PC-BSD 1.1 Screenshot Tour

linuxbeta writes to tell us DistroWatch is reporting that PC-BSD has released version 1.1 which updates the core OS to FreeBSD 6.1, adds better driver support to the kernel and improves the overall speed on many systems. OSDir also has a screenshot tour available for general consumption.

Nice GUI

[fistfullast33l]

Some interesting screenshots, although I just skipped over the KDE ones because I've seen KDE before. It's nice to see a smooth graphical installation. Some purists always cry for text prompts, but I like the ease of a GUI. Every time I install gentoo I have to have a second machine running beside me to remind me of the steps to take in installation (I refuse to pay for inkjet cartridges, fill them on my own, or pay for a laserjet printer). Maybe it's me, but I have a horrible memory for that kind of stuff. Kuduos to PC-BSD if their installation is as smooth as it is good looking. If there's a graphical package manager and kernel manager then that's just bonus. I never liked the Linux GTK frontend (I still use make menuconfig after make oldconfig) and most of the portage frontends are too cluttered to be useful.

I love PC-BSD

[adolfojp]

I love PC-BSD's Mac like software installer. If it had better Gnome support I would switch in a heartbeat.

Re:KDE over *nix?

[laffer1]

The BSD community is just following in the Linux footsteps on this one. I've said this before, and I'll say it again... DesktopBSD and PC-BSD are distros, nothing more.

I've been working on a new BSD variant called MidnightBSD based on FreeBSD 6 but its a real fork. The idea is to add a graphical environment that is not KDE or gnome. I did seriously consider gnome, but their lack of interest in supporting non linux systems scared me off. I've read about the crap that the freebsd gnome project has put up with. Plus I figured it would just end up being another linuxish ripoff.

The real problem with developing something new is that so many people are almost religious about their window managers and if they like full fledged desktop environments. Another problem is development. In order to have a unique system you must write a gui toolkit yourself or use a more obscure one. If I were to write a window manager in gtk for instance, I'd get flack for duplicating effort when sawfish, xfce and metacity exists. The other issue is licensing. These new bsd distros have used GPL because its easier fot them. There aren't many bsd licensed toolkits to build from or even LGPL that are worth anything. I don't care if part of the system is under gpl, but I think die hard bsd fans will. In the end, I decided that I'll be targeting a very specific audience as its a BSD with a freakish gui.

I decided to use GNUstep with WindowMaker to start the project and then see where it takes me. I definetely want to replace the window manager with something that is more usable though. Usability is something few of us open source developers care about. I did the mom test though and she actually could use window maker better than KDE. She said there was less "clutter". She's a windows user.

I'm hoping to get some help developing a new window manager and applications on top of gnustep. From a licensing perspective its weird, but its also a bit like NEXTSTEP which can't be bad.

I'm keeping freebsd ports though. I'll have to write a gui frontend for them and start my own ports collection long term.

Re:Nice GUI

[manboy9]

Did you try Ctrl+Alt+F2? You can have multiple terminals open: one with the installation, the other reading docs with links.