Linked by karunko on Tue 4th Jan 2011 23:06 UTC
It's been a long time coming, but a brand new release of VirtualBSD is out: "VirtualBSD 8.1 is a desktop ready FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE based on the Xfce 4.6 Desktop Environment and, being distributed as VMware appliance, it makes dead easy to take FreeBSD for a test drive." The best part? Not only are the most common aplications available out of the box, this is a genuine FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE, which means that if you go past the desktop you'll be dealing with The Real Thing. You can take a look at the screenshots, go to the download page or, if you're impatient, just grab the torrent file.
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Member since:2006-06-28
Member since:2010-08-16
Member since:2006-11-18
It takes about that to have working Flash under Firefox/Midori:
/etc/rc.conf
linux_enable="YES"
# pkg_add -r linux_base-f10
# pkg_add -r linux-f10-nspr
# pkg_add -r linux-f10-sqlite3
# pkg_add -r linux-f10-curl
# pkg_add -r linux-f10-libssh2
# pkg_add -r linux-f10-nss
# pkg_add -r nspluginwrapper
# pkg_add -r firefox35
# pkg_add -r midori
# cd /usr/ports/www/linux-f10-flashplugin10 && make install clean
% nspluginwrapper -v -i $( find / -name libflashplayer.so )
If You want to have working Flash in Opera, then You additionaly need to install this port:
# pkg_add -r opera-linuxplugins
Member since:2008-10-28
Member since:2008-10-28
Doesn't look bad. BSD is lagging so much on the desktop.
Not really, unless you haven't been looking for a long time! ;-)
The applications available are largely the same compared to Linux and, what's not available natively, can usually be run via emulation (like the Flash plugin, for instance). Or you were referring to Windows and OS X?
How's the freebsd+flash situation? Still sad?..
Someome wrote: "One of my definitions of desktop ready is whether I can see YouTube videos out-of-the-box" and the screenshots clearly shows YouTube running, so I should say no, not sad at all.
Reece Tarbert
Member since:2006-10-08
Doesn't look bad. BSD is lagging so much on the desktop.
I can't confirm that - using it exclusively on my home desktop since version 4.0, and 've been doing all the "fancy stuff" for years, never missed a thing. What have I been doing wrong? :-)
VirtualBSD really looks interesting. I wish there would be a fully functional german version of it to share. I also like the intended look & feel that makes me think it would maybe resemble a certain OS from Cupertino. Xfce is relatively lightweight, but brings all the bells, whistles, dancing bunnies and bling that "average" desktop users are traditionally expecting.
The idea of releasing a VMware image is good - especially for "just want to try it" users, I wish they would also release an installable version of it (doesn't even need an installer, just the image, and let the user do the last tweaks in relation to X) - for the real fun.
I'm interested in how far the "out of the box" experience includes the ability to play various media formats. The idiotic codec trouble - you know - often makes things complicated in terms of providing the full set of codecs and player software, because it's illegal to play MP3s in the US. :-)
Member since:2008-10-28
VirtualBSD really looks interesting. I wish there would be a fully functional german version of it to share.
You can select you preferred language from the login screen (look at the bottom after selecting the user, click on Other... and pick your language). Not all sofware has been localized, though.
The idea of releasing a VMware image is good - especially for "just want to try it" users, I wish they would also release an installable version
That would be nice but also quite a lot of work with drivers and stuff -- not too mention that both PC-BSD and DesktopBSD are available and quite good. As you said, VirtualBSD is really meant to give you a taste of FreeBSD.
I'm interested in how far the "out of the box" experience includes the ability to play various media formats.
VLC is part of the installation, so... ;-)
Reece
Member since:2005-07-08
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2010-09-25
Doesn't look bad. BSD is lagging so much on the desktop.
How's the freebsd+flash situation? Still sad?..