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.