Comments on: Living The PC-BSD Lifestyle

By: Shaul

Shaul — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:58:53 +0000

I would have to completely disagree with what you say how good PC-BSD is. And for the record, I do not use Linux, I do not have Linux installed on any systems. With the code they develop on top of FreeBSD for PC-BSD has consistency issue, and just don’t think they pay close enough attention to code correctness, I think it gets sluggish. Although my first choice is always to use OpenBSD on everything, I have set up FreeBSD as a desktop system. All I do is select minimal install, populate ports and source, patch the system, compile KDE4 from ports, and I find everything runs better and quicker that way. Once Firefox has been compiled from ports, I have seen it load instantaneously when you select it from KMenu. With PCBSD being developed for people who don’t know any tech stuff, and their own lack of proper auditing of code in the manner of say OpenBSD, I see definite performance issues, and some speed issues. I think it just gets bogged down. So that is why I would definitely disagree with what you say about how good PC-BSD is.

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:20:55 +0000

Believe what you must.

By: Sharky

Sharky — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:04:03 +0000

Hmmmm … I am a Linux user and sometimes I need to use Wine and I know what he can do. It’s a great stuff but I just can’t belive that those games runs better on Wine than on Win. Sorry …

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:00:17 +0000

PC-BSD Peru FTW!

By: rolly

rolly — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:43:57 +0000

wonderful PC-BSD UNIX
power BSD desktop

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 00:07:39 +0000

@lefty.crupps It doesn't.

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:37:40 +0000

@lefty.crupps Again, these apps are not the “difference” between PC-BSD and Linux. There are many differences, however, that is for another post entirely. I’ve installed PC-BSD hundreds of times between the office and alpha/beta testing, so having it pre-installed doesn’t matter to me, but it may to others. Remember, I am not trying to defect Linux users, I am merely reporting my experiences for those who are interested. For a more detailed explanation, refer to my reply to Alan.

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 22:36:06 +0000

@Alan Hm, seems I rubbed a couple of Linux users the wrong way. I do not care what OS you are running, I simply prefer PC-BSD. The timeline of this post is 2003-2009. What I should have clarified is that in 2003, the transition from the commercial software I was using to FOSS was a hurdle I wasn’t personally ready for. So yes, at that time, Linux was lacking what I needed.

When I began using PC-BSD, I found the transition to be much easier than before. The software (GPL and BSD alike) was better and the overall “desktop experience” was a lot smoother. PC-BSD has some neat utilities to make one’s life easier, like the WiFi tool for example. PBI’s are another advantage of using PC-BSD. I was able to install all of this software without fear of breaking anything or dependency hell. It’s simple: go to pbidir.com, download the OpenOffice PBI, double click, hit next a couple of times, click finish. BLAM! Installed. Please read up on PBI’s before posting yum vs. apt-get vs yomamma vs PBI. I don’t care about linux package management, I don’t use Linux.

Every distro has it’s advantages and disadvantages. I found that PC-BSD’s advantages outweighed it’s disadvantages, so I stuck with it.

Use PC-BSD because you want to, not because some post claims it is “better” than Linux. The average desktop user does not care which OS they are on, they just need to check e-mail, listen to music, browse the web, etc…

Thanks for the comment and the read, I hope I cleared things up.

By: Links 28/08/2009: Slackware 13.0 Released | Boycott Novell

Links 28/08/2009: Slackware 13.0 Released | Boycott Novell — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:50:09 +0000

[...] Living The PC-BSD Lifestyle Sitting next to my 47” Westinghouse LCD TV is the iXsystems Apollo Workstation. This workstation is powered by the 5500 series of the Intel® Xeon® processor, an Asus GeForce 9800 GT video card, and 4 gigs of RAM. It came with PC-BSD Galileo Edition (7.1) pre-installed and a handful of applications that immediately increased my quality of life tenfold. [...]

By: lefty.crupps

lefty.crupps — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:10:57 +0000

> KDE 4 is a little sluggish. I might try replacing it
> when I’m on PC-BSD. Any tips?

KDE4 isn’t sluggish at all; its just the way Kubuntu treats KDE that is so bad.

Back to the article, how does the software that you’ve listed, James, differ in its use from a Linux desktop?

By: Alan

Alan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:29:07 +0000

Um, you say you tried Linux and couldn’t enjoy all your computer related hobbies, but with PC-BSD you can. Yet every single piece of software you mention running on PC-BSD runs on Linux, and in many cases is developed on Linux. I’m sure PC-BSD is great and all, but do you need to give people the impression that Linux is somehow lacking this stuff just to make PC-BSD sound good?

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:27:00 +0000

@yoyo True … And using a proxy for hulu probably isn’t very fun either.

By: yoyo

yoyo — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:00:32 +0000

Hulu only works inside the US. ;-(

By: lefty.crupps

lefty.crupps — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:14:28 +0000

I’ve not used PC-BSD but I am a big FLOSS fan, and a Debian user. How do any of the apps that you mention differ from a Linux desktop? What about PC-BSD makes your experience different from a Linux experience (other than that it was pre-installed so you were able to learn the system without the installer issues) ?

By: James T. Nixon III

James T. Nixon III — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 02:32:38 +0000

To increase the performance of KDE. disable effects in ‘System Settings -> Desktop’. After you install PC-BSD, try the ‘intel-3d-enable’ driver with effects ON, and then try the ‘intel’ driver with effects disabled. The Display Setup Wizard will run on first boot, or when you press ’7′ on a reboot. I suggest trying both drivers and toggle effects on and off to see what is best for your system. If you don’t care about glitz and glamor, you may also boot PC-BSD into fluxbox and still use KDE apps like Amarok and Konqueror. Good luck!