On Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:32:23 -0400 Jason Hsu <[email protected]> wrote:
> I've been trying to switch from Linux to BSD for my everyday > computing (email, word processing, spreadsheets, etc.), but I > couldn't get things to work properly. I'm in the same boat, and will try today again... > Are there any good tutorials for using BSD on the desktop? I'm > having much more difficulty finding good information on BSD than was > the case for Linux. In retrospect, this shouldn't be a surprise > given that Linux is relatively mainstream while BSD is very obscure. I can recommend to take a look at PC-BSD (http://www.pcbsd.org/) and it handbook (http://wiki.pcbsd.org/index.php/PC-BSD_Users_Handbook) which gives lot of information how to install & use it. > 1. Is it possible to install KDE, GNOME, or other DE from the > FreeBSD CD in a reasonable amount of time? KDE and GNOME are huge > programs, and having to download them would take too long. Try latest PC-BSD 9-0 snapshot which offers KDE/GNOME/LXDE/XFCE for install and some other WMs (awesome, etc.) > 2. What's lighter than PCBSD and GhostBSD? I tried the live DVDs > on my laptop (1.4 GHz processor, 1.25 GB of RAM) and found both BSD > distros to be very sluggish. Don't know. I just played with PC-BSD which I'll put on my desktop (5yr old laptop is already running PC-BSD with XFCE). Maybe the problem was KDE if you installed that DE. > 3. How do I triple-boot Puppy Linux, antiX/Swift Linux, and > DragonflyBSD? PC-BSD handbook gives information how to dual-boot with GRUB. I personally did not try since I want to migrate from Linux and won't keep GRUB. > 4. What are the Linux Mint and Puppy Linux of the BSD universe? I > consider these two distros to set the standard in the Linux > universe, because they're so user-friendly. These are the distros > I've set out to compete against in developing Swift Linux. I never used Linux Mint nor Puppy Linux, but I believe that e.g. PC-BSD wants to be something like Ubuntu Linux in regard to its usability. In the last ~4yrs I use Archlinux for which I several times heard it is "the most BSD-like distro" (Prior to Arch, I spent >5yrs with Gentoo). However, there is one nice feature of PC-BSD coming in 9.0 and may be used in other BSD-es as well. Please, read this paper: http://blog.pcbsd.org/2011/03/formal-paper-on-new-pbi-9-format/ All the best with your switch. ;) Sincerely, Gour -- “In the material world, conceptions of good and bad are all mental speculations…” (Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu) http://atmarama.net | Hlapicina (Croatia) | GPG: CDBF17CA
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