PC-BSD (or DesktopBSD)

[corinthos]

I thought I'd post a heads up for those of you who are seeking a relatively easy way to compare the desktop performance of FreeBSD and Linux. While Googling I came upon PC-BSD, which apparently is FreeBSD 6.0 with an easier install and a KDE setup. DistroWatch has it listed today as well. Also, there's DesktopBSD, which appears to have been out a year before PC-BSD, and is also based on KDE. You may want to look into that one also.

Anyway, I haven't installed it yet (still downloading the ISO), but it might be an easy way to test out the desktop performance of FreeBSD 6.0. Along with Ubuntu or Kubuntu, you should be able to pretty easily and quickly compare FreeBSD and Linux desktop performance.

 

[RamshackleMan]

I installed PC-BSD 1.0rc1 on a separate drive on my desktop box. It didn't like booting when on my primary master but ran fine there. I put my XP on secondary master and that was OK.

I like FreeBSD as a non-windows operating system. I have it on 2 servers without GUI (who needs it on a server). However, I have had trouble getting it working well on a desktop. PC-BSD solved that. The installation was easy and have had no real issues. Seems to have good support too.

I think this is a viable alternative to Linux and is worth a try.

PS. I never has much luck with any Linux distros either.

 

[sourceninja]

I've used NetBSD once on a server and I found it to be a really nice OS. BSD, Linux, Unix, I dont care which one it is they are all really great. But on a desktop I think Linux is a little more mature distro wise. Its nice to see BSD taking the desktop approach a little more.