Comments on: PC-BSD 7.1.1 Quick Review

By: justin

justin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:10:58 +0000

Come on Rich, FreeBSD is large and in charge? I can get a base install under 500 Mb. FreeBSD does take a little longer to install programs through the port system, but it’s worth it for the stability and security that only BSD can bring to the server. I still prefer Linux or OS X for the desktop.

By: eli

eli — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:47:10 +0000

Ah, very cool. Might download and give it a try today.

By: Links 12/08/2009: 10 Years Since Red Hat IPO, Scribus 1.3.5 Released | Boycott Novell

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:54:50 +0000

[...] PC-BSD 7.1.1 Quick Review The default desktop environment is KDE. In Linux/UNIX circles concerning the desktop you’re either a GNOME or KDE type of user (or a super-lightweight environment like Fluxbox). I personally prefer GNOME, but I’m not turned off by the way KDE does things; it’s just a different type of environment compared to GNOME. [...]

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:15:35 +0000

PBIs are similar to the way Linux Mint does apps. You can use their web site to install apps and/or use the repository. But obviously the web site way is easier.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:40:09 +0000

FreeBSD has a repository. pkg_add command is similar to apt-get install and it will resolve package dependencies. PC-BSD can use both PBI and FreeBSD repositories.

By: eli

eli — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:28:26 +0000

Thanks for this, your article is actually making me think of trying BSD. One thing that might tarnish my view of it though, is the lack of a repo. I do love the way Ubuntu handles software. The tar.gz files are cumbersome when I have to use them, but nothing I’ve seen so far can beat the ease and fool-proofness of using the repos in Ubuntu, either in Add/Remove, or Synaptic. My mom even loves it.

By: Rich Menga

Rich Menga — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:36:18 +0000

It had been a long time since I tried a BSD. As far as a UNIX is concerned, PC-BSD has its user friendliness where it counts. Good as a desktop OS? Maybe, but still can’t match software offerings and multimedia capabilities of Linux distros.

I don’t think there’s any way to get FreeBSD small. It’s large and in charge, and, well.. it will probably always be that way.

And yeah I’ll be trying Arch later.

By: Kyle Potts

Kyle Potts — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:01:32 +0000

Sweet thanks for the link Rich, and for listening to my suggestion! I liked PC-BSD, but I don’t think I would use it as a desktop OS. I would though use it as a server OS. The only reason the reqirements are so high are because of kde, but if you install fluxbox or openbox you should be fine. I also wish they would make the download smaller or make a livecd (you could always order one I guess)

Well now maybe since you got your hands dirty in BSD maybe you could try installing arch?