PC-BSD: seems to be nice!

[sha_man]

Hello, PC-BSD 1.0 was released today! :D

From their website, http://www.pcbsd.org :


PC-BSD has as its goal to be an easy to install and use desktop OS, which is built on the FreeBSD operating system. To accomplish this, it currently has a graphical installation, which will enable even UNIX novices to easily install and get up and running. The system comes loaded with the "K" Desktop Environment (KDE), which lets users immediately sit down to a familiar interface. Also developed exclusively for PC-BSD is the PBI system, which lets users download and install their applications in a self-extracting & installing format, similar to InstallShield® on Windows®.

Features

* Fully functional desktop operating system, running FreeBSD 6.0 under the hood.
* Graphical system installer, makes the process of installing your system take only minutes.
* Support for many native languages.
* Advanced stability & performance that FreeBSD users have come to expect.
* Easy to use package management system (PBI), but also works with standard FreeBSD ports/packages.
* Graphical tools for system administration and support.
* Friendly and helpful support community.
* PBI packages are self-contained, and do not rely on numerous system dependancies.
* Very clean minimal install (1 installation CD), no cluttered mess of programs and dependancies to untangle.
* Online Update Manager - Manually or automatically downloads and installs updates for your operating system, without touching your installed programs.



Seems nice :D Anybody tried? I will of course!



http://www.pcbsd.org/i/pcbsd1anounce.jpg

[BWF89]

Does PC-BSD have an option for installing Packages that haven't been converted to PBI files yet like Ubuntu's apt-get?

Also, how do you get all your dependencies when you install a program with a PBI file? I'm pretty sure it doesn't automatically fetch them like apt-get does.

[-Rick-]

Does PC-BSD have an option for installing Packages that haven't been converted to PBI files yet like Ubuntu's apt-get?

Also, how do you get all your dependencies when you install a program with a PBI file? I'm pretty sure it doesn't automatically fetch them like apt-get does.
You can easily install the ports tree via a GUI app or with one command, this will let you install over 14000 apps :)

And for the PBI's, I think they are all self containing so they don't have any deps.

[BWF89]

I know that PBI install files are native to PC-BSD, but is it possible to use them on FreeBSD since thats what PC-BSD is based on?

[sha_man]

http://www.pbidir.com/ for software.... (nice collection)

[IYY]

You can easily install the ports tree via a GUI app or with one command, this will let you install over 14000 apps

Been a while since I used FreeBSD, but it means you have to compile everything, right? I think I'll pass, considering that this slow machine of mine takes hours to compile.

[-Rick-]

Been a while since I used FreeBSD, but it means you have to compile everything, right? I think I'll pass, considering that this slow machine of mine takes hours to compile.
Well there are precompiled binaries too, just not as many and less up-to-date. I guess you could use them aswell(through pkg_add).

[warp99]

I tried the vmware image of PC-BSD, but no amd64 version (I'm spoiled on the speed difference between 32/64 bit apps). I didn't try to install any of the PBI's so I have no idea about updates. On exit it did crash similar to when I had 3.5.0 KDE installed on my kubuntu machine.

My big question was how much support for some of the third party apps. Otherwise it's the same as kubuntu with pretty wallpaper, but for FreeBSD. 8)

[vipernicus]

FreeBSD has pretty much a package for everything you'd need, and if there isnt' a package, you can always use ports to compile it. It's a really nice package management system, and FreeBSD base runs great on x86 hardware.

[K.Mandla]

Well, I gave it a try, and I wasn't real impressed. I should say I'm not a fan of KDE in the first place, so that was a little disappointing, but I couldn't get native resolution on my monitor, and the network configuration tool kept crashing. So it was fun to try, but I won't be abandoning Xubuntu.

On the other hand, the graphical installer is sooo nice. I've tried the Espresso installer on the Dapper betas and it's nice too, but I definitely prefer that graphical install wizard (or FC5's Anaconda installer (?) ) over Ubuntu's text-based install program. I realize it's trivial, but I really dig it.

[htinn]

I just read this rave review and it was very encouraging:

http://www.tuxmachines.org/node/6665

I think I may have to give it a try sometime.