PC-BSD is the one to try

[masinick]

PC-BSD 1.5.1 Available

PC-BSD is built upon FreeBSD and it is an attempt to bring a consumer look and feel to the FreeBSD environment. FreeBSD is a terrific server based operating system, and it is powerful and flexible enough to use as a desktop operating system as well, but for the casual user, FreeBSD does not do much to help you out. A user familiar with only Windows or a consumer oriented version of a Linux desktop system will have a hard time adjusting to FreeBSD unless they do a lot of homework and persist at it.

PC-BSD will do a lot to help out that kind of person. The installation program is about as simple as it gets. You are asked a few basic questions, such as your local time zone, what user accounts you want to set up, and authentication information for passwords. That is just about it - maybe the location where you want to put the system in case there is other software already on the computer. PC-BSD does the rest. Being a derivative of FreeBSD, PC-BSD does depend on the level of hardware support available in FreeBSD. With a server focus, FreeBSD does not support every hardware component supported by Windows and Linux, but it is rapidly catching up.

For me it has always worked great. If you are interested in the BSD world of software but you want a gentle introduction, this may be one way. To really learn BSD you will still have to get into that FreeBSD documentation. However, if you merely want to USE something different, this software is easy enough that you could also just use it, even if you never really understand what is beneath. Therefore PC-BSD also provides another really simple to install and use desktop operating system. I recommend it either for casual use or as a gentle introduction to the power available in FreeBSD.

[ryokimball]

Hmm...
I have a IBM NetFINITY (sp?) 5000, with two SCSI drives, a tape drive (linked to SCSI), and floppy & CD drive. I have Fedora on it (all-in-one install from disc, plus it was new), but I haven't had much to play with it. Can you convience me to try PC-BSD on it?

[masinick]

Hmm...
I have a IBM NetFINITY (sp?) 5000, with two SCSI drives, a tape drive (linked to SCSI), and floppy & CD drive. I have Fedora on it (all-in-one install from disc, plus it was new), but I haven't had much to play with it. Can you convience me to try PC-BSD on it?

Here is what I will say, the choice is really up to you. FreeBSD contains extremely flexible, stable, and relatively fast software. The software purists claim that FreeBSD has a cleaner design than Linux systems because the software is designed to work as an integral unit, compared to the many fragmented pieces in Linux. Whether that affects the experience or not, FreeBSD is definitely very good, solid software. However, on the desktop, it does little to help the novice to get it all set up.

PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD, so whatever benefits are realized by the BSD approach in general and the FreeBSD approach in particular, are present in PC-BSD. However, PC-BSD is optimized specifically for the desktop. As long as your hardware is supported, it is a really easy, drop in, answer a few questions kind of installation. Assuming it works, it is arguably easier than Fedora, though not necessarily by much since Fedora is so much improved. The big question mark would be the hardware. It would definitely be worth investigating and maybe even trying out, especially if you have a test system where you can experiment with it. I have it on one of my test systems and I always enjoy using it.

[ryokimball]

lol even my >$1000 machine is a "test machine" to me --I even managed to recently screw up my Arch Linux installation which I love so very very much. I think I'll give BSD (I'll start with PC-) a try, at least. Funny thing about this machine, though; I can't install from the CD drive that's built in; I can boot from it, but then it doesn't recognize itself so I have to use an external HD-DVD drive to install from. Weird, huh?
Heh, anyways, thanks.

[questio verum]

PC-BSD 1.5.1 Available

I installed & played around with an earlier version, last summer. There were no broken features that I was aware of. It was kind of dull though. I spent some time today on the PC-BSD website, and it looks like the PC-BSD folks are trying to change that. Don't know if they offered support for Compiz-Fusion before, but they do now.

A few things caught my eye... one is that they offer a VMWare image for those who want to check it out that way. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that CodeWeavers has released a free, experimental release of Crossover Games for BSD. Also, (This is embarrassingly old news-I just didn't pick up on it before) PC-BSD has allied itself with iXSystems -an open-source systems integrator. I went to the iXSystems website, but by appearances they are either going out of business, or for some unknown reason have run out of stock. Do you know anything about them or what's going on with the collaboration at this point in time?

I'll probably check out PC-BSD again at some point future, but probably not until they release a live cd of this version.

lol even my >$1000 machine is a "test machine" to me --I even managed to recently screw up my Arch Linux installation which I love so very very much.

I hate it when that happens. I've hosed one or two myself. I've learned from my mistakes though. I now have my archival data on a donated ATA drive, with a SATA running as my boot drive. I'm really fighting the urge to shake things up. But I'm biding my time until I can get one of these, and at least one of these. That way I can play to my hearts content... keeping my primary OS intact on one drive, while install a revolving cast of distros on the others.

I think I'll give BSD (I'll start with PC-) a try, at least. Funny thing about this machine, though; I can't install from the CD drive that's built in; I can boot from it, but then it doesn't recognize itself so I have to use an external HD-DVD drive to install from. Weird, huh?
Heh, anyways, thanks.

That is, well... unusual. If there are no cabling issues, I would check the BIOS for errant settings or corruption. Have you checked to see if there is a BIOS update available for it? Just a thought.

qv