Swift on FreeBSD Preview

Swift just rolled up to FreeBSD with a preview toolchain for version 14.3 and up, and the forum instantly turned into a tech soap opera. The basics: there’s a downloadable bundle for x86_64, it needs a few add‑ons like zlib and Python, and it’s still a work in progress. One user on FreeBSD 15 hit a scary error, but a quick compatibility package fixed it. The Swift team said: relax, this build is for 14—think different versions like different flavors of Linux.

Cue the community fireworks. Some folks showed up just to clap—“amazing, thanks!”—while others went straight for the hard questions: Who’s going to maintain this in FreeBSD’s app store (Ports)—Apple, or some poor volunteer? Another thread asked the existential question: does anyone actually use Swift outside Apple land (iPhone and Mac)? That sparked nervous laughter and a few side-eyes.

Then came the eyebrow-raiser: why does Swift need Python just to run the toolchain? For a high-performance language, that dependency felt “weird” to purists, fueling memes about “Swython.” Meanwhile, optimists argued porting to more platforms exposes hidden bugs—a win for everyone. Others debated whether macOS’s FreeBSD roots make this port natural, or whether the Linux-centric toolchain world will make it rough.

Bottom line: the preview download is live (link), excitement is high, but the comment section is a tug-of-war between applause, doubt, and “install five packages and pray.”