DesktopBSD is a UNIX-derivative, desktop-oriented operating system based on FreeBSD. Its goal is to combine the stability of FreeBSD with the ease-of-use of KDE, which is the default graphical user interface. It is available for the IA-32 (also known as 32-bit x86) and AMD64 platforms.
History and development
DesktopBSD is essentially a customized installation of FreeBSD and is not a fork of FreeBSD. DesktopBSD is always based on FreeBSD's latest stable branch but incorporates certain customized, pre-installed software such as KDE and DesktopBSD utilities and configuration files.
A common misconception about DesktopBSD is that it is intended as a rival to PC-BSD as a BSD-based desktop distribution, since they are similar in structure and goals. However, the DesktopBSD project was started approximately one year before the PC-BSD project, despite the fact that the first PC-BSD release came out before DesktopBSD's. Neither the DesktopBSD nor PC-BSD projects intend to rival each other and are completely independent projects with distinctive features and intended outcomes e.g. DesktopBSD uses ports and packages for additional software installation, whereas PC-BSD introduced PBIs.
The current release is 1.6 final which was made available on January 9, 2008.
Features
- Graphical installer allowing to partition disks and create users
- Graphical tool for managing, installing and updating software using FreeBSD ports system
- Graphical management of network interfaces and mounting/unmounting drives
Current release is based on FreeBSD 6.3-PRERELEASE and KDE 3.5.8.
1.6 Release includes
- Live-DVD feature - try the system before installing it
- Better hardware support, more drivers included, e.g. nVidia driver
- Improved package manager user interface and performance
- Automated vulnerability check of installed software
- portsnap as the default for faster package list updates
- Overview over detected hardware devices and features before the installation
- Improved display detection for higher resolutions and refresh rates
- Support for GRUB as a boot menu and a graphical configuration tool
- Boot splash image management
- Completely redesigned installer and desktop environment
- Configurable warning thresholds for battery monitor
On 25th of July 2007 DesktopBSD 1.6 Release Candidate 3 was made available on the project site There are snapshots now available for i386 and AMD64 of the current development.
Logos and artwork
DesktopBSD logos and artwork collection are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 License for Austria[4].
References
See also
External links
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