A First Look At DesktopBSD-1.0

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http://www.desktopbsd.net/

This is a brief review of DesktopBSD-1.0-RC2. DesktopBSD is the newest FreeBSD variant BSD to make it's way onto the *nix/open source scene. Actually, it is older than PC-BSD, but has only recently been released to the public. Note this quote from the faq: "DesktopBSD development started about one year before PC-BSD suddenly appeared...."

The question may arise, "Is DesktopBSD a fork of FreeBSD?" Again from their faq, "DesktopBSD isn't a "fork" - it's a customized FreeBSD installation that mainly consists of the DesktopBSD Tools and a collection of configuration files and software for desktop use ... DesktopBSD will be always based on the latest FreeBSD-STABLE release." The goal of DesktopBSD is an admirable one - as set forth on their website: "DesktopBSD's main goal is to provide a desktop operating system that's easy to use, but still has all the functionality and power of BSD. In the long term, DesktopBSD wants to build an operating system that meets most requirements desktop users have, like installing software, configuring power management or sharing an internet connection. To be better able to fulfill this goal, we strongly rely on users that send in feature requests, ideas for improvements or participate in development."

So there you have it in a nutshell. DesktopBSD is a desktop release of FreeBSD with desktop oriented tools that run in the desktop environment installed on the system (KDE) and thereby enhance the usability and ease of use of a desktop BSD OS. It is released under the same license as FreeBSD is - the BSD License. You can get more information in their own words by visiting their website at http://www.desktopbsd.net.

To begin with then, let me set out the system on which I tested DesktopBSD:

1. Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop.
2. Processor type/speed: Intel PIII 800MHZ
3. Video card: ATI Rage Mobility
3. Available RAM: 256 MB
4. OS type (ex. Linux, BSD, Mac, etc.): BSD


Software review:

A DesktopBSD system is built from one CD which you burn from an .iso file you download from one of their mirror sites. This produces an auto-booting CD which loads the base BSD system into a ram disk and then starts up the graphical installer. It should be noted here that the installer for DesktopBSD in not a reworked version of anaconda (as in PC-BSD), but was written from scratch by the DesktopBSD team. Installation was flawless. I chose to do this installation on a laptop because of the great variety of hardware and interfaces that any OS must take account of to install and configure properly. Laptops in general are the toughest of the pc bunch. So I felt this would be a great test of DesktopBSD's installer's capability. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to install DesktopBSD, and all hardware was correctly identified by the installer. However, the network card was configured for DHCP by default, so if you need to run with a fixed ip address you will have to configure it at first boot, or manually (this IS BSD after all). The installer was very polished and ran smoothly all the way through it's operation.

When the installation was completed, the system rebooted and was correctly configured and the KDE login screen (KDM) came up beautifully on the screen waiting for me to begin my journey with DesktopBSD. Excellent install!
Here are some screenshots from their site that will visually walk you through their installation and some of the DesktopBSD tools used to configure the system:



Booting the OS.

As the system boots for the first time, It loads a series of screens that allow you to setup users,



tell the system if you have any additional drives you want mounted at startup,



make any network configuration changes you want,



configure KDE as you would like it,



etc.

Following this, the boot process continues. DesktopBSD is configured by default to boot to KDE's KDM login screen. Once logged in KDE-3.4.2 loads up to a very nice looking default desktop.



As stated earlier, KDE is the default desktop selected by the developers of DesktopBSD. Again, to quote from their website, "KDE is easy to work with and has many useful features and well-integrated components such as the PIM package (Personal Information Manager). Additionally, KDE is probably easier for people that used Windows before, but this is rather a nice side-effect than a main reason for this choice ... Of course, there are other great desktop environments out there that are in some ways superior to KDE, but we decided to use only KDE so we can have better support for that one and have better integration of the DesktopBSD Tools with that environment."


Does DesktopBSD live up to it's goals?

Overall, I would have to say yes, absolutely. Now keep in mind, that this is a release candidate, and not the final one, so there are little things that need some attention. For one, the is no upgrade function in the installer at this time, so upgrading versions requires a reinstall. That sucks, but it is being addressed and such functionality is coming.

Perhaps one of the very best things about DesktopBSD is it's Ports Manager.







It is integrated right into the KDE Control Center, and works like a wiz! The downside of course is that it requires KDE to use them, so if you install a different desktop environment, you will lose those tools. Bummer. However, the developers are releasing them as standalone tools in RC3 I'm told, and will only require that kdelibs be installed to run, so that issue too will be resolved soon. Also, it is important to note that DesktopBSD uses the FreeBSD ports system exclusively to install both binary packages and to build ports from source. There is NO attempt here to develop their own package management system. The Ports Manager simply makes using the BSD ports system an absolute breeze!

All in all, this is the best and easiest way I have yet found to a great running Desktop BSD OS. And with a little work, you can end up with a very nice desktop OS that looks and works the way you want it to. Here's mine:




Comments.

On a scale of 1 to 100 - 100 being perfect - I would rate this version of DesktopBSD at around 95 as a 'First Look.' Deeper investigation may reveal things not noted at this point, so this rating is highly subjective and only precursory. Overall - DesktopBSD is a pleasure to run and a breeze to install. It is an excellent choice for a new BSD user, a not terribly sophisticated computer user, or an old salt who just wants a good, solid, reliable desktop that won't take days to install and weeks to configure and just wants to get on with it. I was surprisingly impressed by how much quicker this OS feels compared to most linux distributions. But as in all things, your mileage may vary.

Overall score: 95

--Theoden

http://www.bsdgangster.org/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&id=5

基于bsd的桌面系统越来越多了。。。。。。。