It seems like the DesktopBSD project's future is at stake due to a lack developers and time. "Hello everyone, sorry for not keeping in touch with you guys for quite a while," main developer Peter Hofer writes, "Truth is, I find myself having less and less time for DesktopBSD these days. In addition, my interests have shifted quite a bit since I started working on it in 2004 (thinking of it, that's almost 5 years ago now...). As a result, I don't really feel that I can make DesktopBSD progress steadily and significantly on my own. Unfortunately, there are no other active developers nor does it seem like there are any who would be interested in contributing." While the project is not dead yet, there will be no major changes or bugfixes for the upcoming 1.7 release, and it could very well be the project's last release.
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2006-01-24
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2006-01-04
Member since:2007-03-04
If it's for a hobby, that's ok. I mean, if you use DesktopBSD at home, and if it's not maintained anymore, you can switch to FreeBSD, PC-BSD or even to Linux or other *BSD distro. They're all similar and sometimes compatible.
But since the very beginning when DesktopBSD was launched with PC-BSD being a strong competitor, I always felt discourage on the DesktopBSD forum somehow. I'm amazed it has survived that long, truely. Who's next? 
Member since:2005-07-06
That's what so great about projects based on Open Source components, you're almost never relying on just one vendor. I haven't looked into it, but I doubt migrating from DesktopBSD to some other FreeBSD based distro is all that hard. Certainly easier than migrating to a completely different OS.
Same with Linux, if your favorite one man distro goes under you can often trivially move to another distro with minimal effort. And it's even easier if your favourite one man distro is based on a larger distro like Debian or Fedora.
So while there are certainly wisdom in your statement it seems somewhat overstated. The important thing is to keep a migration path open. If you do that then use the software that works best for you no matter how small it might be.
Member since:2007-09-27
Member since:2005-07-24
For the moment.
I recall that a while back Patrick was doctor shopping, ignoring their advice, and posting to Slashdot or some such for medical advice regarding a serious long-term illness he had or thought he had, possibly involving an electric toothbrush.
Edited 2009-06-09 03:24 UTC
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2006-01-22
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2009-04-08
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2005-07-06
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2005-06-30
I figured this was coming last week when I was reading the message boards. It's a shame, but I can't really see the need anymore when we have PC-BSD essentially doing the same thing. With NetBSD going the Gnome route, perhaps the next user-friendly BSD should cater to XFCE users?