PC-BSD Quick Guide

Index

Welcome to PC-BSD

Welcome to PC-BSD and many thanks for your interest.

Early 2005 Kris Moore, the founder of PC-BSD, presented the first beta version of PC-BSD to the community. What some FreeBSD advocates had been waiting for for years had finally arrived: an easy-to-use FreeBSD-based operating system for the desktop, with very little configuration necessary. A polished, full-featured, free-of-charge, open-source operating system with a BSD license, based on FreeBSD, that anybody could use, from the beginner to the advanced user alike, was a dream slowly being realised.

With the arrival of "easy-to-use" Linux distributions (another Unix-like operating system) and their immediate success, it became obvious that there was a large niche market. However, Kris thought that the Linux market could have advanced more in user friendliness. The BSD community had already very good server operating systems such as FreeBSD or OpenBSD, but none for the desktop market. Taking a strong liking to FreeBSD due to its design, speed, and robustness, Kris Moore decided to create a user-friendly and intuitive FreeBSD based operating systems for desktop use.

PC-BSD is a desktop-oriented operating system to the likes of Microsoft Windows XP or Apple Mac OS X. It is based on one of the most powerful operating systems for servers, FreeBSD, a Unix-like server operating system which is based upon the BSD and Unix operating systems, arguably the best of breed systems nowadays. When it comes to stability, scalability and openness Unix has no competition. In fact Unix has been the undisputed choice of information technology professionals for many years. [Unix History Chart | BSD History Chart]

PC-BSD started off as an independent project, but since 10 October 2006 PC-BSD is (financially) backed and supported by the enterprise-class hardware solution provider iXsystems.

Differences between PC-BSD and FreeBSD

PC-BSD is essentially a customized installation of FreeBSD, and not a forked-derivative. PC-BSD is and will always be based on FreeBSD's latest STABLE-branch. Since the underlying FreeBSD system has been kept intact, you have a fully functional FreeBSD system under the hood that was built with speed and performance in mind.

It is important to remember that PC-BSD is NOT a Linux distibution. Both FreeBSD and Linux are Unix-like systems, but PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD and NOT on Linux.

The main difference between PC-BSD and FreeBSD is: PC-BSD is geared towards desktop use, while FreeBSD has been created with server use in mind. Other differences are:

So, in summary, there is no real difference between PC-BSD and FreeBSD. PC-BSD is basically FreeBSD with a nice installer, some pre-configuration, kernel tweaks, PBI package management, a couple pre-selected packages and some handy (GUI) utilities to make PC-BSD suitable for desktop use.As a user of PC-BSD, you don’t have to worry about configuring your system, but rather to simply install it and start working and/or playing with it.

Microsoft Windows and PC-BSD

As you may already know or will have gathered from the preceeding paragraphs, PC-BSD is a different kind of operating system compared to Microsoft Windows. FreeBSD (the base of PC-BSD) has been built with stability and security in mind, and these properties don't particulary spring in mind when thinking of Windows.

Let's have a look at some similarities and differences between PC-BSD and MS Windows.

Some similarities:

However, there are also some major differences:

PC-BSD's goals

The PC-BSD Team aims to

Reasons for using PC-BSD

PC-BSD has been designed with the "casual" computer user in mind. Installing the system is simply a matter of a few mouse clicks and a few minutes for the installation process to finish. Hardware such as video, sound, network and other devices are auto-detected and available at the first system startup. Home users will immediately feel comfortable with PC-BSD's KDE desktop interface.

PC-BSD is a safe, secure and stable operating systems from the BSD family that is virtually immune to any virus infection. With PC-BSD you can safely surf the internet without worrying about websites dropping trojans, virusses, adware or spyware on your system without your consent. PC-BSD lets you run the best open-source applications, a number of Windows programs and (nearly all) Linux software. This is all free.

PC-BSD's key features include all that a modern operating system has to offer. It combines the rock-solid stability, security and speed of FreeBSD, the usability and functionality of the KDE desktop environment and the simplicity of PC-BSD's software package management to provide a system that's easy to use and to install. Installing andremoving software has been made as easy as clicking your mouse button and your system is kept up-to-date with automatic downloads. With PC-BSD it is now possible to combine the strength of FreeBSD with the ease of use of Microsoft Windows in the same system.

With PC-BSD you can do about everything a desktop user expects from a modern operating system. Nearly all day-do-day computer tasks and fun stuff can be done on PC-BSD:

PC-BSD's most bleeding-edge features

Let's discover PC-BSD's unique features...

1 Visual system installer

Installing PC-BSD is a breeze! To install PC-BSD you only need to put the CD-ROM in the drive, reboot the system to start the installer, select from menus, type in your information and click buttons to proceed step by step. PC-BSD does the hard stuff for you, and only asks for the necessary information. The power user will find it interesting to access the advanced options to custom partition the hard disk drive or access options such as DiskLabel. When you are done installing, just remove your CD-ROM, reboot and you are up and running.

2 Fully graphical desktop environment

PC-BSD comes with the latest stable version of KDE award-winning desktop environment, and a few essential KDE applications such as, Kate, Kaffeine, or Konqueror. KDE alone will probably cover most of your day-to-day needs immediately. [[LINK TO EXPLORING PC-BSD]]]

3 Graphical software installer

Installing software can hardly be easier than on PC-BSD. With a fully graphical software installer, you can install any .pbi file on your computer the same way you are used to on MS Windows or on the Mac. Double-click the setup file, follow the instructions, click "Next" and you're done! More...

4 Network Manager

Setting up your local network to access the Internet is easy with PC-BSD.
During installation, PC-BSD configures your connection using DHCP so that if you already have a connection to the Internet in your home or office, you get connected automatically. You still have the ability to manually change your network settings such as IP address, gateway, netmask and DNS using the Network Manager.

5 System updates

Are you worried about having an outdated operating system? Don't fear! PC-BSD has a built-in system updater that will notify you of available system updates to install security fixes, bug fixes, system enhancements and updated PBIs.

6 Visually attractive

PC-BSD comes by default with Nvidia videocard drivers and the Compiz-Fusion accelerated 3D desktop for the next level desktop experience. Also, Adobe Flash is installed so you can watch your favorite movies and videos on Youtube and Google Video out of the proverbial box.

7 Optimised for i368s and compatible with the 64-bits architecture

PC-BSD is optimised for the latest systems for optimum speed and performance. PC-BSD is available for the i386 architecture and for 64bits systems.

7 Package Management

As mentioned above, PC-BSD's package management system takes a different approach to installing software compared to many other Unix-like operating systems. Instead of utilising FreeBSD's ports or packages system (although these are still available), PC-BSD uses files with the .pbi (Push Button Installer or PC-BSD Installer) filename extension. All that is necessary to install a PBI is to download it (e.g. from pbidir.com), double-click to launch the installation wizard program, enter the root password, follow the installation steps and you're ready to use the program. Uninstalling is just as easy. Installing PC-BSD software packages (PBIs) is similar to that of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Installing PBIs is as easy as installing a Windows .exe file.

PC-BSD's own package management system resolves the issue of library dependency problems that often occur on Linux based systems. This is the feature that sets PC-BSD apart from most free open source systems that are available. It's easy, simple and straightforward.A PBI installs all software packages and libraries in their own self-contained directories in /Programs, decreasing confusion about where the binary programs reside and reducing the possibility of breaking a package if system libraries are upgraded or changed. The PC-BSD package manager also takes care of creating links in the KDE menu and on the KDE desktop.

8 Summary of PC-BSD's features

9 More features (advanced/technical)

10 PC-BSD Releases

Index