Anyone tried PC-BSD or DesktopBSD?


Recommended Posts

Tried PC-BSD... it is easy to install and easy to run. To me, the GUI looked a little washed-out, but that was me....... it ran without any issues at all.

Barney

stupid question: why use BSD insted of Linux if they're both easy to use?

586410701[/snapback]

Well, they use a different kernel (for what it is worth). Linux uses GNU for its OS (commands), and BSD uses their own command implementation (decended from Unix, rather than a non-Unix clone of unix).

But, slap KDE on there, and there really isn't much difference to the end user (at least, to my understanding).

yeah...as far as i understand it the end user won't notice much of a difference (in theory at least) ...it's just BSD is supposed to be well known for it's slightly greater stability which has generally suffered from a lack of broad hardware support (which i hear is changing though, at least for wireless hardware) ...i could be wrong, no? :unsure:

<-- gonna install DesktopBSD on a VM and play a bit ;)

No flame war on BSD vs Linux pls. i jus wanna hv my hands-on experience with BSD..

btw, seems *bsd can't let me install (detect) on my linux partition (currently playing with Slackware, dual boot with Windows XP). seems if i really hv to install *bsd, i hv to re-partition my only (working) harddisk

my 40GB harddisk is currently divided into:

- 2 fat32 partitions, one for Windows xp, another one for storing my own stuffs, music, some cached copies of some bsd/linux iso's e.g. kubuntu, slackware, mepis, linspire, xandros etc

- 1 resier3 linux parition for Slackware Linux 10.x (which is scheduled to be removed to install SUSE 10 beta 3 next week, if i dun install *bsd)

- 1 linux swap

Edited by crossbonez

I havnt tried Desktop-BSD yet, i hear its ok... right now im using PCBSD.. i really like it alot, the .pbi's are really a treat to use, very and i mean VERY easy, works just like a windows.exe... only downside is that there arent very many packages available in that format, in which case I use FreeBSD's ports system which is also very easy to use, and has all the pakcages you could ever need

I haven't tried PCBSD or DesktopBSD, however, I have been using OpenBSD since day 1. No offense, but on some machines, Linux distro (even SlackWare) fails to boot, and OpenBSD comes to rescue and save my day.

I trust OpenBSD more than I do for Linux. In terms of performance, I actually gain more server performance out of OpenBSD than from Linux. With OpenBSD, I have the user friendliness of installing programs, and no more dependencies horror. Sure you can do that with Gentoo/Debian, but neither of these distros really run too well on older machines now a day.

I have a really old laptop (Pentium 200 Mhz, 32 Mb, Trident grahics, 5 gig HD ), and sadly, no Linux distros would boot or detct the hard drive (except Damm Small Linux). OpenBSD (FreeBSD didn't boot at all), on the other hand, boots up like charm. After minimal installatioin, I was on wireless network downloading packages (Damn Small Linux could not even get wireless card running).. and within a few hours, X Windows running flushbox was in good order..

I am glad that PCBSD and DesktopBSD are making progress in user friendliness; however, if they in fact use their proprietary installation format, I think that's truly a huge step back from Ports system.

Edited by ThunderRiver
No offense, but on some machines, Linux distro (even SlackWare) fails to boot, and OpenBSD comes to rescue and save my day.

586410877[/snapback]

No offense, but I haven't seen a single machine yet that BSD worked on and Linux didn't, the problem has for the most part been between the chair and the desk.

I tried Desktop BSD and it didn't detect my keyboard :blink:

Another differance between linux and *BSD is the way they organise their file system. The thing that originally attracted me to Desktop BSD was the way it had a seperate folder for each program and it it's dependancies / libraries, having been more used to Windows, that setup seemed more familiar to me.. I'm getting used to the file system now tho..

I've tried PC-BSD: it's impressive. Easy to install, easy to maintain, and quick. You can use the .pbi to install more apps, or get FreeBSD ports. For BSD, it's a big step forward.

Now, is it really any different from linux? KDE is KDE, so the end user experience is no different. I guess you wouldn't really notice the difference until you start getting into the guts of the OS.

  • 2 weeks later...
No offense, but I haven't seen a single machine yet that BSD worked on and Linux didn't, the problem has for the most part been between the chair and the desk.

586411237[/snapback]

Yeah and I have never seen a machine that ran Linux but not BSD :p Now more seriously I DID see one machine that did not ran Linux, but where FreeBSD worked much better. It was an HP workstation SATA hard-disks, PCI express, pretty recent network card, at that time it was hard (in fact impossible) to find a distro that worked easily with the system. FreeBSD ran perfectly in safe mode.

Yeah and I have never seen a machine that ran Linux but not BSD :p Now more seriously I DID see one machine that did not ran Linux, but where FreeBSD worked much better. It was an HP workstation SATA hard-disks, PCI express, pretty recent network card, at that time it was hard (in fact impossible) to find a distro that worked easily with the system. FreeBSD ran perfectly in safe mode.

586482265[/snapback]

I've also come accross various situations where some hardware would be painlessly available to BSD whereas it required more mucking around with linux. I've also come accross the opposite. Who really cares anyway. They are both great oses to play with.

As for the ePenis, I'm pretty sure that setting up Damn Small Linux would be harder than say FreeBSD, so I'm not sure where the BSD = ePenis Enhancement comes from :p

I've also come accross various situations where some hardware would be painlessly available to BSD whereas it required more mucking around with linux. I've also come accross the opposite. Who really cares anyway. They are both great oses to play with.

As for the ePenis, I'm pretty sure that setting up Damn Small Linux would be harder than say FreeBSD, so I'm not sure where the BSD = ePenis Enhancement comes from :p

586483704[/snapback]

Difficulty isn't much of a factor compared to the elitism of the task. The best way to describe it would be considered borderline flamebait, so I won't go there.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Here is how I fixed Windows 11 not booting after clean installation by Taras Buria Story time. A couple of weeks ago, I experienced a very odd thing with my computers. I was trying to reinstall Windows 11 on my primary device, and everything was going smoothly until the installer performed the first restart. After that, my computer entered the boot disk selection screen instead of continuing the setup process. Huh, that's odd, said I, and selected Windows Boot Manager only to see it fall back into the same screen right away. Then I tried booting from the USB drive with the same result—the PC kept returning to the boot device selection screen, and removing the drive would send my PC to UEFI, again, with no way to launch Windows 11. I fired up my spare laptop, which has been sitting unused for quite a while, to see if I am dealing with a defective USB drive. Nope, Windows 11 installed and started without issues. After trying another drive and checking all the possible settings in UEFI, I decided to try disabling Secure Boot. Lo and behold, Windows 11 started as it should have been in the first place, continued the setup process, and reached the initial setup screen. Victory! After I finished the setup and applied all updates, I re-enabled Secure Boot, and Windows 11 started without issues. Some time later, I tried reinstalling Windows 11 on my laptop only to experience similar issues, with UEFI claiming a Secure Boot violation. I checked whether the drive works on my main PC, and yes, it installed Windows 11 without errors. I scratched my head, went to UEFI, turned off Secure Boot, and installed Windows 11 without issues. After that, I enabled Secure Boot. Note: I used the official Media Creation Tool app for my USB drive. Also, UEFI was properly configured for Windows 11, including no Legacy Mode, a GPT-partitioned drive, and TPM and Secure Boot enabled. From my experience, if you are dealing with similar symptoms, I recommend two things: If you use old Windows 11 install media, create a new one with the latest Windows 11 release, especially if you know your PC already has the latest Secure Boot certificates. If you cannot create a new one, turn off Secure Boot, complete the installation, download all available updates, and then re-enable Secure Boot in UEFI. Note that you need to turn off Secure Boot after installing Windows 11. Otherwise, the installer won't run, claiming a hardware requirements mismatch. I believe the problem hides in Secure Boot certificates that expire this month. Microsoft is currently rolling out new certificates, and maybe a mismatch was causing these issues for both of my systems. I am out of my depth to make a definitive statement; this article is flagged as "Opinion," as I only share my experience and some tips on how to fix the problem. If some of you possess deeper knowledge and understanding of the situation, please share it in the comments. As for everyone else struggling with computers not booting after a clean install, the two steps above should get you out of the pickle.
    • I gave the tool a chance the other day to make a USB. An hour later it was stuck at 0% downloaded. I downloaded the official ISO, downloaded Rufus, and made the USB myself in 15 min.
    • <Moved to software discussion and support> I've got fond memories of Winamp. Changing the skins, the different visualisations etc. But now I just need a simple music player. MSN messenger would be another one, MSN Messenger Plus (I think?) offered so many different plugins. But again, it probably wouldn't work for me these days. And then there is miRC. i think it's still going these days, but lord i had fun with that back in the day. Now it's mostly stuff like Discord, WhatsApp group chats, Signal, Telegram... /me is showing his age...
    • ive always been fascinated by old software this is an old video player for windows from apple
  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Month Later
      AndreaB earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      agatameier earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      agatameier earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      ssd21345 earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      518
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      198
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      147
    4. 4
      ATLien_0
      94
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      77
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!