 Today I wanted to take some time to answer more in-depth one of the more common questions I get from viewers of the channel is Hey DT, why don't you use BSD? Because people really want to know why I use Linux on my main production machine here at the office and on my home computer You know, why am I a good news slash Linux user? Why haven't you moved to BSD yet? Because you know, you can use BSD you can get it installed You work it out because and you do all of this other stuff. I understand why people ask this question, but I Mean, I'm one of those people obviously a lot of people see me as a more advanced user a power user And I tend to dive pretty deep into various topics For example text editors, right? I started using Vim a few years back and then I progressed even deeper than that going into Emacs And these are really nerdy deep kinds of Topics here Vim and Emacs it is seen as something that is difficult to learn something really difficult to master And a lot of people think that me and other power users like this We often do these things more for a challenge more for looking cool in the public side You know, we're trying to get style points. That's why we use this hard stuff It's because you know, it's like we're crack addicts, right? And then in this case, we're addicted to just using really hard stuff is because we're I don't know some kind of self Massacist, right? We just we just enjoy the pain, but that's actually not the case Again, I think a lot of people that don't use these kinds of tools like Vim and Emacs and tiling window managers And you know the command line and things like that these really nerdy topics You know the power user kind of tools, you know, they imagine that you know, we're just doing this Just for the pain just or just to look cool But that's not actually the case. I use all of this stuff because it's the best tool for the job So why don't I use BSD? Because the BSD operating systems are not as good as good news slash Linux That is the only reason I don't use BSD on my main production machine It's not for any kind of ideological reasons or anything like that GNU slash Linux is free and open-source software the BSD operating systems are all free and open-source software as well So ideologically Morally, I have absolutely no issues with BSD. I Could use BSD, right? If I didn't do what I do as far as making all of this video content and stuff like that I know a ton of people are gonna watch this video and say well I use open BSD and net BSD or whatever, you know, BSD operating system you're using on your machine But you're not doing what I'm doing, right? You have some very basic needs on a computer and I get that and if that's working for you keep using it, right? I'm not ever going to tell people what operating system they should run I will say that the kinds of software that you should try to run are free and open-source Software, right? So I want people to use free and open-source operating systems And if one of the BSD operating systems is right for you, hey, man, keep using it, right? Keep doing it now for me I would be making my life Extremely difficult by switching away from Linux to BSD because mainly hardware support The Linux kernel supports practically every piece of hardware known to man, right? It's the best operating system kernel on the planet bar none The BSD kernels and they all have a different kernel, right? So the free BSD kernels probably gonna be the best one as far as hardware support and it's miles behind Linux I mean it's so far away from Linux. It's not even close Software availability as well a lot of the software I use on Linux will not be available on any of the BSD operating systems So I would be sacrificing a lot of what I do, you know, a lot of what I do currently as far as my workflow and making Videos a lot of what I do with video a lot of what I do with audio I couldn't do on any of the BSD operating systems I would really be sacrificing like the quality of my channel really to move to one of the BSD operating systems Why would I do that? Right? If I'm gonna give up so much to move from Linux to BSD Well, what's the payoff? What's the trade-off? I gotta if I'm gonna give up something I hope that I'm gonna get something in return, right? And no, there's really no trade-off You know, I'm gonna give up a whole lot and I'm not gonna get anything in return when I get to the BSD operating systems You know other than I guess if I was one of these elitist arrogant kind of people that I Tried to validate myself by using really hard pieces of software Then I guess it would be a positive to say hey, man I'm a BSD user and now I can lord over those peasants that are still running Linux But again, I'm not one of those type of people. I don't care what people think about the software I use I never have that's not the reason I use tiling window managers. That's not the reason I use arch Linux You know, I use these things emacs the reason I use these pieces of software is because it's the best tool For the jobs that I'm trying to do right and if BSD was the best tool for the job I'd gladly move to it one day. They'll probably get there and when they do I'll give them a try. I may install them on my main production machine things like that But right now it's not even it's nowhere close and that's okay It's that's not throwing shade on any of those operating systems. I'm happy the BSD operating systems are around I'm also happy that we have other free and open source operating systems around like haiku and React OS and I've actually done some videos some install and first impressions of these various operating systems like the free BSD Operating system and haiku and react OS. I have taken a look at some of the BSD's on camera ghost BSD True OS back in the past before it died a PC BSD back in the past before it died So it's not like I'm anti BSD I just can't use it on my main production machine for what I do and of course I'm making this video because a lot of people imagine that maybe I don't give BSD a lot of coverage or a Lot of love here on the channel because I'm some kind of BSD hater I've been accused of that which is a little strange because I never talk about BSD So like how can I be a hater like it's a topic that almost never comes up anywhere on my channel But apparently I must be a hater because I use Linux. Well, not not necessarily. I actually I really don't care about Linux I don't care about BSD and I really don't care about Windows. I don't care about Mac OS this channel these videos I make I are really not about operating systems I made this channel to promote free and open source software, right and both Linux and BSD are free and open source Software so in my eyes they are equal as far as from a moral standpoint, right? Linux BSD both free and open source operating systems They're fantastic and in my eyes both of them for that But at the end of the day, which one will I use I'm gonna use the one that's right for me And you should use the one that's right for you I've also been asked, you know, do I have a problem with the BSDs because of licensing because everyone knows I'm a pretty big fan of the GPL the GNU public license and I do love the GPL I tried to license a lot of my stuff under the GPL But again at the end of the day, I promote free and open source software and free and open source software is Pretty much anything that's licensed under the GPL or the BSD license It counts as a free and open source license or the MIT license the Apache license the Mozilla public license the MPO Those are the five big ones, right? So anything under those licenses, it's free and open source software Now I prefer the GPL among those licenses, but they all count as free and open source software So again from a moral standpoint BSD license is okay in my opinion I run plenty of software on my GNU slash Linux system that is licensed under the BSD license or the MIT license So it's it's not like it's evil in terms of it's not proprietary Software, right? They're all free and open source licenses So that's not a or issue for me as far as you know the licensing for BSD and some people have asked if maybe I had a problem with some of the BSD communities. I typically don't interact a lot with communities online because of my status here You know having this rather popular YouTube channel, right? I'm a well-known quantity and you know once you have a pretty good following of people Then the haters and trolls just come out of the woodwork You're just constantly bombarded with people that just want to take shots at you. So I don't really hang out on any community I don't hang out on any Linux communities. You've never seen me, you know do anything in any Linux support form or hang out I don't hang out on discord and matrix anything like that is because I'm I would be a major distraction I really don't care about haters and trolls. You know what people say to me come at me with a tax It doesn't bother me But I don't want other people to have to deal with my haters and trolls So that I don't hang out in other communities because I don't want these innocent bystanders You know to catch a bullet that was intended for me and this is I don't hang out on any BSD communities So the BSD community I I don't know if it's a cool place a bad place I do know the probably the reason people asked this question is a few years ago I know there was a controversy with the free BSD guys where free BSD actually changed their code of conduct because they wanted to ban virtual hugs virtual hugs, I guess You know like sending people emojis of hugs and kisses, you know showing affection with these virtual hugs and kisses The free BSD guy said no that's akin to you know Unwanted sexual advancements on people and they forbid sending virtual hugs, which is rather ridiculous, right? Like every one there was a lot of backlash from that because everyone saw how ridiculous Needing to change of code of conduct to ban virtual hugs is but that doesn't bother me It's silly, but that wouldn't prevent me from being a free BSD user like I don't really care It's not an issue and to be honest That's the kind of issue that comes up in every community where you these days unfortunately, it's a sign of the times people So many people have this activist mindset where they're they want to be seen as changing the world Even if it means inventing a problem, that's not really there like this virtual hug problem, right? It's not like the world was going to implode one day because there were too many virtual hugs being sent out on the internet, right? But you know this person wanted to be seen as making some kind of important change in the world So, you know he targeted virtual hugs and that's okay, right? I mean at the end of the day and no one was hurt by those virtual hugs And nobody's really hurt by banning those virtual hugs now I know in the comments of this video many people are going to tell me the benefits of various BSD operating systems all things that are better on free BSD You know, you're gonna love the the networking stack on BSD rather than Linux That's great. If I worked on servers as a sysadmin or whatever. I'm a desktop computer user That's primarily what I do. So if I was a server administrator, yes, I would love BSD I'm not I know people are gonna The open BSD guys are gonna tell me that it's the most secure operating system in the world and you know If you really care about security then you should be using the open BSD operating system And I do care about security, but that their security comes at a price again hardware support software availability Yeah, I'm gonna have a really secure operating system that I can't do a lot of the stuff I want to do on so that's a trade-off. I can't make no other people will make and if it's a trade-off You can make hey again. I won't fault you for it But please don't fault me for making my decision either now. I mentioned I'm not really a Fan of Linux as much as I'm a fan of free and open-source software So what I would really love I would love all of these Non-Linux operating systems the free and open-source operating systems like free BSD and open BSD at haiku and reactos I would love for them to eventually get to the point where they are a real viable alternative To Gnu slash Linux to where you know I could just if I needed to one day drop Linux and move to one of these other operating systems and not miss a beat because I do worry right now With free and open-source operating systems. We really have one it's That's a serious contender to the proprietary operating systems and that's gonna slash Linux right now the BSD is not Anywhere close and haiku and reacto is and you know the really niche operating systems like that are decades behind and That makes me sad because I could envision a day Where Linux becomes unusable for whatever reason maybe they change the license One day Linux becomes proprietary. That's never gonna happen But you know whatever nightmare scenario into the world scenario, maybe because the code base so many millions of lines long You know, there's Gaping security holes in it one day that just makes it very very dangerous to use Linux I have to find something else and right now if that happened today if that happened today The best free operating system that isn't a good news slash Linux distribution is free BSD by far That's that's the best. That's the closest thing we have to Linux free BSD and it's so far behind right now That makes me sad because you know, I Fear that day happening and right now if it happened I'd have to sacrifice so much You know, I'd I do I would lose so much now to be fair if that day ever happened Free BSD would probably overnight have Thousands and tens of thousands of new developers because a lot of the people that worked on Linux would just move over to free BSD And it would quickly gain a lot of the hardware support a lot of software availability You know a lot of software ports would be written So it would get there pretty quickly, but it would be painful for a while But ultimately this rather lengthy rant video to answer this very simple question I mean this is this the answer to this question why I don't use BSD is simply, you know For what I do gnu slash Linux is better and that really is the answer But a lot of people ask this question over and over as one that comes up and a lot of people I think imagine the answer or All of these other things what I talked about today, you know things that have nothing to do with it BSD is free and open source software morally. I'm fine with it I have absolutely no issues becoming a BSD user at some point in the future. It doesn't bother me But right now gnu slash Linux is kind of where I have to be and right now I'm just I'm comfortable with it and I don't again I'm not one of these people that has to validate my existence through the software I use You know, I don't need to feel morally superior I don't I don't need to use free BSD or open BSD or whatever to make the Linux peasants feel bad To lord over them and say I'm a BSD user. Look at you. You're still running arch. Yeah, noob. Anyway ran over guys Peace