Transcript from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xm52v1D8qo

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welcome to another video from explaining
computers.com this time we're going to
delve into the world of free
BSD this is a server desktop and
embedded operating system that provides
an alternative to Windows or l
specifically in this video we're going
to focus on the options for running
FreeBSD as a desktop operating
system so let's go and take a closer
look so here we are on the FreeBSD
project website where we are met by this
little red beasy free BSD is derived
from BS S D or the Berkeley software
distribution which was a version of a
Unix operating system developed at the
University of California
Berkeley as the name suggests FreeBSD is
free with the first version released in
1993 the latest version of FreeBSD is
released
14.2 which became available in December
2024 FreeBSD has a focus on performance
networking and storage it can be found
running on some core internet routers
and Route name servers and is also used
by some major providers of online
content so for example if you watch
Netflix you are streaming video from a
server running
FreeBSD however here as I noted earlier
we're going to focus on FreeBSD for
desktop
use in this context it should be noted
if we go to the download page whilst we
find FreeBSD available for lots of
different kinds of Hardware all of the
supplied images are command line only
and so do not include a graphical
desktop when booted after this initial
menu FreeBSD therefore runs up to look
like
this but as detailed in the extensive
documentation it's possible to install a
desktop environment with a choice
comprising KD plasma gnome xfce
mate cinnamon and
lxqt this does however first involve
installing and configuring an exor or
Wayland display server and so getting a
desktop system up and running is not
trivial especially for a novice
user but fear not as we can see on the
FreeBSD Foundation website a number of
FreeBSD desktop distributions are
available for those new to FreeBSD these
provide a very straightforward
installation image with a desktop
pre-installed so let's test these
out right here we are on the website for
ghost BSD which as we can see describes
itself as a simple elegant desktop BSD
operating system and more specifically
if we scroll down here we can see it's
based on free
BSD you official version of ghostbsd
comes with a mte desktop pre-installed
and indeed if I just minimize the
browser we can see we are running
ghostbsd with a mte desktop right now as
indeed we were when we looked at
websites in the last part of the
video returning to the ghost PSD website
if we go to download we find a link
straight away to the official image with
the mte desktop although it's worth
noting there's also an unofficial image
with an xfc E
desktop as we can see system
requirements offer 4 GB of RAM and 15 GB
of drive space and once the file has
been downloaded it just needs to be
written to USB drive using an Imaging
program such as bellena etcher or Rufus
and if you then boot from the USB drive
you'll soon arrive on the ghost BSD
desktop where there's an icon to perform
and install if you
wish this is then very straightforward
indeed more so than so some Linux
installers and after selecting your
keyboard layout and time zone if you opt
for full dis configuration you just need
to select the drive to install ghostbsd
on stick with the default boot option
and enter a username and password for
the user admin account ghost BSD will
then install itself which will wipe
everything from the drive you
selected back here on the desktop
everything is very straightforward and
easy to use we have a m desktop after
all and in the day or so I've been
testing this out I've had no stability
or performance issues if we go to the
menu there some basic software
pre-installed under accessories we've
got well a few accessories as we can see
under Graphics we've got Shotwell for
organizing our photos we've got an image
viewer we have got under internet the
Firefox web browser we were just running
under office we have nothing to write
home about at all under sound and video
we have the Rhythm box music player and
also the VLC media player for videos and
under system tools we've got well some
system tools and so if you want to use
this system purely for consuming media
files and browsing the internet
everything you need is
pre-installed but I think most people
will want to install some additional
software so how do we do that and what's
available well over 30,000 applications
have been ported to free BSD many of
which can be installed as pre-compiled
packages and here in ghostbsd we can
install such packages via a graphical
package manager called software station
and we find this in system
administration and there it is software
station what a great name for a program
and I now need to enter my password to
get to
it there we go and it now needs to sync
with its repository so we'll just fast
forward through as it does that
there we go and we now have a set of
categories down the left of the screen
slightly stange set of categories and
for some reason here the end of the
letter e which is a little bit
suspicious and they be no relationship
to the categories we see here on the
menu accessories Graphics Internet
Office Etc which is slightly strange and
I've therefore found it much easier just
to search for things here so for example
if we want to install a photo
editor we'll just do a search for
like that and lots of things come up CU
it includes various additional files but
the program itself is there so let's
just click on that for the gnu image
manipulation program and we will click
on apply to install the software and
indeed a few other things are being
installed as well it seems but I will
confirm the whole lot and then we'll
speed on
through there we go it has completed and
in theory now in our menu under Graphics
we have yes the jnu image manipulation
program let's run it up here in ghost
BSD and I hopefully it'll get there I
suppose it's its first run up it's got
something probably exciting to do in the
background but oh look there we are we
can see the familiar toad stools for
theu image manipulation
program and its Babel fishes are now
being applied always a good to see and
here we are is clearly running here
in a free
BSD next let's search for a Libra office
like that and uh this will come up with
lots and lots of things as I recall yeah
there's all sorts of language packs and
things Libra office itself is here
somewhere we just keep her going down
there it is look that's the Libra office
full integrated office productivity
Suite as it says here and we could
install this therefore by just clicking
there and doing and
apply however I thought it's important
to show you the other way of installing
which he's using the terminal so let's
minimize this for a second and we'll run
up the terminal from uh system tools and
fish is the terminal here very exciting
here we are in the terminal and to
install an application we need to have
rights as the super or root user and
here in free BSD we don't unlike in
Linux have sudu pre-installed so we can
do that as the existing user and so what
we need to do is to type Sue to become a
super user like that and we now need to
enter the root password and if you're
wondering what is the root password back
in the installer when we set the
password for the admin user the same
password password is initially set to be
the root password so that's what your
root password will be so I'll now enter
mine it won't appear on the
screen there we go we're now root on
this system and it's always a good idea
to ensure that our repositories are
updated before installing software they
will be here because we've just been
running the graphical software station
but if we hadn't been we would type A
package like that and an update like
that
we should find here everything is up to
date as we would expect and we're now
going to install the package so let's
install Libra office using the terminal
by typing package and install and guess
what Libra office like
that and uh there we are it's happy to
do it do we want to proceed yes we
do and there we are Libra office has now
been installed along it seems with some
additional fonts so let's just exit as
super user like that and also exit the
terminal like that and hopefully we go
back to the menu and office there we are
the office is here let just launched the
whole lot for once there it is coming up
very happily and if I want to write for
example a document we can obviously
launcher Libra office writer and here we
are in our familiar program where I have
to type hello like that and make it very
large indeed because it is the law there
we
go now what I'm now going to do do is to
go back to the software station I've
shown you both a graphical install and a
terminal install and I think I'm now
going to install a range of applications
just to prove they're available in
FreeBSD so I'm now very quickly going to
install
inkscape as well as
Critter and then Caden
live and then finally and most
importantly no desktop Computing setup
can be complete without
Sala and uh there we go those have all
been installed we've got lots of things
in our menu which include Solitaire in
games here but we'll start out by
running up
inkscape there we are we can clearly use
inkscape on this system and let's now a
run up the Critter painting
package yes we can clearly use Critter
here on this free BSD this ghost BSD
system and so let's penultimately also
run up Kaden live the video
editor this clearly works too which is
good to see and then finally we can run
up Salter here we go very exciting and
so I'll now engage in a bit of very
important extensive testing and I'll
come back to you when it's
complete next I thought we'd take a look
at midnight B B SD which is the first
FreeBSD desktop distribution listed on
the FreeBSD Foundation website where
it's described as being suitable for
novice to Advanced users and indeed the
project website describes midnight BSD
as a BSD derived operating system
developed with desktop users in mind
with the developer striving to create an
easy to use operating system everyone
can
use however unlike with ghost BSD
the midnight BSD installer is not
ideally suited for those unfamiliar with
free
BSD and even when it's completed the
system remains in a terminal mode and
asks a number of configuration questions
one of which is whether we want to
enable a graphical
environment and when we answer yes
midnight bstd proceeds to download and
install an xfce desktop one file at a
time so clearly a desktop is not
pre-installed in the initial image and
unfortunately for me upon reboot and
after four installation attempts and a
lot of messing around I cannot get a
desktop to appear and we remain in
terminal
mode now this may be an issue with me I
might be doing something really stupid
it may be an issue with my test Hardware
which is an Intel j4105 system on which
I do test a lot of different operating
systems and on which we've just run
ghost BSD with no issues and I do
imagine that if I spent some more time
on it I may be able to get things to
work however in 2025 the basic
installation of a desktop operating
system should not take any level of
messing around in a terminal and so I'm
going to move on to another FreeBSD
desktop drro
greetings we're now going to look at a
desktop operating system called hello
system which is based on FreeBSD and has
a target audience of those switching
from a Mac however anybody with xx6
Hardware can try to run hello system
although do note that it's currently in
version
0.8.1 and so is still
experimental and on non-mac Hardware the
use of a raspber pie keyboard and hub
are recommended to enable automatic
detection these points noted once the
hell system ISO file has been downloaded
and imaged to a USB drive it boots
straight to a desktop and here an
installer is available which I've tried
out and is incredibly easy to use with
no explanation required although sadly
on the two systems I've installed hello
system on after installation it didn't
work with a system either looking like
this or at best like this with a desktop
without a panel menu or internet
connection so let's come back to the
live image running from the USB drive
just to show you that this really is a
very Mac looking type of system and it's
got a very interesting approach to
Applications we can see here for example
lots of applications listed in the menu
free card we've got audacity there we've
got blender inkscape Critter
scribus we've got various browsers Li
office Etc although if we go to run one
of these applications we discover it
isn't actually installed yet we have
markers in the menu which when you first
click on them download and install the
application although as it warns here
this may well not work in the live image
so we'll click okay there and indeed if
I did click here to download Liber
office I know from previous tests that
the whole system would just crash and so
there we are hello system not ready for
prime time yet maybe it works better on
Mac hardware that may well be the casee
although it's certainly a FreeBSD
desktop Dro whose progress I will follow
with
interest right let's now turn to Nomad
BSD which is a persistent live system
that runs from a USB drive so it really
is a nomadic form of desktop FreeBSD as
you can take it from one computer to
another once imaged to a USB drive noad
BSD boots into a first run setup tool
which is very straightforward and just
requires entry of some basic details and
a user account and once this has been
completed it subsequently reboots to its
desktop as we can see here any changes
made including application installs and
settings are retained so making no mad
BSD a handy portable desktop system
which may come in useful for data
recovery and testing free BSD Hardware
compatibility down the bottom we have a
plank populated with some of the
pre-installed applications including the
Firefox web browser Thunderbird the
genie programmers editor the NC media
player we have the gnu image mulation
program pre-installed let speed on
through as it boots from USB drive there
we go good to see running here
again in free BSD and also down the
bottom here we have a very useful
handbook for nomad BSD it's got great
documentation and also here a package
manager let's just run it up and I need
to put in my
password and we'll just let it populate
there we go and so it's very easy to add
new applications we can just click there
to have a new application type a name
for example
inkscape like that and uh as we've seen
previously would come up we could do a
very simple software
install Talking of software there's
quite a bit here in the main menu lots
and lots of settings as you can see
quite a few accessories quite a few
programmers development tools under
Graphics we've got as we've just
seen various things under internet not
just the browser but also files other
things like that usual CED multimedia
player stuff PDF viewer now office
package we could of course install one
and ious system
tools and so there we are Nomad BSD a
free BSD desktop operating system that
runs from a live persistent USB
drive as we've seen in this video ghost
BSD and Nomad BSD offer a very decent
free BSD desktop Computing experience
and this may also be the case with
midnight BSD and hello system running on
the right hardware and with an
appropriate level of technical expertise
applied if you want to learn more about
FreeBSD I strongly recommend the
robonuggie YouTube channel which is
dedicated to free BSD and contains loads
of tutorials and
reviews but now that's it for another
video if you've enjoyed what you've seen
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