PC-BSD 8.2 Beta 1 arrives for testing

The PC-BSD development team has announced the arrival of the first beta for version 8.2 of its BSD open source operating system aimed at desktop computers. This first beta for the second point update to PC-BSD 8.0 is based on FreeBSD 8.2 Beta 1 from earlier this month.

PC-BSD 8.2 Beta 2 features version 4.5.4 of the KDE desktop environment, as well as fixes and improvements to the Network Manager, such as 3G support and the option to enable / disable the lagg interface. The developers also note the addition of file system type selection during auto-partitioning and the option to encrypt partitions during installation – the hostname can now also be changed from the installer.

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PC-BSD 8.1 review

PC-BSD 8.1 was released on July 20, 2010, roughly five months after version 8.0 was released. Some of the suggestions made in the review of PC-BSD 8.0 have been carried out in this latest release. In fact, the changes were made within one month of that review being published. It is an encouraging example of how some distro developers respond to suggestions (or critical reviews).

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PC-BSD 8.1 "Hubble Edition" released

The PC-BSD development team have announced the release of version 8.1, the "Hubble Edition", of their open source operating system. According to the developers, the first point update to the 8.0 branch of PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD 8.1 and includes a number of enhancements and improvements over the previous release.

PC-BSD 8.1 features version 4.4.5 of the KDE desktop environment, several package updates and improved ZFS file system support. Other changes include support for creating dedicated disk GPT partitioning, various fixes to the installation back end, such as encryption pass-phrase support, and bug fixes for the desktop tools and utilities. The developers advise all users to upgrade to the latest release.

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PC-BSD 8.1-RC1 Now Available

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.1-RC1 (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.1-RC1, and KDE 4.4.4

Version 8.1 contains a number of enhancements and improvements. For a full list of changes, please refer to the changelog. Some of the notable changes are:

* FreeBSD 8.1-RC1
* KDE 4.4.4
* Numerous fixes to the installation backend
* Support for creating dedicated disk GPT partitioning
* Improved ZFS support
* Bugfixes to desktop tools / utilities

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DesktopBSD lives on under new leadership

Following the September 2009 announcement that version 1.7 of DesktopBSD would be the "last and final release", a small group of German developers have signed on to continue the distributions development. DesktopBSD is based on FreeBSD using the KDE desktop environment and is similar to PC-BSD which also focuses on a desktop version of the BSD variant.

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PC-BSD 8.1-BETA1 - Now available!

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.1-BETA1 (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.1-PRERELEASE, and KDE 4.4.4

Version 8.1 contains a number of enhancements and improvements. For a full list of changes, please refer to the changelog http://www.pcbsd.org/content/view/161/11/. Some of the notable changes are:

* FreeBSD 8.1-PreRelease
* KDE 4.4.4
* Numerous fixes to the installation backend
* Support for creating dedicated disk GPT partitioning
* Improved ZFS support
* Bugfixes to desktop tools / utilities

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Taking a look at PC-BSD 8.0

Toward the end of 2009 I took FreeBSD 8.0 for a test drive on an old PC. The experiment went so well that I was immediately looking forward to trying out PC-BSD, a desktop variant of the popular FreeBSD operating system. Unfortunately for me, the new version of PC-BSD wasn't to arrive for several weeks. Like a penniless child with his nose pressed up against the window of a candy store, I went over to the project's website.

The PC-BSD site maintains a very similar look and feel to its FreeBSD counterpart. That is to say, it's well crafted, easy to read, painless to navigate and filled with lots of useful information. The installation documentation especially is a well-done piece of work. Open source projects, and their developers, often take flak for putting so little effort into the user manual. This is not the case with PC-BSD. While browsing, I read the teaser for the upcoming release - and good things were planned. New features include better ZFS support, a live DVD, improvements to the package updating system, the ability to run 32-bit applications on a 64-bit system and better binary support for Linux programs.

It felt like a long wait, but in February the PC-BSD team released their latest offering, version 8.0, and I downloaded their live DVD. It's a hefty image, weighing in at just over 3 GB. There's also a USB image file for people who like to carry their operating system in their pocket. For my PC-BSD test drive I used a desktop machine (2.5 GHz CPU, 2 GB of RAM), my HP notebook (dual-core 2 GHz CPU, 3 GB of RAM) and a virtual environment, provided by VirtualBox.

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PC-BSD 8.0 Released

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.0 (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-P2, and KDE 4.3.5

PC-BSD 8.0 contains a number of enhancements and improvements over the 7.x series. For a full list of changes, please refer to the changelog. Some of the notable changes are:

1. FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-P2
2. KDE 4.3.5
3. Brand new System Installer, allows the install of PC-BSD or FreeBSD
4. Run in Live mode directly from DVD
5. Updated Software Manager, allows browsing and installing applications directly
6. Support for 3D acceleration with NVIDIA drivers on amd64

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PC-BSD 8.0-RC Released

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.0-RC (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-P2, and KDE 4.3.4

PC-BSD 8.0 contains a number of enhancements and improvements over the 7.x series. For a full list of changes, please refer to the changelog. Some of the notable changes are:

* FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-P2

* KDE 4.3.4

* Brand new System Installer, allows the install of PC-BSD or FreeBSD

* Run in Live mode directly from DVD

* Updated Software Manager, allows browsing and installing applications directly

* Support for 3D acceleration with NVIDIA drivers on amd64

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PC-BSD 8.0-BETA Released

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.0-BETA (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE, and KDE 4.3.4

Version 8.0 contains a number of enhancements and improvements. For a full list of changes, please refer to the changelog. Some of the notable changes are:

 * FreeBSD 8.0-Release

 * KDE 4.3.4

 * Brand new System Installer, allows the install 
   of PC-BSD or FreeBSD

 * Run in Live mode directly from DVD

 * Updated Software Manager, allows browsing and 
   installing applications directly

 * Support for 3D acceleration with NVIDIA 
   drivers on amd64

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DesktopBSD 1.7 Review

Although the official name of this blog is Desktop Linux Reviews, we will occasionally be looking at non-Linux operating systems too. Such is the case with DesktopBSD 1.7 which is a version of the FreeBSD operating system. DesktopBSD is, as you can tell from its name, geared toward desktop users.

KDE 4.3.0 for FreeBSD available in ports!

We’re happy to announce that following was updated:

- Update py-qt4 to py-qt4.5.4
- Update qscintilla-2* to 2.4
- Update py-sip to 4.8.2
- Update py-kde to 1.16.3
- Update py-qt to 1.18.1
- Update Qt4 to 4.5.2
- Update KDE to KDE-4.3.0

and is now available in the FreeBSD ports tree.

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Bordeaux 1.8.2 for FreeBSD/PC-BSD Released!

Bordeaux 1.8.2 adds support for Apple's QuickTime 6.5.2 Player, IrfanView 4.25 the extreamly popular image viewer and editor. This release aslo bundles in Cabextract, Wget and Unzip to remove external dependencies. Our winetricks script has been synced to the latest official release, Steam should now install and run once again, There has also been many small bug fixes and tweaks.

(Bordeaux 1.8.2 for FreeBSD Released)
(Bordeaux 1.8.2 for PC-BSD Released)

PC-BSD 7.1.1 Released

The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PC-BSD 7.1.1

Version 7.1.1 contains a number of bugfixes and improvements from PC-BSD 7.1, including KDE 4.2.4, improvements to printing support, Xorg Server 1.6.1, and much more.

PC-BSD: Thin Client Server update available

Version 0.9.1 of the PC-BSD Thin Client Server is now available for download!

This PBI package allows you to turn any PC-BSD 7.x system into a functional Thin Client Server, which allows network booting by clients and brings them directly to a XDMCP / KDM login prompt.

PC-BSD 7.1 Galileo Edition Review

"PC-BSD 7.1 is a desktop operating system aimed at the normal user and is based on FreeBSD. It enables fast installation of software and getting a working desktop running fast. It can be installed as a Desktop or as a server, however I fail to see the point of the server install for a desktop OS."

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PC-BSD 7.1 Released!

The PC-BSD Team is proud to announce the immediate availability of PC-BSD 7.1 *- Galileo Edition*!

Version 7.1 contains a number of enhancements, improvements and bugfixes from the 7.0 series.

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Building Your Own Desktop Notepad Application Using PHP-GTK

If you think building a desktop application such as Notepad is difficult, think again. If you use PHP-GTK, it's almost ridiculously easy. This article will show you how. By the time you're done, you'll have a full cross-platform application in about 100 lines.

PCBSD 7.0 Review

"PCBSD is one of the first distributions that has taken a different path when it released its user friendly distribution by choosing to base itself on FreeBSD instead of Linux.

BSD is well known amongst server users and advanced users, but PCBSD decided to make it an option for its user-friendly distribution. PC-BSD 7 is based on the recently released FreeBSD 7 stable and for its desktop environment, KDE 4.1.1 was chosen. PCBSD, unlike most major linux distributions is only available in 32 bit mode giving 64 bit users something to want."

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Converting FreeBSD into PC-BSD

This post describes an example of how one can manually convert a FreeBSD installation into a PC-BSD one using the install disk. There are more elegant ways of doing it, such as pulling things from PC-BSDs SVN and compiling only PC-BSD specific components.