TechieMoe.com

Introduction:

I found PC-BSD in the "DistroWatch Weekly" article on (you guessed it) Distrowatch.com, and I was immediately intrigued at their idea.

This was a time before I had ever successfully installed a version of BSD on my computer and had everything configured correctly, so the idea of "auto-detect, auto-configure, GUI installer" for BSD sounded great to me.

I immediately downloaded their latest beta release (at that time 0.7, they're probably past that now.  Long story short, I was actually impressed.

Install:

Anyone who's installed a Linux distribution like Redhat 9 or Fedora Core knows what to expect here.  PC-BSD boots up and goes through some auto-detection screens and then opens up what looks like an instance of the Fluxbox window manager, with a graphical "Next->Next->Finish" installer that reminds me an awful lot of Redhat's Anaconda.

It takes you through the usual configuration tasks and asks what harddrive you want to install it on.  It asks your root password and sets up a regular user account. 

In the end after about 20 mins of installation you have a fully functional version of FreeBSD with a properly configured X Windows environment.

Software Selection:

PC-BSD has basically two options for installing things, and one is unique.  The maintainers of PC-BSD are attempting to add "Next->Next->Finish" installers (ala InstallShield on MS Windows) for popular applications in order to make install/uninstall easier.  Before the FreeBSD purists get their hackles up, let me also say that the traditional "ports" system is still intact, so you can all cvsup to your heart's content.

For the rest of us, this means that you can download a .PBI file from the PC-BSD website, double click on it, go through the usual "Next->Next->Finish" and BAM, you now have XXX application installed.  Uninstall for PBIs is similar to the Add/Remove Programs menu. 

You select it, click uninstall, and it's gone.  It would have been nice had this system complemented the already existing ports system  (ala Synaptic) rather than offer another package format, but since this project is still in beta there's no telling where they'll go with it.

Most Annoying Feature:

Let me just say that I really like PC-BSD, for the sole reason that they finally gave me a quick and easy way to get a functional FreeBSD system installed.  That being said, once I tinkered with it a bit I ended up going back to plain vanilla FreeBSD because the version of PC-BSD I had didn't like the ports programs I tried to install (version conflicts). 

Also, I wasn't able to install the official Nvidia drivers at the time I tried this.  Since that time they have now released a PBI package for the Nvidia drivers that I might try one day if I get bored.

Who's it best for?

Anyone who's ever wanted to try out FreeBSD but doesn't want to have to go in blind, so to speak, will find this a godsend. 

This OS will set up the major components of your system for you and leave you with a functional system with which to tinker and learn more about the OS without having to hit the ground running from a shell prompt.  It's quite possibly the first "newbie-friendly" BSD that I've seen, and I say it's about time.