OSNews

Yes, not much depth there. The subject is interesting though. Agree with him about PCBSD for the desktop, its very very promising. Another of the same genre, that he doesn't mention, is DesktopBSD. If picking a desktop today, I might be tempted to go for PCBSD instead of one of the big four Linux distros. It has a bit the same feel as PCLinux, which is also a real contender in the Linux space.

Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has tried DesktopBSD. These have to be the future, don't you think? One app per purpose, simple clean interface, perfect for people who are looking for an appliance, and are not enthusiasts. Mepis maybe falls in this category too.

Dragonfly, I tried a while back, and couldn't get a proper install as desktop working on my slightly old test machine.

Not really sure what the great advantage of the BSD kernel as opposed to the Linux kernel would be. If you were comparing, lets say, PCLinux with PCBSD?

PC-BSD is on my list as a replacement for Kubuntu too. I like the .pbi way of (un)installing packages. It's just that the package list at this point is too short for me to make the 'switch'. Of course I can use ordinary FreeBSD software, but that would defeat the point of using PC-BSD.

I hope it gains more traction, seriously. Maybe someone inside the Linux world gets the idea and ports/copies/recreates .pbi on Linux so that it is as usable on Linux as it is on PC-BSD.

Autopackage already does this on Linux. I used it to install Nvu on an unsupported distro, as it can be very difficult sometimes. Went off without a hitch...took me about 2 minutes.

"Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has tried DesktopBSD. These have to be the future, don't you think?"

Definately better for ordinary desktop users yes, but when someone asks me what I think would be best for them to buy for day to day stuff, I usually point them towards G4 Macs anyway. All the power of Unix, and few of the hassels. More reboots though, and sometimes it can be a little slugggish.

"Not really sure what the great advantage of the BSD kernel as opposed to the Linux kernel would be."

Depends on what you're doing. Sometimes one will be better than the other, but the real-world differences are minimal as they all pretty much do the same things. FreeBSD and most Linux distributions are the most easilly compared as they both have most of the same features. It's cat and mouse really.

OpenBSD's quality control though, I'd have to say is the best in the computing world. It's kind of slow however, as unlike Linux, FreeBSD and DragonFly, it doesn't have a unified buffer cache or kernel-assisted userland threading. Solid OS though, with a quick (if initially intimidating) install.

I prefer the BSDs over Linux (OS X and DragonFly esp) for reasons that are more based on personal preference than anything else, so I'll not go into that. WinXP isn't that bad either, once you change some of the more brain-dead default settings. But hell, if you're using Linux, BSD, Mac OS X, Windows or whatever, and it does everything you want with little hassel, then there really isn't any reason to switch.

Edited 2005-11-20 18:35

"Not really sure what the great advantage of the BSD kernel as opposed to the Linux kernel would be."Realize that Linux is ONLY a kernel, the BSDs ship as complete OPERATING SYSTEMS.

"Realize that Linux is ONLY a kernel, the BSDs ship as complete OPERATING SYSTEMS."

Which doesn't stop you from comparing the kernels.

Realize that it doesn't really matter when _most_ of the stuff that makes up your desktop isn't BSD anyway. 8-)

"One thing that sucks is the Java install thingy. It sucks that one have to manual fetch the right files. But thats a problem on all FreeBSD's. "

That is a Sun issue; to be blunt. The certification process is costly, if I am not mistaken. Under FreeBSD 1.3.x was certified by Sun.

"That is a Sun issue; to be blunt. The certification process is costly, if I am not mistaken. Under FreeBSD 1.3.x was certified by Sun."

I know that it is a Sun issue. But that doesn't change the fact that installing java is a bitch in freebsd. :-)

But I may better look PCBSD up again as it sounds like they have a java .pbi package thingy. :-)

/B

There is also a Gnome based version of PCBSD alpha being released in the next few days....

Where did you here this? Thats exactly what I was looking for >:)

Where did you here this? Thats exactly what I was looking for >:)

Wanna know who is the one man responsible for PC-BSD with GNOME? OSNews' Andrew Youll .

Funny though, Andrew started working on GNOME PC-BSD because he got sick of me complaining about a lack of a GNOME version of PC-BSD; now, I'm in a KDE period, and he's in a GNOME period (he used to be a KDE person).

Funny, ey?

Java still has to be installed the hard way on DesktopBSD but for freBSD there is a real java PBI. It's easier to install as in windows and replaces the older PBI which was just a wizard covering all the steps to install the hard way with links to the download places and everything else automatic. The new PC-BSD java is just clicking "yes, yes, yes".

Note: If this is a binary install, then this is an illegal / unauthorized install. The reason there are no binary packages for Java on FreeBSD beyond JDK 1.3 is that Sun Microsystems has not certified any of the binary packages, nor given their stamp of approval for distributing binary packages. While this won't be a big deal for casual home users, this could land the PCBSD group in some serious trouble with Sun.

Just something to think about.

The Java PBI in PC_BSD seems to be a Linux binary that is run via Linux Binary Compatability layer.

http://www.pcbsd.org/?p=changelog