OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/22682/PC-BSD_8_0-BETA_Released Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Sun, 19 May 2013 16:33:53 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402220 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402220 FreeBSD 8.0-Release
KDE 4.3.4
Brand new System Installer, allows the install of PC-BSD or FreeBSD
Run in Live mode directly from DVD
Updated Software Manager, allows browsing and installing applications directly
Support for 3D acceleration with NVIDIA drivers on amd64

Might download and give it a whir (liveCD mode). Last time I tried PC-BSD (which I do like and actually used as a primary system for months before I got a new mac a few years ago (between computers)) it was not as I remembered it. But that is probably because I was running it on newer hardware... X was horrible, UI performance was slow and choppy with K on top of X that did not auto config to my system. Yeah, I could have installed better drivers and tweaked the config by hand but it kind of peeved me that I had to when the last time I used it, it was near perfect.

So... that being said I will certainly download and take another gander with FBSD 8 and better drivers for NVidia... looking like it could be a winner.

OH! And that is very interesting that they've added the option to install straight FreeBSD -OR- PC-BSD from their installer. Nice touch. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Tuishimi) Comments RE: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402227 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402227 I'd like to give it a go but I gather that it has even more problems with proprietary tech such as Flash than Linux does. It also lacked a fully functioning virtualiser, although efforts were underway to port VirtualBox.

I might give it a try to see if there has been much progress because I'd like to try a system that makes a distinction between the base install and the applications. Kubuntu seems to be bleeding edge with the system components and conservative with application versions, and ideally, I'd like something that works the opposite way round. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:10:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rhyder) Comments RE[2]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402230 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402230 In a default PCBSD install, Flash 10 is working out of the box. Flash 10 has been working on FreeBSD for some time now.

VirtualBox is available as a PBI package for PCBSD and is also available in FreeBSD as a port. VirtualBox has been usable on FreeBSD for quite a while now.

I have the new PCBSD 8.0-beta installed and it is looking great. Can't wait for the release! Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:08:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (foldingstock) Comments RE[3]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402232 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402232 Sounds like I need to check it out.

BTW, what is performance like for Flash? Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (rhyder) Comments RE[4]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402234 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402234 About the same as on Linux. Not as smooth as on Windows, but usable. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:49:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (foldingstock) Comments RE[5]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402248 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402248 Every now and then, you may find that Flash apps are "frozen" or locked up. A quick fix is to issue a pkill npviewer.bin either at a command line, or via the KRunner run command (Alt+F2 by default, but I always remap it Win+R). Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (phoenix) Comments PC-BSD http://www.osnews.com/thread?402252 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402252 IMO PC-BSD is "The Ubuntu of the BSD land". Yes, exactly. It is no replacement for linux, it doesn't have [like all BSDs] HW support that would be better than HW support of linux-based systems. It means that GUI acceleration and all of the eye-candy stuff related to new HW will probobly *not* work, or work in a crappy way.
I think PC-BSD is an OS for the BSD guys that don't have much time to configure their Free/Net/Open/DFBSD boxes, or for the beginners.
Once again: it is not a strict "linux/windows alternative". It is definitely different, just like every OS on a planet [and not like many linux distros which are almost the same and share the same base, thus the same HW support].
Your linux might run all of this fancy GUI things, but it will probobly die somewhere on the way [from time to time], while BSDs tends to emphase stability, not the GUIsh stuff - even with PC-BSD ... Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:04:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (marcp) Comments RE[6]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402263 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402263 That's imho a story of the past, regarding FreeBSD 7.x. I haven't seen any problem with FreeBSD 8 and Flash 10 so far (AMD64 if this makes any difference while using it). Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:33:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Oliver) Comments RE: PC-BSD http://www.osnews.com/thread?402265 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402265 >It means that GUI acceleration and all of the eye-candy stuff related to new HW will probobly *not* work, or work in a crappy way.

It seems you're using a different system, propably not FreeBSD. KDE 4.x seems even snappier on FreeBSD than on many of the major Linux distros. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Oliver) Comments RE[2]: PC-BSD http://www.osnews.com/thread?402266 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402266 "It seems you're using a different system, propably not FreeBSD."

Yes, I am an OpenBSD user, but I also use FreeBSD on some of my desktops. The fact is that I am deliberately not using eye candies, because -for me - it's obsolete and unpractical, just waste of the resources and an entry for new bugs - possible threat for stability and security.

"KDE 4.x seems even snappier on FreeBSD than on many of the major Linux distros."

No doubt it is. I was talking only about HW. It is obvious [for the ones that have used FreeBSD just once], that FreeBSD is faster than most OSs. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:46:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (marcp) Comments RE[7]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402267 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402267 Could be. I'm running 7-STABLE (post 7.2), with linux-f10, 2.6.16 ABI support, and Flash 10.0.42. Every now and then, Flash sites (and sometimes even Google Mail/Reader) will lock up Firefox 3.5 requiring the pkill trick.

Haven't upgraded to 8.x yet at home. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 21:53:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (phoenix) Comments RE[8]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402271 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402271 >2.6.16 ABI support

As far as I know, it isn't fully supported in FBSD7.x. But I know the problem, it's at least according to my experience gone with the advent of 8.0. Sun, 03 Jan 2010 22:00:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Oliver) Comments RE[5]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402299 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402299 How is Flash in Wine? Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (nt_jerkface) Comments RE[6]: Sounds good. http://www.osnews.com/thread?402339 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402339 Usable, but a bit buggy and slow. Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:59:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (foldingstock) Comments what about gnome? http://www.osnews.com/thread?402402 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402402 how's gnome support in pcbsd land? Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (ghostwunder) Comments RE: what about gnome? http://www.osnews.com/thread?402417 http://www.osnews.com/thread?402417
how's gnome support in pcbsd land?


It is in ports and as usable in FreeBSD/PCBSD as in Linux. There is also a PBI of Gnome available for PCBSD for easy setup. Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:29:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (foldingstock) Comments