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PC-BSD 1.1 Screenshot Tour
linuxbeta writes to tell us DistroWatch is reporting that PC-BSD has released version 1.1 which updates the core OS to FreeBSD 6.1, adds better driver support to the kernel and improves the overall speed on many systems. OSDir also has a screenshot tour available for general consumption.
BSD - Geek Different
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Nice screenshots I suppose, though they don't tell me all that much.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Some interesting screenshots, although I just skipped over the KDE ones because I've seen KDE before. It's nice to see a smooth graphical installation. Some purists always cry for text prompts, but I like the ease of a GUI. Every time I install gentoo I have to have a second machine running beside me to remind me of the steps to take in installation (I refuse to pay for inkjet cartridges, fill them on my own, or pay for a laserjet printer). Maybe it's me, but I have a horrible memory for that kind of stuff. Kuduos to PC-BSD if their installation is as smooth as it is good looking. If there's a graphical package manager and kernel manager then that's just bonus. I never liked the Linux GTK frontend (I still use make menuconfig after make oldconfig) and most of the portage frontends are too cluttered to be useful.
Linux? What's Linux?
/me = big fan of BSD on the server, however for the desktop - it's not as usably as the Penguin.
An OS that's had an official version of Java for a very long period of time, and has a plethora of desktop software unavailable to PC-BSD.
Note that only some of the software out there runs under Linux emulation mode.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Why can't you troll on topic?
I am a huge fan of PC-BSD but I have found it to be very slow. On both my laptop and PC it is slow. To open firefox or openoffice or netbeans takes very long. The updates are huge and everytime I install the startup process hangs on the sendmail initiation and I have to edit a file to make that go away. I believe it has promise but it's not there yet.
http://projectleader.wordpress.com
PC-BSD has as its goals to be an easy-to-install-and-use desktop operating system, based on FreeBSD. To accomplish this, it currently has a graphical installation, which will enable even UNIX novices to easily install and get it running.
Phew, thank goodness, I was afraid PC-BSD had as its goals to be a hard-to-install-and-use desktop operating system, based on FreeBSD, and that to accomplish this, it would have a morse-code interface installation, which would enable only ham UNIX expects to get it running...
I mean come on, every desktop-oriented OS on the planet does/tries to do that, it's obvious. This sort of content-less marketting talk is usually spewed out by companies like Microsoft, so I'm always a bit disappointed to read it on open-source project pages.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I seem to recall hearing somewhere (here maybe?) that BSD was dying. Can anyone confirm these rumors?
Yes, Netcraft can.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Umm.. not really. Alot of OSS distro's in the early days were not easy at all and the concern for capturing the general desktop market wasn't as popular of an idea as it is now. I mean hell. If all distro's wanted to make it easy to install an OS for the lamen, explain to me Gentoo.
So what is so Politically Correct about this new BSD? Did they remove the Advertising Clause from the liscence or something?
My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
Dead OS booting! We have a dead OS booting here!
Dead OS booting!
(I'm just joking, I know that BSD is a real Unix when compared with that toy-crap known as Linux.)
I mean come on, every desktop-oriented OS on the planet does/tries to do that, it's obvious. This sort of content-less marketting talk is usually spewed out by companies like Microsoft, so I'm always a bit disappointed to read it on open-source project pages.
:-/
Arguably, the difference is that FreeBSD is focused on just creating a good OS, while PC-BSD is designed to be a Desktop-oriented version of FreeBSD. It's a bit like the Darwin/OS X relationship. Darwin is the kernel, and is a complete operating system. OS X is Darwin bundled with various GUI frameworks out of the box.
Microsoft could do the same sort of division with Windows NT, but they've pretty much made it clear that they don't release OS cores. (Which is too bad, considering that I'd much rather use a command line to work with NT Servers.)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
It's not completely meaningless. The first question that comes to mind when you hear about a new BSD distro is "what makes it different from the other BSDs?" and it answers that question -- it's like FreeBSD, but easier to install and get working on the desktop. Sure, FreeBSD also aims to be easy to install and useful as a desktop system, but it's not their main priority.
If all distro's wanted to make it easy to install an OS for the lamen, explain to me Gentoo.
Who says the Gentoo folks don't want to make it easy? whether the final distro turns out to be hard to use is another matter.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
I love PC-BSD's Mac like software installer. If it had better Gnome support I would switch in a heartbeat.
Actually, last thing I heard most BSD forks are actually undead by now, ready to become our new free-as-in-not-RMS overlords.
Sorry, I wasn't trying to...hehe I didn't even RTF headline. Actually, I had just come out of a dept meeting where we were debating switching a few machines to Linux. I had just been challenged to post an anti-linux link on Slashdot, along with the IP of our crappy windows webserver. My boss said he would kill me. I wanted to scare him. Notice, I didn't put the IP.
Then you really didn't do anything then.
I have nothing to say.
Well, I think I scared him fairly well. And I demonstrated that I am just crazy enough to not be put in charge of any of the latest projects coming up.
If you follow that logic then you should be using windows. "Note that only some of the software out there runs under Windows emulation mode (WINE). /me = big fan of Linux on the server, however for the desktop - it's not as usably as the Weasel."
Philosophy.
Ahh...so in other words, you're a mentally unstable fucktard who should be out of a job.
How is all of this explaining supposed to be making you look -better- exactly?
I prefer DesktopBSD to PC-BSD as DesktopBSD uses ports, whereas PC-BSD seems rather fond of these PBI things, which seem to emulate the worst Windows has to offer (a solution such as this would have been a bit more bearable if they wanted to get away from the orthodox package management system.) That being said, I do with DesktopBSD would move on to FreeBSD 6 instead of 5.5.
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
While I'm not sure of any operating systems that require a morse code interface to run, I do know that some distributions don't try to go for user friendlyness and try to go for some other goals (such as performance). While yes, this is marketing drivel, it's not completely empty that they're going for an "easy-to-install-and-use desktop operating system".
Do we really need another KDE over nix variant? How about something gasp, new?
Or at least barring something new, a unifed KDE or Gnome over *nix pre installed and configured on a desktop pc so the folks at home can use it? Isn't yet another variant just dispersing our energies? Yes freedom is supper cool, but letting M$ and Apple win due a lack of discpline or fresh ideas is not...
Maybe there's something I'm missing about this project but at the very least it wasn't immediatly obvious from looking at screenshots.
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?
Maybe they can loan Theo from openbsd to be their PR person.
> every desktop-oriented OS on the planet does/tries to do that
spoken like a man that's never installed OpenBSD
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Here:5 39225
http://bsd.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/02/11/1
> An OS that's had an official version of Java for a very long period of time
you say it like it's a good thing
"No Java here" is something I like to see on the box
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Redhat tried that.
except that longhorn server WILL ship as a core server. Its been released for testing already and is pretty snazzy. It has no windows gui just command.com
Mods... that is supposed to be a joke, a formula one too. You know, a BSD is dying one... So either mod it funny or offtopic, but it is definitely not meant to be a troll.
It works for them.
Whether it's a goal for all distro's is arguable. Whether they succeed, and actually create an easy to install and use system is not. Check out OpenBSD or Gentoo Linux for proof of this.
Also, corporate-like marketing could really benefit many open source projects. I don't know how many times I've found an open source project, and the main project page thoroughly describes the bugs fixed between versions 0.1.1.3 and 0.1.1.4, but has no high level description about what the package does in the first place.
The developers are so concerned about the details they're dealing with, they don't step back and think about what a new user should know (like a corporate marketing team would).
Great screenshots! I especially like this one:
:-)
test$
Which is sooo much better than the usual:
test#
--
Now, where did I put my asbestos suit?
I think this looks like a good system, but since I am a big fan of Gnome, I will stay with FreeBSD for now. I do however know KDE has a lot of fans, and this is probably perfect for them. To each his/her own :)
'sig' deleted due to the stupidity of it's 'nature'
As someone who has installed OpenBSD on both x86 and PPC systems (which involves a slightly different process), I must say that I'm not sure where this comes from. I installed it on x86 without a manual in 10 minutes, and on PPC in around 20 (10 minutes being confusing related to disk labeling, as I was just used to the tools used on x86). It's really not bad at all. Much easier than Gentoo, and not much harder than a modern-day Debian. It is actually even easier then Debian because if something goes wrong and you want to go back a step, the installer doesn't freak out.
Come on... at least he had an excuse for being off-topic.
Debian is not known for being easy to install either.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
Perhaps in the past, but nowadays it is essentially the same as Ubuntu.
I haven't installed openbsd for a while (2.6 or so) but I've found gentoo easier to install. Faster? No. Easier? Sure. It's very easy and straightforward and even better, since there is no installer, if you want to go back and change something, you just go back and do it again, and then do all the steps after it if necessary. Also, last time I installed openbsd, I rebuilt it from source...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
This is nitpicky, but...
The language selection screen uses an image
of a malformed American flag over a German flag?
Seems a globe or something would make more sense.
Or at least use a cool looking flag like Brazil or Nepal.
Wow, you really put the "lame" in "lamen"(sic).
Gentoo is easy to install. If you just follow the directions, you get there. I know this is easy for me to say, because I have lots of experience, but really anyone who doesn't have the mindset of "this is too hard" will not have problems.
Funny thing is, even ubuntu won't install properly on my laptop. It will not boot if you cross the 512 cylinder boundary, and ubuntu by default creates one big filesystem even though I'm using IDE. Thus, grub is installed past cyl 512, and the system will not boot. Ubuntu doesn't tell you about this. Gentoo does, right in the install instructions, which is what takes the place of an installer. Ubuntu: 0. Gentoo: 1.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That's a great first step, I'll sneak a peek at it sometime. I'm interested in seeing what msh and a headless LH server provides. The last sticking points are getting rid of drive lettering by default (ie. not using drive map hack), getting rid of "The Registry" (tm), getting rid of hardware fingerprinting, and (cherry on top) tossing in a bundled command line based compiler (anti-trust blah blah). I think what I'm most curious about modifying the registry via a command line, seems like that would be the most un-fun. Could be done using a filesystem like sub-shell though since it's pretty much tree based.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
You can install OpenBSD by hand just like you do for Gentoo if that's your style. The easiest way is to use a boot CD and just run the installer... All you have to do is partition the disk. You can even just make one big root partition and it'll all go fine. If you do make separate partitions for /var, /tmp, etc, the installer will automatically recognize them and create a fstab with the appropriate flags for each partition for maximum security. If you can get past fdisk-style partitioning, it really is very easy.
Top of my list of pet peeves is criticisms just like this.
Todays alternatives:
http://www.gnustep.org/ different desktop
http://www.enlightenment.org/Enlightenment/DR17/ (another different desktop)
http://cm.bell-labs.com/plan9/
How about putting some time and effort into ONE new and different thing, then let's talk about new and different okay?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
"Yeah, but does it run Linux?"
(Someone HAS to post it. This comment is obligatory in this kind of thread)
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
The OpenBSD installer, for the most part, is tolerable.
Partitioning, though... *shudder*
I wouldn't consider Enlightenment DR17 one of "today's alternatives" as it is still in pre-alpha (or somewhere around there); I'd stick with DR16.8. You're also missing a few other alternatives:
XFCE
ROX Desktop
Equinox Desktop
XPde
Ion
Ratpoison
IceWM
FVWM
Waimea
PekWM
wmii
Fluxbox
Blackbox
Openbox
Matchbox
P.S. Out of curiosity, how many people use Plan 9 nowadays?
Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
What's the matter with WindowMaker, other than the fact that the lead developer is now too busy with his day job to maintain it?
(This is a serious question - I happen to use it, but it's a bit frustrating since nobody seems to be writing or maintaining many dock apps for it anymore. Is there something actually *wrong* with it that I'm not aware of?)
Back on topic - PC-BSD has been very nice for someone like me who had no prior experience with *BSD but would like to have a working system to play with and maybe even get something useful done with whilst learning more about it. Haven't had a chance to use 1.1 yet (or even 1.0) but I'm running 0.8 on a spare machine, it seems pretty cool, and I'll definitely be taking 1.1 for a spin sometime soon.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
> Debian is not known for being easy to install either.
User error. On my machine, it was press enter 3 times, partition the disk, press enter 4 times, reboot, set timezone, setup user account, apt-get upgrade, done. Much easier than Windows, which insists on asking dumb questions five minutes apart (so you can't just walk away), and doesn't let you create a password for your user! (You also can't have the same username as the machine's hostname. WTF?)
Anyway, Debian has the best installer out of any Linux I've used, and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands. For the record, Ubuntu's installer is using Debian's system -- although they may have written the partitioning wizard screen, which is quite nice.
My other car is first.
Fuck new users. Let them use corporate-crippled software. Most free software I use (and write) has excellent documentation. Although it's not "let's hold your hand and treat you like a dumbshit", it's "here are all the details, read them, think about them, then read them again. after that, try some stuff and see what works". Personally, I wouldn't give up the second one for anything.
(Oh, but thinking is TOO HARD. Fuck you, that's too bad.)
My other car is first.
OMG screenshots of KDE! No ponies :( :(
My parents have had my old K6-233 for YEARS running Windows 95. It still worked fine for what they do believe it or not. Came across some spare hardware, a Duron 800 with 512MB of RAM, figured it was time they had an upgrade. I put a PC-BSD pre 1.0 on it, believe it was RC2 had it installed here at the house forever, finally deployed it to them. Dad loves it, mom says he never gets off of it. Of course all they do with it is play Pysol, SameGame, and FrozenBubble. UT2k4 and Armagetron are installed on it,but those were more of stress test for my own testing more than anything and wont be used by them. Overall I loved it. I like PC-BSDs single program installers, they're as easy if not easier than using Windows installers, but I tend to use the ports system instead. If you're interested in my adventures in PC-BSD land here's a link.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
I actually installed FreeBSD successfully on a machine, and then a year or so later attempted to wipe it and install Gentoo in its place, and I failed. There were just too many places in the Gentoo docs where they assumed I had expertise that I didn't. I've never had any trouble installing FreeBSD, however, using the curses interface; it basically just gives you defaults that work.
Find free books.
Actually i would recommend http://enlightenment.org/ if you want to do something different.
Yes, E17 is still in development. However, pretty stable release snapshots are made now and then.
If you would leave out some small things like the file manager thingy you end up with a pretty stable desktop good enough for the *nix user. There are also widget libraries and many more stuff available for you to create your application with.
Another pro is that the developers are _very_ cross platform aware.
The licensing its really good for you too! It's truely free or some form of BSD if i remember correctly. Even if you would use it in a commercial application. They just like to hear from you and hope to see some credits somewhere on a page of manual.
An disadvantage would be that there is no file manager. So you can use a 3th party one, start your own project or keep it at the shell.
It's just too easy to say something like "create something yourself" but thats such a huge task!
An intresting idea atleast!
Hope to hear from you.
I've installed and am running Gentoo. If you can see the handbook, it's not that bad to install. It maybe takes 45 minutes if you use a stage on your install CD (I run the AMD64 version, I don't think x86 has the stages on the Universal CD.) Probably the hardest thing about Gentoo is that it seems as if it could be very easy to foul up your installation if you goof with Portage too much, especially the etc-update and emerge --depclean tools. I'm careful and haven't broken anything, and I haven't heard of anybody crapping up their installation that way, but it's like a chainsaw- you know that it can cause damage if you're not careful but the odds are low that you'll get hurt if you're not being stupid or unaware. I imagine that compile times on older machines would be pretty long- my Athlon X2 4200+ took roughly a day from start to pretty much full-on KDE, OpenOffice, Firefox, the whole shebang, and that's with MAKEOPTS="-j3."
Even with those things, Gentoo is probably the best OS I have ever used. I have not used any of the BSDs as I, well, just haven't used any of them. They have many of the same traits as Linux- they use the same KDE, similar tools, etc., so I never really looked at them as I came from Windows looking for a better OS, and Linux was the first thing I found and I was happy with it.
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
Ubuntu's installer pretty much *IS* Debian's, save for a few slightly different options (Ubuntu doesn't use select packages or set a root password.) It is similar down to the little yellow "Debian Installer" text at the upper right corner being changed to "Ubuntu Installer." It's an okay installer, so I guess why muck around a lot with it?
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
Much easier than Windows,
Oh, I wasn't using Windows as a model. I hate installing Windows. I can never find driver disks when I need them so the whole thing always takes me hours. Linux installs have spoiled me.
I guess Debian installs have improved since I last tried, which is great for Debian. Mepis has the easiest install I've ever seen though. I gave a live/install disk to my non-techy friend who wanted to try Linux (who had never installed an OS before), telling her if she liked it I'd install it in a couple days, and when I came back a couple days later she already had it installed. Now Ubuntu's taken Mepis's install ideas and it looks like they've made it even easier for their new release, though I haven't tried it yet.
It's amazing how fast things improve for Linux.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
Is there any reason why they choose KDE for desktop?? sigghh.... i use KDE long ago but then switch to GNOME. From my experiences GNOME is lighter than KDE
LOL Jews
Or Gentoo
PC-3SD? What's that?
Right -- I did not mean to imply that Debian was emulating Ubuntu. I was simply saying that they're very similar, and Ubuntu is considered an "easy" Linux, so there's no reason to consider Debian's installer to be "hard".
"Yeah, but does it run Linux?"
(Someone HAS to post it. This comment is obligatory in this kind of thread)
Don't forget: "Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these PC-BSD machines!!!!"
Nothing to see here
Actually, it does run Linux binaries. The earlier versions required binary compatibility to be added post-install. Since PC-BSD moved to FreeBSD kernel 6.0, Linux binary compatibility is pre-configured. There is no post-installation configuration now. Just add packages, either by .pbi, pkg_add, or ports. And yes, Kim, I know you were kidding.
If you want your life to be different, live it differently.
Yet another Gnome/KDE interface based operating system
Accidently modded redundant(aimed for insightful) :)
So posting to remove my moderation.
Congratulations, you just reinvented UNIX, poorly.
Go go FreeBSD! Nice stuff honestly!
-Arabian CEO We Arab Portal Network http://www.WeArab.Net/
A state.
/sarcasm
This counts as a front page story? Did I tred into OSNews by mistake?
Israel is a state not a country.
but did we really need a Politically Correct BSD?
What, does it hand over all your private data to the government without them having to ask first?
Love the screenshot with the Mountains background..
Anyone know where I can download the image?
It now appears there was a race condition in the netcraft code. The numbers reporting linux take-up were actually estimations, not of linux installations, but of linux re-installs. Netcraft is attributing this to large numbers of Gentoo and Ubuntu users trying to get it right. New, corrected algorithms are in place and the baseline data is being re-factored by Netcraft's FreeBSD servers which, not surprisingly, continue to get the damn job done without drawing attention to themselves.
Why is it that every *nix shows screenshots of the latest KDE or gnome? how does this actually prove anything about the distro? (other then showing they use the newest KDE or GNOME release).....yeah....screenshots are kind of pointless......
I fear the Y2038 bug
What's wrong with the registry (that's true of OSes other than Win9x)?
The registry gives you a common API to query configuration settings. On Linux, you write a conf file. Some conf files uses spaces; some, tabs. Some must be compiled or require a PhD in alien vocabulary (sendmail).
If you sit back and say, wow, all my configuration settings should be in something like a database with common APIs, you come up with the registry.
As someone who came from a server system administrator background to learn more about databases and 4GL, etc, I see a lot of system administrator types don't trust databases b/c their unstable, monolithic or magic, but it's time to move beyond fopen() and while() as a key part of every application just to read settings.
As for modifying the registry or any system setting via the command line, if you don't mind what appears to be nonsense, but I believe is the challenge of having all system information presented in a standard way, check out wmic.