Another glance at PC-BSD

[rhyous]

When I first heard PC-BSD was available, I thought it was a great idea for the desktop/user side. I loved the idea of PC-BSD. Finally non-linux distro with the stability and organization of BSD that is a gui from the beginning and has a good installer.

Then I installed it on vmware and it didn't really work for me...that was then...

Anyway, I downloaded the latest distro and this time it installed perfectly and is up and running. I am currently testing.

Anyone else testing this?

[bigtomrodney]

I'm following this closely myself, debating between installing PCBSD and DesktopBSD. I initially didn't like the PCBSD installer packages but now I'm unsure. It actually reminds me of Mac installs (.app). I will be installing one of them on a small free partition I have. A lot of people are using BSD on the desktop already, I think it's nice that it's now possible to get a Desktop system up and running without a week of work. Good for people that have other *n?x experience, would like to experiment but have limited time to build a full system.

[techieMoe]

Big plus for me is being able to get a fully-functional FreeBSD system with X Windows in a little under half an hour. That leaves me free to actually start doing work on the OS instead of spending hours getting it configured.

[bigtomrodney]

That's right on the money!

[George Harrison]

Bah I say! I think it goes against everything *BSD is about. Stuff isn't supposed to be easy, and configuring is fun.

[techieMoe]

Bah I say! I think it goes against everything *BSD is about. Stuff isn't supposed to be easy, and configuring is fun.

Haha. I'm pretty sure you're kidding, but that's exactly the kind of attitude that has turned me off to BSD in the past.

[the0r3tic]

Bah I say! I think it goes against everything *BSD is about. Stuff isn't supposed to be easy, and configuring is fun.

No, configuring is a pain in the ass. I can't stand it. I think if it's your first time with *BSD, you should configure things yourself with help from the handbook (even though I did it piece by piece, the harder way), but when you've done it that many times....

I myself dont like PC-BSD, for my own reasons.

[deek]

Yeah, I just don't get the whole philosophy of "stuff isn't supposed to be easy". That's like windows and "stuff isn't supposed to be stable" or generally speaking about spam and "inboxes aren't supposed to be empty" or viruses and "the internet isn't supposed to be safe".

It seems like people with that sort of philosophy would like an OS that is impossible to install...

geek 1: "So, what OS are you running?"
geek 2: "SupaL33T OS 2006, man."
geek 1: "Is it pretty cool?"
geek 2: "I don't know, cause I can't get it installed and running."
geek 1: "Well, that kinda sucks."
geek 2: "No way! SupaL33T isn't supposed to be easy to install and run. That's why it is the best."
geek 1: "..."

:)

[genesus]

I really like PC BSD; however, as of now it is unusable for me, I cannot get my soundcard to work under it or freebsd for that matter, however, I can under openbsd...go figure. I agree with techieMoe, it is nice to get it up and running in 1/2 an hour.

[sether]

I have a few issues with PC-BSD:

• Linux came first as a free software alternative for the desktop. While the idea of a BSD derived operating system for the desktop is interesting and worth pursuing, I don't see PC-BSD becoming prominent in the desktop market anytime soon. It's not that I have a problem with using BSD as a desktop operating system, it's just that if the free software community wants to pose a challenge to Microsoft's Windows, more effort should be contributed to the already growing Linux movement. BSD is going to continue to stay on servers (where it belongs).
  
• The installer is licensed under the GPL. I understand why they had to do this (the issue with Qt licensing), but aren't the GPL and BSD licenses conflicting ideologies?

I know these issues are trivial and not worth arguing about, but I figured I would just bring them up since we were on the topic of PC-BSD criticisms. Other than that, PC-BSD is a great idea.