Re: Can I use NetBSD as a desktop system?

[coypu%sdf.org@localhost]

Sure.
Except for my phone, I don't use anything but NetBSD. I've got it on my
laptop and desktop.

my desktop is an i7-5280k which I use with an nvidia gtx 770, and the
(outdated) laptop is a dell inspiron n4030 with many parts replaced.

I usually run firefox listening to youtube for music or watching twitch
streams, a couple of terminal emulators for email/irc, read PDFs with
evince3, type homework with LyX, and do numerical analysis with Octave
(like MATLAB).

Sometimes I need to open things made with Microsoft Office so there's
LibreOffice for those, or (rarely) google docs.

Small things are worse.
- worse access to closed source software. I've been a linux user before
  so I am already accustomed to using the open variants.
  NetBSD has some linux compat / wine on i386, but it's worse.
  Linux has some good Steam games which I miss, but I'm told that we're
  good on the console emulators front, so I should try those sometime.

- hardware support is more hit and miss. for working wifi on my laptop,
  I switched the internal card for a supported intel 7260 card. I heard
  changing cards isn't possible on all laptops, but it was on mine.
  Previously I used a USB one (Edimax EW-78211Un, I believe) - it was
  worse, but works.
  Before that, I used my phone via USB tether (urndis), and I heard it's
  possible to bluetooth tether, but I haven't got around to try it.
  My laptop works almost perfectly (bluetooth, graphical acceleration,
  suspend...) but it's an older one, newer ones are worse.

- netbsd, to put it lightly, is less user friendly. I only accidentally
  discovered how to suspend. it reminds me of Gentoo.