Using FreeBSD as Desktop OS

Yes you can! ;)
I have installed it in this order:
1. freebsd;
2. xorg;
3. kde.
following the handbook and it works fine. :D
Enjoy it!
 
Seagate said:
Code: 
Unable to mount the volume 'Seagate Backup Plus Drive'.
mount : illegal option -- m usage : mount [-t fstype] [- o options] target_fs_mount_point
Click to expand...

I have a Seagate backup plus drive, it's comes formatted as NTFS so you have to use ntfs-3g to mount it, this is the entry in /etc/fstab I use:

Code: 
/dev/da0s1      /usr/local/plexdata/smb     ntfs   mountprog=/usr/local/bin/ntfs-3g,late,rw    0   0

/usr/local/plexdata/smb is my mount point you would change that to where you want to mount the drive.

I don't know anything about gconftool, but maybe this will give you a clue.
 
There is a FreeBSD "Desktop Distribution", without the all custom PC-BSD/TrueOS addictions what would be a good start for whom want some kind pure "FreeBSD Desktop Installer": GhostBSD

What OP is asking for is, mutatis mutandis, the same of asking for a Gentoo/Linux Desktop Installer -> Sabayon/Linux or Calculate/Linux. Gentoo itself does not even have a installer.
 
In my personal experience I have to move from Debian after 10 years of using it to FreeBSD and the things were not difficult. The only thing I have to do is patch audacious to use a 31 band equalizer (in Debian I use xmms2,but in FreeBSD does not have equalizer support) :mad:
So I use it in my home to watch movies, listen music, internet, etc. And in my work, for the desktop compared to Linux is not the big change.
 
I came to FreeBSD 6.?? (forgot) from Linux and all the time I use it as desktop. OpenOffice and LibreOffice were/is good for my job (research) and many presentation which I had/have are made with LyX.
GIMP is on my computer from first version, Blender and Mplayer/Vlc and Aqualung...and very helpful community.
 
juan9182 said:
In my personal experience I have to move from Debian after 10 years of using it to FreeBSD and the things were not difficult. The only thing I have to do is patch audacious to use a 31 band equalizer (in Debian I use xmms2,but in FreeBSD does not have equalizer support) :mad:
So I use it in my home to watch movies, listen music, internet, etc. And in my work, for the desktop compared to Linux is not the big change.
Click to expand...

If you are in a Qt environment you may want to give a try to audio/sayonara.
 
wblock@ said:
Yes. The thing is that PCBSD is FreeBSD, and it's a lot easier to tell someone to install it than to walk them through the process of installing and configuring X and desktop managers. An install that includes X and a desktop manager is also what a lot of people expect when they install an "operating system".

Now if they want to set it up on FreeBSD, it definitely can be done, as those of us who have been using FreeBSD desktops for years can prove. It just takes a bit of time and effort.
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Indeed. Altho in the interest of Google schleppers who end up here when looking for "I want a FreeBSD desktop", we should tell them all to head off to TrueOS now. Given the effort the devs of TrueOS have put into their creation, I say hats of to them.

As for original-poster 'asifnaz': I've been using FreeBSD as a desktop from somewhere near 4.6 or 4.8-release. Today it is a much more capable piece of robustly built OS as far as its desktoppable-ilities. 8/9/10 & now 11 are a joy to live with as a primary desktop OS. You can get yourself warmed up to the idea by using either TrueOS or GhostBSD. Both will serve you (lol pun!) well. You *could* also cut your teeth on a BunsenLabs (Debian) set up and get comfortable with it... I basically run something quite similar to it. That is to say FreeBSD10/11 with OpenBox & tint2 to handle all the "desktop" duties. One recommendation I will definitely suggest is to use a video card that is well-supported. I'm a fanboy of Quadro cards on FreeBSD. nVidia's support for FreeBSD pretty much beats all others.
 
Funny, but I've gone the full gamut: started with Linux in the mid 90's and wanted it to hold my hand, quickly learned that I DIDN'T want it to hold my hand. Used Gentoo Linux for years and it definitely doesn't hold your hand. For 2 or 3 years in the mid 2000's I got where I wanted something to "just work" so bought a Mac. Got bored of having my hands tied and a black bag over my head, plus an empty wallet, so back to Linux, but then realized I wanted something else because the direction had changed and I didn't like it. Gave FreeBSD another shot at v10 (tried years ago around v5x) and slowly worked through the docs and setup for my equipment. I can most assuredly say the effort was worth it. It doesn't hold your hand, but I didn't want that. I wanted a solid OS I can tweak if I want to, but that was reliable and easy to maintain. I am 100% comfortable at the cli and although not at all an admin, I do pretty well at maintaining my system. I am not at all dependent on either of those two "other" OS's and my daily tasks are done 100% on FreeBSD, at home anyway, I would be so lucky to have it at work. I am a very satisfied customer :beer:
 
Sevendogs said:
Funny, but I've gone the full gamut: started with Linux in the mid 90's and wanted it to hold my hand, quickly learned that I DIDN'T want it to hold my hand. Used Gentoo Linux for years and it definitely doesn't hold your hand. For 2 or 3 years in the mid 2000's I got where I wanted something to "just work" so bought a Mac. Got bored of having my hands tied and a black bag over my head, plus an empty wallet, so back to Linux, but then realized I wanted something else because the direction had changed and I didn't like it. Gave FreeBSD another shot at v10 (tried years ago around v5x) and slowly worked through the docs and setup for my equipment. I can most assuredly say the effort was worth it. It doesn't hold your hand, but I didn't want that. I wanted a solid OS I can tweak if I want to, but that was reliable and easy to maintain. I am 100% comfortable at the cli and although not at all an admin, I do pretty well at maintaining my system. I am not at all dependent on either of those two "other" OS's and my daily tasks are done 100% on FreeBSD, at home anyway, I would be so lucky to have it at work. I am a very satisfied customer :beer:
Click to expand...

Funny how that company that purports not to be a pear and admonishes to 'think different' has almost everything about its activities in lockstep with that bastion of freedom & self-expression known as North Korea. Conform or be punished. Say as we do and do as we tell you to, should really be their slogan. Credit be to them that they haven't opted for the 3 generations worth of hard labor should you be caught slippin'. I've had one of those store-borne "Geniuses" completely lose her mind on me and go on a tirade when I coyly muttered I'd use their telephone product as a Frisbee if I felt like it. Flabbergasting!
MS did pretty darn good with Win 7 & 10, but I find myself running both of those in some form of a vm/vbox/witchcraft, when it is absolutely necessary to run a windows box.
The real key to having a happy take-all do-all FreeBSD desky is to spend that extra 60 minutes setting all the tweaks, tunables and switches after the initial install.
Welcome back :):beer: !!
 
juan9182 said:
In my personal experience I have to move from Debian after 10 years of using it to FreeBSD and the things were not difficult. The only thing I have to do is patch audacious to use a 31 band equalizer (in Debian I use xmms2,but in FreeBSD does not have equalizer support) :mad:
So I use it in my home to watch movies, listen music, internet, etc. And in my work, for the desktop compared to Linux is not the big change.
Click to expand...

drhowarddrfine said:
audio/xmms2

Are you saying FreeBSD doesn't have xmms2 or the port doesn't have the equalizer? I don't see that stated anywhere.
Click to expand...

You guys should really look into audio/deadbeef
 
puretone said:
Conform or be punished.
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When you promise all your software and hardware will work together, and it does, you MUST require such things. Notice all the issues Windows has where Microsoft does not or cannot enforce such policies.

puretone said:
MS did pretty darn good with Win 7 & 10
Click to expand...
That's the first time I've ever heard anyone say that about Windows 10. Especially when my wife agreed to update her new notebook to it and now struggles with it daily.
 
Hello Everyone,
Sorry to raise up an old thread. I came across it, while trying to decide if I should move away from Mac OS as a desktop or not.
I have been using various versions of Linux, but always had a soft spot for FreeBSD; although never could get to work properly whatever hardware I had at the time. When I got my first mac, I was hooked on OS X. But now I'm running a Hackintosh and I was wondering whether I would be better of running FreeBSD...
Might sound crazy asking this question on this forum, but I'm hoping for an objective answer. Is it worth moving from MacOS to FreeBSD as a Desktop? What will I miss from MacOS...
I'm not a developer or a programmer, etc. Just a geek who likes Unix stuff.
 
knightjp said:
What will I miss from MacOS...
Click to expand...

This mainly depends on what you currently use. As a macOS user and a FreeBSD desktop (laptop) user, I miss specific apps:
  • Pixelmator
  • 1Password (and therefore Dropbox)
I also miss iCloud syncing of photos from my iPhone.
Other than that, there’s nothing I regularly miss, and of the above there are some workarounds. (WINE for 1Password (Windows version), manual syncing for photos)
 
The only thing I was missing was Adobe InDesign.

I just installed OS X on VirtualBox, and I have it running there for those things I can't do with LaTeX.

If for you Windows is fine too, you could try installing Win 10, as, in my experience, it is a bit faster than OS X on VirtualBox.
 
I think the thing that I would miss the most of MacOS is the fact that I could install and uninstall an app just by dragging it.
OK.. Speaking of apps.... Here are some of the apps that I use on my Hackintosh.
Moom - Window manager for Mac that also tiles.
Pages, Keynote, Numbers
Safari, Brave browser
Whatsapp desktop app
twitter app
Mail - which also handles my work Exchange emails as well.
Calendar
Terminal, iTerm2
MplayerX for my video as well as VLC.
And iTunes to manage my music library.
I like to keep a neat desktop. So there are no icons and my menubar and dock are hidden until needed.

I like the Mission Control feature of Mac OS. Is there something like that on FreeBSD?
 

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The MacOS "Mission Control" seems to be the same "expose" effect, what is present in many non-tiling compositing WMs, including the old compiz-fusion, which probably was the first to implement that.
 
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