Guest post by The PC-BSD project, a derivative of the FreeBSD operating system, has launched their 10.1 release. The new version supplies booting from UEFI support, full disk encrpytion, automated install-time ZFS tuning, a new package manager front-end that works on both Desktop and Server editions and a Linux emulation layer that works with CentOS 6.6. The PC-BSD project is available in several flavours, including a full Desktop edition, a CD-sized Server edition (called TrueOS) and there are a number of ready-made virtual machine images.
The PC-BSD operating system ships with several friendly front-ends for dealing with FreeBSD technologies, such as ZFS snapshots, backups, boot environments, package management and configuring the X display server.
Rabble Rabble systemd Rabble
Thought I would pre-emptively try to stop people from posting yet again about systemd.
Congrats to the pc-bsd guys! See you in June at bsdcan!
Edited 2014-11-17 20:56 UTC
I was pleasantly surprised to see how well everything ‘just worked’ right out of the box. This is a serious desktop possibility. Even on VMWare, things just seemed to work. I’m not much of a KDE fan, but the default KDE desktop is pretty good. It’s also very responsive.
The AppCafe makes installing software ridiculously easy, including larger items like GNOME and MATE desktops.
FreeBSD has come a long way in recent years with it’s 10.x series, ZFS, PKGNG, and now Bhyve. I’m made the right choice moving all my stuff to FreeBSD.
Edited 2014-11-18 14:17 UTC
When I saw FreeBSD had an update last week I decided to give it a spin again. After all it was my first non-Windows OS for my PC, back when I couldn’t get Linux to run on my machine. It didn’t seem like the standard install with default steps dropped you into a UI system like the CentOS, Ubuntu, etc installers. I’ll have to give the PC-BSD Desktop revision a spin
.
FreeBSD not really a desktop OS the “Power to serve” slogan on their website is probably a clue. However, PCBSD certainly is a desktop OS. Although I have wondered if you install FreeBSD and then compile from the ports all the Desktop stuff how it would compare in performance terms with PCBSD.
It’s about time I tried FreeBSD again the next time I need a server.
It would be identical… PC-BSD is literally FreeBSD with the work of setting up the DE done for you plus some packaging stuff. They are not changing the underlying operating system. This is not like ubuntu vs debian.
But the ports would be compiled for my system rather than just generic binaries for any system?
Nope.
Not unless you know enough about the software to tweak the build settings for each package. Even then the difference between building from source and taking a pre-built package would be almost zero. Building software from source (without any manual tweaks) gives you that same binary as if you downloaded the package.
Unless you need to change a specific configuration option in the port that isn’t enabled by default, there is no reason to build from source code.
Only if you do extensive customization via build.conf, but not by default. Otherwise, the options presented in the build menus are primarily for feature support in packges – say, whether to include NLS, or IPv6 support, etc.
If I build and package something from ports, it’ll run on any FreeBSD system for my arch. Ports is designed to build packages – everything is installed via the package manager, and passing a single option to the build system actually creates a package that is meant to be shared – including packages for dependencies, if desired.
Extensive customization is possible, but isn’t the default.
Edited 2014-11-19 21:00 UTC
Thanks that is clearer to me now
Atleast BSD doesn´t have the “restrict development to the hippie veggie farm” type licencing. Starving for food, yet believeing in the ideological slavery.
Richard Stallman truly is the myth, and the ghost of the hacker, secretly living underneath MIT, feeding off their power and connection.
The whole of his education and “Free software†witnesses of it. He probably made up the whole hacker-myth himself.
But then came Linus Torvalds and shut the counter window down, and he is shouting “LiGNUx†behind, thinking this was not how it was supposed to be.
It is comical. The hacker myth, now in unexpected territory.
Movies never got this part did they.
Angsty!