DesktopBSD 1.7
Where To Get Help
You can always post a note in the Desktop Linux Reviews Forum and we’ll do our best to offer feedback or at least point you in the right direction. You might also want to check out the DesktopBSD Wiki or the DesktopBSD forum.
Final Thoughts & Who Should Use It
As I noted earlier, it’s a shame that the developer of DesktopBSD has decided to call it quits. I had a mostly positive experience with it and I’d recommend it to anybody looking for an interesting alternative to the usual array of Linux distros.
Intermediate and advanced Linux users should have no problems with DesktopBSD. Beginners can still play with it but I do not recommend that DesktopBSD be used by beginners as their main desktop operating system.
So I give DesktopBSD a thumbs up. Perhaps the developer will change his mind and simply take a break for a while instead of hanging it up altogether.
Summary Table:
| Product: | DesktopBSD 1.7 |
| Web Site: | http://desktopbsd.net/ |
| Price: | Free |
| Pros: | Great selection of software, very easy install. |
| Cons: | This, apparently, is the last release of DesktopBSD. The developer is retiring. Note also that it uses an older version of KDE (3.5) not the latest version (4.3). Package manager did not start so I could not update my system or add more software. |
| Suitable For: | Intermediate and advanced users. |
| Summary: | Great selection of bundled software and an easy install. A potential alternative to the usual array of desktop Linux distros. Package manager bug needs to be fixed ASAP though. |
| Rating: | 3/5 |
(12 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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It’s very much a shame to hear desktopBSD is ending. I had thought desktopBSD had a better approach to making a user friendly FreeBSD desktop, and especially for commercial uses, than PC-BSD did.
Hi David,
Yeah, it’s a real shame. I hope that the developer reconsiders his decision to stop updating DesktopBSD. You never know. Stranger things have happened. Maybe he just needs a break from it for a while.
DesktopBSD is more of a true FreeBSD-based system with the desktop environment conveniently configured, whereas PC-BSD is a drop in, self contained system based on FreeBSD that uses independent, stand alone packages (with PBI, the Push Button Installer).
I was a fan of DesktopBSD a few years ago, but I’d noticed how dormant the development had been so I stopped following it. I do generally try PC-BSD every release or two and generally like it.
Guess if I ever want to try DesktopBSD again, now is the time!
Thanks for once again going outside of the usual confines to locate and test some of the less well known systems. Though I have not yet tested this version, I have found previous releases to be quite easy to install and very stable, and I am hoping that is once again the case.
Good point, Dragonmouth. I cannot install FreeBSD, PC-BSD, DesktopBSD, or any other BSD version or derivative unless I have a separate disk or a virtual instance. That has actually been the reason why I don’t run the BSDs more often. The other reason is that I find the BSDs kernel scheduler tends to be well tuned for server performance but it not optimized as Linux is for desktop use – which has been the case since the 2.6 Linux kernel – which has been a few years now.
I like the BSDs, and they are actually the UNIX flavor from which I came – not FreeBSD, but BSD 4.2, which formed the basis for ULTRIX, the original SunOS (before the AT&T UNIX System V R3 inspired Sun Solaris), and a few of the other variations I used in the now distant past.
I’ve used 1.6 quite a bit and have been very impressed. It’s solid and easy to use. Sad to see there’ll be no more after 1.7.
Not quite sure about the comments on multi-boot environments with Linux, though. Perhaps I’m not understanding the nature of the posts correctly, but I have Desktop BSD 1.6 installed on the same physical disk as OpenSuSE and it works with no problems (just got the partitioning ready before the BSD install and pointed the installer to the right place).
In any case, I’ll definitely have a look at 1.7 and head over to the forums to thank the developers.
[...] http://desktoplinuxreviews.com/2009/09/10/desktopbsd-1-7/ a few seconds ago from kdemicroblog [...]
Hi Dragonmouth,
I didn’t pre-create the slices; just created one new partition using GParted (unformatted, as GParted doesn’t/didn’t support creation of UFS) at the end of my primary slave disk, of which the remainder was filled with Ext 3 partitions and a Linux swap partition. I then ran the Desktop BSD installer and pointed it at that unformatted partition; then created the slices from within the installer. It’s probably not relevant to the discussion, but I skipped the bootloader install, as I already had GRUB on the machine.
It was a long time ago that I installed Desktop BSD, so I don’t remember the exact details, but I had no problems at all with it. Your posts were actually the first I’d heard about Ext 3 etc not being recognised.
Even though I am a Linux user (Ubuntu) I have kept across the news of Desktop BSD. I am also sad to see it go. I preferred Desktop BSD to PCBSD but it didn’t seem to have the momentum.
Im a newbie in these things and I have windows XP,pcBSD 7.1.1 and Ubuntu 9.04 in the same hdd (plus a partition for files).
I installed them in that order: first XP, then pcBSD and Ubuntu and its grub in the last place.
The truth is that I can see my pcBSD partition from linux (read only, no writting), but I cant see my ext4 linux partitions from pcBSD (Ive got 2 of them, one mounts at / and the other one mounts at /home), but thats one of the reasons why I create another extended logic partition in FAT32, just to share files among my 3 OSes
I will miss desktopBSD
, Its a real shame
Hi, could be wrong but the reason you might have been having issues installing BSD on your systems could be related to this (from the pcbsd guide) :
“Be aware that BSD operating systems, and hence PC-BSD, only recognise primary partitions and consider any logical partitions as a whole primary partition. Trying to install on a logical partition will convert your extended partition into a primary partition and erase all logical partitions of your system. PC-BSD can be installed on any primary partition; it doesn’t necessarily have to be on the first one. Be careful and make sure you have a backup of your data.”
Just a thought and thanks for the reviews!