Another Step Towards BSD on the Desktop

linuxbeta writes "DesktopBSD is the latest easy to install BSD aimed squarely at the desktop. Installation screen shots. From their site: 'DesktopBSD aims at being a stable and powerful operating system for desktop users. DesktopBSD combines the stability of FreeBSD, the usability and functionality of KDE and the simplicity of specially developed software to provide a system that's easy to use and install.' DesktopBSD joins the ranks of PC-BSD and FreeSBIE."

Comments

Necessary?

[wigle]

First of all, if you're using FreeBSD chances are you know how to configure an X11 environment. It's easy. Also, you have your choice of window managers; not everyone will choose KDE. Package management is already extremely easy with ports, especially with portupgrade. I definitely agree that FreeBSD with an official GUI would be awesome (the opposite approach of Windows, where the interface would simply be a frontend for scripts), but for a half-hearted attempt there's not much of a demographic.

Re:Necessary?

[debilo]

What exactly makes you call this a "half-hearted attempt"? As far as I know, the author of DesktopBSD has been working on this project for months now with only little help from a few others, and he's been a victim of flames like yours above trying to ridicule his efforts several times now.

. Until you've installed and tested it yourself, your post above is nothing more than a half-hearted attempt at a comment.

Too bad, another OSS jihad.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Face it, Linux has a head start and is enjoying far more corporate support (due partly to the fact that Linux is licensed GPLv2, which compells big companies to share back their improvements).

We're all on the same team -- only if we FOCUS our efforts into the OS with the best chance (Linux) can we defeat the DRM-infested, money-grabbing proprietary OSs like M$ Vista and Apple OS X."

Why must every good thing be turned into some kind of zealot-fest, rally to my agenda? How about we all simply enjoy the damn distro without trying to conquor this, push agenda that, holy-war upon everything that doesn't agree with me?

Re:Its not the kernel.

[Digital Pizza]

...most of the core utilities are bloated, poorly documented GNU junk.

Thanks for reminding me of something: whoever it is within Gnu that thought it'd be a great idea to deprecate man pages in favor of info documents, even if it's Stallman himself, I seriously want to kick his ass!

There. That felt better.

BTW, I agree with the rest of your post as well.

Re:Too bad, fragmentation of FOSS Desktop efforts

[fafaforza]

> Too bad, all that developer talent could have gone into making Linux better suited for the desktop.

Every annum for the past 6 years, headlines claimed that it was the year of "desktop Linux." Yet nothing came of it save for a bunch of Windows-esque clones with no innovation. Then Apple came along and revolutionized the desktop experience. So maybe it is time for someone else to give it a go.

Re:Too bad, fragmentation of FOSS Desktop efforts

[b17bmbr]

can we defeat the DRM-infested, money-grabbing proprietary OSs like M$ Vista and Apple OS X.

dude, take it easy. turn off the che rhetoric for a bit, tell your poly sci prof to lighten up on the indoctrination, and be thankful that we have money-grabbing corporations or else we'd all be living in mud huts. from each according to their ability doesn't work in the real world. now, i'm no fan of microsoft, but tell me this: how many people do you employ? how much do you pay in taxes? how many people use your software to run their businesses, etc. i own two ibooks, and have run linux on my pc's since '98. however, profit is not a dirty word. people pursue profit and it stimulates innovtion. why is it that people bitch up and down about "evil M$", yet barely say a word about all the hardware companies? eh? aren't they money grabbing? you like your dual core pentium 4's, well, they ain't making them because they're nice people.

Re:Too bad, fragmentation of FOSS Desktop efforts

[Anonymous Coward]

Will you quit using the "Royal We"?

OpenBSD is my main operating system, with some Linux on the side. I don't want BSD to be like Linux. That's why I use it instead of Linux. That's why people use BSD. It does the job for them in a way that they like better. If they wanted Linux, they'd use Linux.

Both systems have their strengths. BSD is great if you want something lean. Linux is good if you want something very easy to maintain and don't mind a little GNU-bloat.* BSD is great if you want traditional Unix. Linux is good if you're not very philosophical and just want something that works. BSD is great if you don't want to recompile your kernel. Linux is great if you don't want to recompile your userland. BSD seems to consume less memory. Linux supports more binary-only software.

The point is, they have different goals, different strengths and weaknesses. I'm not in any hurry to see them merge. In fact seeing people advocate that here on Slashdot annoys the hell out of me. And I can tell you, the BSD developers and Linux afficionados out there would find the idea stupid too. If you posted your comment to a developer mailing list, if there'd be any reply at all, it would be along the lines of, "No. That's ridiculous. Stop getting in the way of our work." Though perhaps more polite.

* Yes, GNU has a noble goal but can be bloated. It's mostly bloated because it tries to be all things to all people. See the infamous GNU echo joke.

Re:Its not the kernel.

[jmking1]

Pointing out the Linux is just a kernel, calling the userland utilities "bloated", "random assorted crap", and "GNU junk" without anything to back these claims, and stating that BSD is a "nice" Unix system with a userland that is a "joy" to use aren't legitimate arguments against GNU/Linux, they're dumb insults that add nothing of value to this discussion.

The documentation issue was the only intelligent point made. However, it was surrounded by a bunch of crap.

Oh, and your "This is /. you can't post anti-Linux things here" post has been done about 10000 times before. And it still gets modded funny. Wow.

GNUStep + [Net]BSD.

[pschmied]

I keep thinking that the world would be better off if more developers payed attention to GNUStep.

Why not do it in a sane way such as:

• Pick your hardware support carefully. NetBSD is good for this as things either work really well (usually the case), or they aren't supported at all. (I can configure NetBSD to use my Atheros wireless card out of the box using ifconfig. In Linux I have to know to download a beta "Mad Wifi" driver.)
• Concern yourself with building the building block app kits like Apple has done. One of Apple's programming examples is TextEdit, which ships with the OS! Apple is agile because they have all the tinker toys, they just need to glue them together now.
• Work on the Gui integration bits (i.e. wireless network controls, network profiles, video resolutions, printer management, etc) but do it with a cleanly abstracted design. Make sure that each item works flawlessly with a common set of hardware before expanding hardware support or adding features.
• Build a community of app developers who like consistent look and feel and adhere to UI guidelines.
• Take advantage of cross pollination from Apple. Allow app developers to build for StepBSD and Apple reasonably easily.

This is my hope for a desktop oriented BSD. I'm typing this from OS X on my powerbook, but I think the world still needs a compelling open platform.

-Peter

Re:Too bad, fragmentation of FOSS Desktop efforts

[Brandybuck]

but unfortunately it allows people to not 'share back' the stuff they took and improved.

Sharing isn't the word your want. Sharing isn't about attaching strings to your generosity. The word you're looking for is "reciprocality". Please don't confuse the two.

Re:Too bad, fragmentation of FOSS Desktop efforts

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect Intel and AMD and most companies have much lower profit margins than Microsoft, and don't spend nearly as much time trying to screw the customer. There's a difference between an ordinary profit-seeking company, and a company that tries to squeeze as much money as possible from its customers -- and can get away with it.

Re:Its not the kernel.

[10Ghz]

So, does *BSD have a *BSD-GUI that is a "joy to use", or do they use some some "random assorted crap from various sources"? On Linux I use KDE, and I'm toying with Gnome, but apparently those are crap. Could you point me to the *BSD-equivalent?

What compilers do *BSD's use? Is it "GNU junk" or something else? What about X? X.org would be "crap from various sources", so apparently *BSD uses some uber-leet BSD-Xserver, right?