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PC-BSD 0.5a Beta: BSD For Dummies

Posted by timothy on from the deleetifying dept.

linuxbeta writes "PC-BSD 0.5a beta has now been released! You can download the 670Mb ISO file from our download page. This version fixes some minor bugs, and now has fully automatic network support. Screenshots available." So what's it all about? From the PC-BSD FAQ: "This OS has as its goals to be user-friendly, especially in the area of software installation and management, something that many of the *nix based distros have not yet mastered."

5 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Ooooo... Graphical installer! by kernelistic · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It would appear that this is the first BSD with a fully-graphical installer. Kudos! When will we see this installer backported and available as an option during the CD-build process? :)

    1. Re:Ooooo... Graphical installer! by Bunyip+Redgum · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It probably won't be backported to any BSD since all the software they are developing is GPL!

      Pity, since a gui install and gui version of pkg_* utilities would increase the appeal of FreeBSD.

  2. Torrent? by idiotfromia · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, where's the torrent? It seems like that should be part of any article involving new *nix releases.

    I haven't tried BSD before, and this sounds like a good first timer's distro.

  3. Re:I question the motive behind "User Friendly" by FidelCatsro · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes fair enough the other BSDs may not be ment for the average person , but yyour missing one vital point here , this is not the other BSDs (actualy OS X is fairly well aimed at the commen man)This BSDs sole aim is to make BSD easy to use which i think is a grand ambition as it gives the people more to choose from.

    Yes indeed more trained admins are needed , but ontop of that a wider user base is also needed as such a think spectrum of users will keep the *free* *bsds unaprochable which may make adopotion of the system harder .

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  4. Re:I question the motive behind "User Friendly" by LadyLucky · · Score: 2, Interesting
    actualy OS X is fairly well aimed at the commen man

    I think that's true, but I don't think you should look at it exclusively. I've been using computers since a Commodre 64, have used Linux and Windows extensively and recently bought a Mac. I love OS X... not because I don't know how to use a computer, but because I enjoy using a computer that is not constantly getting in my way and making my life difficult.

    OS X I think is appealing to computer veterans, and geeks like myself. Email, photos, music all have extraordinarily good applications, but you can still drop to the command line, do some development if you please on a decent Unix shell. What could be better?

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