DesktopBSD is a version of FreeBSD customized for the desktop. Building upon FreeBSD 5.5-PRE, ver1.0 comes packed with desktop-oriented features such as KDE 3.5.1 and the DesktopBSD Tools, which include a graphical interface to the FreeBSD ports system. Read the rest here.
DesktopBSD 1.0: FreeBSD for the Desktop
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I thought they were going to release it already with FreeBSD 6.x. What’s holding em back?
The DesktopBSD-team will release 1.6 after release of FreeBSD 6.2 which is scheduled October, 9. That is documented on the projetcs website, see:
http://www.desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=81
Best regards, Daniel on behalf of DesktopBSD
I’m looking forward to see if DesktopBSD is up to challange PC-BSD in terms of speed and usability.
A graphical tool for the ports system is also a nice complement. More easy to use tools for the people.
It’s great to have two desktop oriented FreeBSD “versions” out of the box, to choose from.
Best of luck to both of them.
There is no reason for DesktopBSD now that they’ve released their GUI tools to FreeBSD port system.
Heck, PC-BSD even has a PBI of it’s tools:
http://www.pbidir.com/packages.php?code=149
PC-BSD just needs a x86_64 version to win my attention.
From the Desktop BSD website:
DesktopBSD’s Package Manager, which is in fact simply a comfortable front-end to the reliable and well-established FreeBSD “Ports” system. PC-BSD on the other hand utilises a new system of installing packages using a *.pbi package.
I like the reliance on the well-established. While the PBIs are an interesting new concept, right now FreeBSD offers a huge number of working software packages, and so Desktop BSD automatically offers them too.
And by this logic, PC-BSD also automatically offers the same software packages too, since you can use the ports system in PC-BSD.
Aren’t KDE 3.5.1 and Firefox 1.5.0.1 just a little bit old now? Not that it really makes a huge difference in either case, although the security fixes to Firefox would be nice to have.
I’d also take issue with the statement “No Cedega means no Windows games under DesktopBSD”. I’ve probably had about as much success with Wine, and while they may share a lot of code, there’s a big difference from a practical perspective.
Looks fine otherwise though, although the icons are an odd mix – I’d have preferred to see a full set of KDE ones, but each to their own. Nice wallpaper though 🙂
Yes those seem old to me too. My first desire after install would be to attempt to update/patch those apps to the latest version. I wonder if that would put the install out of sync with automatic updates?
At the time DesktopBSD 1.0 was released those versions where the latest available. All applications will be updated in the next release 1.6 coming end of October.
Best regards, Daniel
This is just a case of bad timing (of the review, and this news item), as DesktopBSD 1.6 will probably be released in a month or two.
http://www.desktopbsd.net/index.php?id=81
Edited 2006-09-12 08:50
“PC-BSD drops the excellent FreeBSD ports”
No, PC-BSD doesn’t drop the FreeBSD ports, they add a parallel software installer. You can use either ports or executable setup files.
you wanna be careful calling PBI “parallel to ports”. test them in parallel first and u will know why.
Exactly, I use both ports and PBI packages on my computer. They both work beautifully.
Hi!
Here is my question i have always wanted to ask about port system:
If i install a package then pkg_add will install all its depencencies.
Now if i change my mind and i want to deinstall the original package i will have the extra packages in my system which was installed as depenecie.
Is there any way to solve this and deinstall all
depencencies so i can revert to the original state of my system?
Thanks,
Balazs
Here’s the excellent FreeBSD-handbook:
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/packages-…
Here’s the pkg_delete manual page:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg_delete&sektion=1
See options -r, -f and read that manual page carefully, don’t forget to backup before as always.
HTH, Daniel
Hi!
Thank you, Daniel.
Now i did read it now many times. Maybe my English is not as good as it should be, but this:
“-r Recursive removal. In addition to specified packages, delete all packages that depend on those packages as well.”
means to me that all packages that are “above” in the dependence tree to the specified package, will be uninstalled.
Maybe i did not say the right thing but i want to do:
Install package “prgA” which depends on “libB” and “libC”.
And then I would like to say remove “prgA” and i want “libB” and “libC” gone.
Thank you, and sorry for the off-topic.
Balazs
Having looked through DBSD 1.0 I can only say that it’s not ready for MY purposes yet, but it may reach that level soon or late.
I will definitely take a closer look at 1.6 when that is released.