Community Resources | FreeBSD Foundation https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org A non-profit organization dedicated to supporting and building the FreeBSD Project Fri, 14 Apr 2023 16:41:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/favicon.png Community Resources | FreeBSD Foundation https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org 32 32 Guide to FreeBSD Desktop Distributions https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org/resource/guide-to-freebsd-desktop-distributions/ Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:04:18 +0000 https://freebsdfoundation.org/?post_type=resource&p=11572 A collection of FreeBSD desktop distributions that have taken the FreeBSD operating system in a new direction while still relying on the incredibly powerful and stable base operating system of FreeBSD. From integrated desktop environments, portable USB-based systems, to data recovery tools, FreeBSD has been used by a wide variety of open-source projects. This page hopes to highlight just a few of these projects.

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Updated: May 20, 2021

A collection of FreeBSD desktop distributions that have taken the FreeBSD operating system in a new direction while still relying on the incredibly powerful and stable base operating system of FreeBSD. From integrated desktop environments, portable USB-based systems, to data recovery tools, FreeBSD has been used by a wide variety of open-source projects. This page hopes to highlight just a few of these projects:

MidnightBSD:

 

Novice – Advanced Users

Project Website

“MidnightBSD is a BSD-derived operating system developed with desktop users in mind. It includes all the software you’d expect for your daily tasks — email, web browsing, word processing, gaming, and much more.”

What Makes MidnightBSD Unique:

System attributes:

  • New window and login manager.
  • Initially forked from FreeBSD 6.1 beta.
    • In order to allow customization of ports and system configuration.
    • Includes syncs from later FreeBSD versions.
  • Fully integrated environment with a focus on stability and optimization for desktop users.
  • Scheduling, allocation, security, and app support are uniquely tailored for desktop users.
  • Less emphasis on server optimization.
  • Includes a range of tools and utilities, including:
    • ZFS
    • hast
    • OpenSSH
    • Perl
  • Imported features from DragonFlyBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD
  • Improved security with ipfw and sudo.

User-end attributes:

  • New window and login manager.
  • Centralized system preferences.
  • Emphasis on easy to use graphical interfaces for new users.
  • BSD styled command line.
  • Graphical ports and package manager.
  • Large user community, including mailing lists and community forums.
  • Extensive documentation
  • Bugzilla for troubleshooting.

Notable Future Plans:

  • Expanded security capabilities.
  • Rewriting the package cluster system.
  • Maintaining and updating ports.

GhostBSD:

Novice – Advanced Users

Project Website

“GhostBSD is a simple, user-friendly operating system, based on the legendary security and stability of the FreeBSD operating system. GhostBSD provides all the benefits of the FreeBSD operating system combined with a focus on simplicity for newcomers.”

What Makes GhostBSD Unique:

System attributes:

  • Maintains the stability and security of FreeBSD
  • Optimized for modern workstations, desktop setups.
  • Massively simplified
  • Free and Open with source code on GitHub
  • Optimized codecs for multimedia files.
  • Project release as well as community releases.
  • A GhostBSD package repository with 30,000+ applications.
  • Slow moving rolling release
    • Can be updated by command line.
  • Switched to TrueOS in 2018
    • Built from 12.0-STABLE
    • TrueOS depreciated in 2020

User-end attributes:

  • Shipped with a simplified installer.
  • Choice between desktop environments.
  • Comes with pre-installed commonly used software.
  • Robust community controlled wiki.
  • Easy to contribute to the project/report bugs.
  • Community has full control of the GhostBSD community releases.
  • Community forums for GhostBSD and FreeBSD questions/discussion.

Notable Future Plans:

  • Possibility of a community release around the plasma5 desktop.
  • Movement towards a rolling release schedule.
  • Post TrueOS development.

NomadBSD:

 

Novice – Advanced Users

Project Website

“NomadBSD is a persistent live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD. Together with automatic hardware detection and setup, it is configured to be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery, for educational purposes, or to test FreeBSD’s hardware compatibility.”

What Makes NomadBSD Unique:

System attributes:

  • Extremely low system requirements.
    • Can be run by computers with a 1.2GHz CPU and 1GB of RAM.
  • A fully integrated desktop environment optimized by the operating system.
  • Further executable programs with some settings adjustments.
  • Requires a more advanced USB, USB3 preferred.
  • The desktop environment is curated specifically for the OS.
  • Tons of support for using the OS as a test environment.
  • Minimal size while including a curated collection of applications.
  • Automatic hardware detection and setup.
  • Because of the boot process, can be used for data recovery.
  • Small development team, more unified vision.
  • Uses a live USB, allowing changes to be saved to a portable system.

End-user attributes:

  • Automated, simplified setup with limited device configuration.
  • Can serve as a tool for FreeBSD developers. (testing/data recovery)
  • Focus on easy to use, guided computing.
  • Innovative desktop features
  • New community forums created in March 2020
  • Extremely portable due to size/live USB setup

helloSystem:

 

Novice – Advanced Users

Project Website

“hello (also known as helloSystem) is a desktop system for creators with a focus on simplicity, elegance, and usability. Its design follows the “Less, but better” philosophy. It is intended as a system for “mere mortals”, welcoming to switchers from the Mac. FreeBSD is used as the core operating system.”

What Makes helloSystem Unique:

System attributes:

  • Live ISO Builder.
  • Continuous builds with multiple experimental releases in addition to stable.
  • Low system requirements.
  • Bare-Metal operating system but virtual machine support.
  • Falkon browser included.
  • Minimal architecture, but each piece has improvements.
  • Custom launch: command.

End-user attributes:

  • Instantly boots into desktop environment.
  • No required set-up, but broad optimization/configuration settings.
  • Focused on an out-of-box FreeBSD experience.
  • Intended for Mac users looking to try other operating systems.
  • Global Menu bar for efficiency.

Notable Future Plans:

  • Significantly lowering RAM requirements.
  • More build builds for other processor architectures
  • Release for general use.
  • Intended for Mac users looking to try other operating systems.
  • Global Menu bar for efficiency.

The post Guide to FreeBSD Desktop Distributions first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

]]> FreeBSD Blogs and Websites https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org/resource/freebsd-blogs-websites-and-webinars/ Mon, 01 Aug 2022 15:37:19 +0000 https://freebsdfoundation.org/?post_type=resource&p=11807 A collection of external blogs, websites, and webinars to find even more FreeBSD content.

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A collection of external blogs websites and blogs that have even more FreeBSD content.

The post FreeBSD Blogs and Websites first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

]]> FreeBSD Webinars https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org/resource/freebsd-webinars/ Mon, 01 Aug 2022 15:30:00 +0000 https://freebsdfoundation.org/?post_type=resource&p=11804 These recurring FreeBSD webinars aim to offer insight into FreeBSD and the FreeBSD community by livestreaming 101 classes and Q&A sessions.

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These recurring FreeBSD webinars aim to offer insight into FreeBSD and the FreeBSD community by livestreaming 101 classes and Q&A sessions.

We hope you’ll join us for a #FreeBSDFridays series of 101 classes. We’ve expanded on our FreeBSD Day content to offer 1 hour live sessions every other Friday, designed to get you started with FreeBSD. The sessions take place at 10am PST

The FreeBSD Community joins together now and then to host FreeBSD Office Hours  sessions. The first event was held on Wednesday, April 1, 2020, and had a general focus with discussions directed by attendee questions. In addition to General Q&A, we also ran Demo, Tutorial and Topic based Sessions.

 

The post FreeBSD Webinars first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

]]> FreeBSD YouTube Channels https://staging.freebsdfoundation.org/resource/freebsd-project-youtube-channel/ Mon, 01 Aug 2022 15:23:55 +0000 https://freebsdfoundation.org/?post_type=resource&p=11802 The Following YouTube channels are fantastic sources of FreeBSD guides, news, and projects. 

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The Following YouTube channels are fantastic sources of FreeBSD guides, news, and projects. 

The post FreeBSD YouTube Channels first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

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