What's up with this? PCBSD.ORG goes to truenas? reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- waspentalive · 2020-10-03 10:14 I am looking for a desktop BSD to try out - I do some programming mostly in C, I play some minecraft. I like solitaire card games. PCBSD was suggested as a good desktop and that was the URL for the (do they call them distributions in BSD?) This question is asked before but with the above info may I ask it again? Also how do disk-names work in BSD - I understand linux's SDA1, first disk partition 1. How does that relate to a disk in BSD? ​ Edit - oh also I like the KDE evironment - is that available in BSD? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ramiferous · 2020-10-03 10:39 I believe PCBSD has been discontinued. Check out GhostBSD and FuryBSD. Both are based on FreeBSD. And yeah, KDE should be available on these. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nielskob · 2020-10-03 11:09 Didnt’t PC-BSD became TrueOS which became TrueNAS which will be Linux- based I think (and FreeNAS is the FreeBSD-version)? GhostBSD and FuryBSD are desktop-BSDs based on FreeBSD. You might also want to look into OpenBSD which has imho usually better desktop-support than FreeBSD-based OS. disk names etc. work differently since they are based on the driver names. KDE is available but usually not in the newest version. Gnome and KDE both work hard to be not portable anymore by relying on more systemd-stuff and the BSD-projects have to do some work so that they work again on the BSDs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nawcom · 2020-10-03 11:18 These are FreeBSD distros that you're referring to. BSD no longer exists, but there are various OSes forked off it, and each other that are completely separate from each other. Their data storage device node naming also differ from each other, so this all comes down to whether you're talking about NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD. They're nothing like Linux. Since you're referring to FreeBSD specifically, here's more info regarding this: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/disk- organization.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nahnah2017 · 2020-10-03 13:33 There is no such thing as a "FreeBSD distro". FreeBSD is a complete operating system unto itself. Unlike Linux, you are either running FreeBSD or you're not. Everything else is just FreeBSD with custom configurations and packages installed. I hate educating people here about that cause the resident lunkhead will come around commenting on it soon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- atoponce · 2020-10-03 13:47 PC-BSD was renamed to TrueOS in 2016 after the acquisition by iXsystems back in 2006. iXsystems had also acquired FreeNAS in 2009, and renamed it to TrueNAS. The goal was to create a full OS and storage platform around a single product line. However, earlier this year, the developers announced the ending of TrueOS, meaning only TrueNAS survives as being actively developed by iXsystems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- waspentalive · 2020-10-03 15:58 so pc-bsd is no more? What BSD do you recommend? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- atoponce · 2020-10-03 16:11 Personally, I prefer NetBSD, but I also have a strong Unix system administration background. Without knowing your background, I don't know that I can really make a recommendation, but many have installed FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, among others, without much experience outside of Windows. The former TrueOS/PC-BSD team recommends FuryBSD, GhostBSD, MidnightBSD, and NomadBSD, so maybe try one of those, and see what you think. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dkade · 2020-10-03 20:31 Also don't forget DrangonflyBSD with a great multicore performance and in-house built filesystem HAMMER. https://www.dragonflybsd.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- kusuriya · 2020-10-03 22:10 PC-BSD became TrueOS, TrueOS had a Desktop fork that eventually became Trident, which became a linux distro after iX dropped the desktop side, and was also used as the base for FreeNAS and TrueNAS. iX recently announced they will be merging FreeNAS and TrueNAS which will see the FreeNAS name vanish. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 0O00O00O0O000OOO0O · 2020-10-04 07:32 Definitely FreeBSD. It comes with the largest package collection among the BSD. If you‘re familiar with debians package system FreeBSDs will be easy. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- daemonpenguin · 2020-10-04 15:13 Yes, PC-BSD has not existed for a year or so now. If you want a desktop-friendly flavour of BSD you should try GhostBSD. It's basically a close cousin to PC-BSD, but designed to be more user friendly with less sysadmin features. GhostBSD is based on FreeBSD, but adds all the desktop software and configuration for you. KDE Plasma is available, though it is not the default desktop interface. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- daemonpenguin · 2020-10-04 15:14 Custom configurations and packages based on FreeBSD is what distribution means. GhostBSD FuryBSD, etc are all custom distributions of FreeBSD. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nahnah2017 · 2020-10-04 15:41 Yes but distro is not the definition of distribution. "Distro" is a Linux created, specific term. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- yourhelpfulfriend · 2020-10-13 23:23 I like OpenBSD. It's true FreeBSD has more packages and nvidia drivers. But for me OpenBSD excels by OpenBSD focusing most strongly on a simple, streamlined OS. Despite that constraint, there's lots of nice desktop features: xorg is part of the default install, binary packages are heavily favored, chrome and Firefox are hardened with pledge and unveil, devs devote time to making video conferencing work in the browser, their is support for recent graphics drivers, there id a small but active OpenBSD gaming community, etc. FWIW, there's also an impression (fair or not) that OpenBSD developers are more likely to use their OS as their main desktop OS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thedaemon · 2020-10-21 15:49 While you are correct, perhaps we as BSD users should come up with another term than: FreeBSD with preconfigurations for the desktop. Distro makes the most common sense borrowing from the Linux world even though a distro is nothing like a modified FreeBSD release. Thoughts, ideas? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nahnah2017 · 2020-10-21 18:34 Too many people already think Freebsd is a Linux. We shouldn't add to the confusion by using Linus terms. In baseball, they call them the American and National Leagues but they're both baseball and people understand they are not softball. People don't seem to have a problem with just using the few names of the BSDs. It's not hard.