PC-BSD aims to be an easy to use desktop operating system, based on FreeBSD. As many Linux users, I have little or no knowledge about FreeBSD. I heard many rumors about it. I read about it and about its history. I even tried it a little while ago and, although I appreciated some aspects of it, I came to the conclusion that it wasn't ready for the desktop. So when I read the announcement of PC-BSD being released, I decided to have a look at it.

Introduction

PC-BSD comes as a single ISO file which is available here: http://www.pcbsd.org/

The official website is nice and welcoming. I recommend spending some time on it, while you're downloading the ISO. It features a quick tour of the operating system, a description of its features and many screenshots.

There is an extra ISO file available, which is there for multi-language support. I didn't feel the need for it, so I didn't download it. I also noticed that PC-BSD was available for download as a VMWare image. Now that VMWare player is free, this can encourage people to try PC-BSD without having to modify their existing partitions. This is a brilliant idea. If this operating system is truly easy to use and ready for the desktop as it's aimed to be, then it could potentially attract many users and make FreeBSD a bit more popular among non-BSD users. I have a dedicated machine though, and I only use virtual machines to get some screenshots of the installation process, so I went for the ISO download.

I finally got the file downloaded and burnt on a CD. The name of the CD is "FreeSBIE". This probably makes sense as PC-BSD is based on FreeSBIE and FreeBSD, but this is a sign indicating somehow that attention to details is lacking, and I was a bit disappointed to see that.

I inserted the disc in the CD drive and booted on it.