that I don't think it's a good fit for laptops, at least the ones I've tried.
My MSI Modern 5, a 2024 laptop works is my perfect daily driver, to the point or closing the lid and reopening it resumes HDMI.
The only issues I have with is Bluetooth which to be fair was trying to connect a Xbox controller and HDMI-Sound, otherwise it all works.
WiFi too. A bit archaic to change SSID but that's more software then hardware.
Couldn't be happier and with ZFS I have on-boot encryption.
Same here, Thinkpad T490 works great and much snappier than Linux.
I am a FreeBSD user. I have replaced Windows with Manjaro for gaming. I also use OpenBSD and wish I could run MacOS in bhyve.
Typically I purchase hardware supported by the software I intend on using. I don’t blame the software or hardware vendors, if I intend to use them in a non-supported way.
I use Fedora on my desktop. Whether Bluetooth works or not depends on the position of Venus. 2026 will be the year of desktop Linux
Most Lenovo Thinkpads WiFis should work out of the box with FreeBSD.
A USB distributions like NomadBSD ( https://www.nomadbsd.org/ ) can be used to test compatibility without installing the OS.
Also, for HW compatibility: https://bsd-hardware.info/