Australian Technology

Taking BSD one step further

Takeaway: PC-BSD is to FreeBSD what Ubuntu is to Debian, without most of the mess.

Why bother messing around with graphics when the text interface still works fine? It’s a fair question, and BSD mostly falls on the text side of things. But occasionally an upstart appears and shows that the new and all that sparkles is not as bad as feared.

PC-BSD is one of those upstarts that provides a number of improvements to its FreeBSD base that appeal to the non-expert workstation user.

It’s not often that I would consider using a BSD as a desktop, but I think that PC-BSD has worked its way into calculation — at least as a workstation that does not require any hardware acceleration.

I like that PC-BSD does not shy away from its FreeBSD heritage, the ports system is still there and the installer even gives the option to install a FreeBSD server.

Head over to our gallery as we compare the FreeBSD and PC-BSD installer experience.

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Chris Duckett

About Chris Duckett

Programmer and journalist Chris Duckett is the Editor for TechRepublic Australia.

Chris Duckett

Chris Duckett
Chris started his journalistic adventure in 2006 as the Editor of Builder AU after originally joining the company as a programmer. He left CBS Interactive in 2010 to follow his deep desire to study the snowdrifts and culinary delights of Canada and returned to CBS in 2011 as the Editor of TechRepublic Australia, determined to meld together his programming and journalistic tendencies once and for all.