Linux vs. BSD, What's the Difference?
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Running Windows Applications
One of the available PBIs is a two week evaluation of the commercial Win4BSD Pro program. This software allows you to run Windows from your PC-BSD desktop--meaning you don't have to give up your Windows applications, or dual-boot to access them, or worry about viruses and spyware while in Windows.
After installing the PBI, start the program from either the desktop icon or PBI Programs menu. You'll need your installation CD of either Windows 2000 or XP. The initial screen allows you to limit the amount of disk space (4 GB by default) and RAM (128 MB by default) available to Windows. When ready, insert your Windows installation CD and click the Install button to start the Windows installation program.
Once the install is complete, a new desktop icon will be created that indicates the name of the operating system--mine was called "Win4BSD Pro - winpro." Double-click that icon and that operating system will boot up in a window. Once booted, you can interact with Windows as usual: install software, run programs, access the Internet, etc. When you're finished, use the start menu to shutdown Windows--Win4BSD will automatically close the window when the shutdown is finished. If you use Windows software, you'll find this method rather addictive as you can continue to use the PC-BSD operating system simultaneously. I also find Windows is very snappy--it does not run slow, even within the default 4 GB, 128 MB of RAM environment.
If you like this program, it is available for purchase from the Win4BSD Store for $49.99.
Common Tasks
Ubuntu users will find that most of the tasks they are used to performing through a GUI configuration tool are also available on PC-BSD. Many of these tools will be found in the Settings menu that provides submenus for Appearance & Themes, Desktop, Internet & Network, KDE Components, Peripherals, Regional & Accessibility, Security & Privacy, Software & Updates, Sound & Multimedia, and System Administration.
PC-BSD offers many built-in utilities which don't come with a default install of Ubuntu. For example, the pf firewall is enabled by default and can be configured through Settings -> Internet & Network -> Firewall. This menu allows you to start, stop, or restart the firewall as well as restore the default configuration. Use the Exceptions tab to allow or block a specified protocol. Figure 2 shows an example to allow incoming traffic to an IRC server.
Figure 2: Adding a Firewall rule
Beryl is also installed by default and configuration is automatic; simply click on System -> Beryl Manager. Note that not all video cards support Beryl--check out the Beryl FAQ to see if yours is supported. While the FAQ doesn't mention NVidia cards, beryl runs fine on these cards under PC-BSD. If you're running an NVidia card, install the NVidia PBI before starting beryl.
Keeping Up-to-Date
PC-BSD provides easy-to-use tools for keeping both the operating system and installed software up-to-date.
To see if any security patches are available for the operating system, go to Settings -> Software & Updates -> Online Update Manager. Once you input the administrative password you'll see the menu shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Online Update Manager
Here you can schedule updates or click Check Now. You'll either receive a message that your system is up-to-date or information about what needs to be updated. If the system needs to be updated, the update wizard will guide you through the update process.
If you install software using PBIs, you can check for new versions of software from the Settings -> Software & Updates -> PBI Update Manager menu. If any software requires a new update, simply click Get Update to install the latest version of the highlighted application.
Getting Help
PC-BSD has a vibrant user community and several avenues for support. Most of what you need to get started using PC-BSD can be found in the Quick Guide and the KDE Documentation web site.
There's also the PC-BSD Knowledge Database, the FreeBSD Handbook (PC-BSD is FreeBSD under the hood, so anything written for FreeBSD also works on PC-BSD), and the PC-BSD Forums.
Commercial support is available from iXystems, with details available on pcbsd.org.
Summary
PC-BSD provides a fun, easy-to-use desktop operating system with the added benefits of stability and security. Better yet, the price tag is free! If you haven't taken PC-BSD for a test drive, what are you waiting for?
Dru Lavigne is a network and systems administrator, IT instructor, author and international speaker. She has over a decade of experience administering and teaching Netware, Microsoft, Cisco, Checkpoint, SCO, Solaris, Linux, and BSD systems. A prolific author, she pens the popular FreeBSD Basics column for O'Reilly and is author of BSD Hacks and The Best of FreeBSD Basics.
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Showing messages 1 through 17 of 17.
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Multimedia and NTFS partitions
2007-12-23 12:33:47 jvlb [Reply | View]
I'd be interested to see you address the availability of multimedia packages, codecs and such for the BSDs. In particular, Kdenlive, mencoder, libdvdcss2, w32codecs, K9copy, mkisofs, Flash, VLC player, MythTV and Cinelerra are of interest. The support for ATI and Nvidia graphics cards is another area I'd like to know more about. Also, does BSD support ntfs-3g or the like?
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What really is the difference.
2007-10-01 20:22:32 strav [Reply | View]
I perhaps read this article too much in diagonal still I wonder: what is the difference. Ubuntu isn't linux and pc-bsd neither is BSD, why compare them as archetypes of Linux and BSD?
As we all know, linux is the kernel of an operating system which comprises an ensemble of gpl licensed softwares (GNU!). On the other hand, we have the BSD family: a unix derivated kernel and mostly bsd licensed softwares (with some exceptions as well).
Now besides from what everyone knows or can learn by quickly reading wikipedia about linux or bsd, does this article brings a point on why should we consider the difference in licenses or architecture? Perhaps I've missed something here...
At first glance, this is crap.
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What really is the difference.
2007-10-02 06:31:18 Dru Lavigne |
[Reply | View]
It is an unfortunate title as I had entitled this article, and written it as, PC-BSD for Ubuntu Users. To see the differences between BSD and Linux, you're better off reading my articles FreeBSD for Linux Users (http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2004/11/11/FreeBSD_Basics.html) and More FreeBSD for Linux Users (http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/bsd/2005/01/13/FreeBSD_Basics.html).
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What about printers?
2007-09-25 12:15:48 bdheeman [Reply | View]
The author is smart enough to hide, many a crappy things -- support for printers and, or drivers.
PC-BSD is based on FreeBSD and has nothing to contribute back to FreeBSD, do these people have anything in their Handbook and, or documentation on setting up a USB printer, whether via CUPS or native lpd?
No, I don't think :(
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What about printers?
2007-10-16 16:22:41 sailorfej [Reply | View]
I have to disagree on this point, I support both FreeBSD and Ubuntu desktops for one of my current clients, and printer support under FreeBSD using CUPs is definitely superior to printer support under Ubuntu which also uses CUPs.
The best example of this is for newer HP printers including USB, FreeBSD has a newer version of HPLIP in the ports collection than is available in Ubuntu, and if you want to support newer printers in Ubuntu, you have manually download and install newer versions of HPLIP directly from HP's website, and outside of apt. And because of the requirements of the manual install process, using apt to upgrade cups/linux system breaks the manually installed HPLIP, makes it very difficult to fix.
so in general I have to say that I would rather support printer on FreeBSD/PC-BSD desktops anyday than on Ubuntu.
My only major beef with BSD desktops is the lack of Adobe Flash support, but that is an issue for another thread.
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What about printers?
2007-09-25 12:38:47 Dru Lavigne |
[Reply | View]
I've written about printer support elsewhere in the series (http://www.onlamp.com/pub/ct/15). While the general impression is that Linux printing differs from BSD printing, there's not really that much difference. Both use ghostscript for most of the drivers, foomatic, and typically cups for configuration and administration. The information found at linuxprinting.org (e.g. is my printer model supported?) applies exactly the same to Linux and *BSD. There are some drivers which don't come with ghostscript; a search through the printers section of freshports.org will show that FreeBSD doesn't lack in that department either.
As for contributions and documentation, the FreeBSD and PC-BSD projects work closely together and PC-BSD gives back many patches and enhancements to the FreeBSD project. In addition to the PC-BSD documentation, the PC-BSD refers to the FreeBSD handbook and there is a whole chapter on printing in the FreeBSD handbook....
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(GUI) performance test: video
2007-08-25 07:10:44 nutela [Reply | View]
It would be nice to see a video of the 2 OSes compared by their GUI performance, skipping audio when 100% CPU etc.
One such a video here; http://www.simon-t.me.uk/trackerdrawing.avi
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Where do I find a BSD without Slices
2007-08-24 18:56:14 cheshire_cat [Reply | View]
Ive installed several different BSD releases but each time I have this thing in BSD talk that is created, a slice, and none of my Linux installations can see what is in a slice AND BSD cant see what is in my normal partitions. Not to mention it is a pain to set up grub to boot a partition in a slice.
Where is a variety of BSD with a version that will install in normal ext3 partitions NOT in a slice so that I can have at least one installation that I can use, and have access to my data. -
Where do I find a BSD without Slices
2007-08-28 07:19:07 Dru Lavigne |
[Reply | View]
The slice isn't your problem. You simply need to mount the filesystem wile specifying the correct type. To mount an EXT3 filesystem on BSD, use mount -t ext2fs (this also mounts ext3 which is really ext2 plus journalling). To mount a UFS filesystem on Linux, use mount -t ufs. I'm not sure if Linux supports UFS2 yet, this may only work on UFS1. Also, depending upon your distro, UFS support may or may not be compiled into the kernel.
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Interesting article
2007-08-24 12:07:05 jfluhmann [Reply | View]
Great article! I like seeing articles like this one. I'm always interested in different OS flavors and what they have to offer. I tested out several before finally curling up with Ubuntu.
The article really doesn't compare the PC-BSD to Ubuntu, though. There were a couple of mentions, but no real comparison. It was more of a, "This is what PC-BSD has to offer". Also, it probably should have been compared to Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu (since PC-BSD runs KDE), though it probably wouldn't have made much of a difference.
I'm definitely going to check out PC-BSD. I have to say, however, I'm not much of a KDE fan. :-( (even though I've used Windows up until February).
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Interesting article
2007-08-28 05:37:49 Dru Lavigne |
[Reply | View]
See my blog (http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/unix/bsd") for some of the reasons why I didn't compare PC-BSD with Kubuntu in this article. That, and the fact that most *ubuntu users are familiar with the Gnome interface and wouldn't recognize the Kubuntu screens or the KDE utilities.
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Wireless driver
2007-08-24 06:25:36 msporleder [Reply | View]
I think that chip should be covered by the ural (usb-ralink) device. You could try dropping an email to the pc-bsd mailing list with your dmesg mentioning it and see if it's something they've seen before.
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Reply: annoying ad
2007-08-24 06:13:08 msporleder [Reply | View]
Annoying ad, I had that problem the other day with safari rendering the right-rail ad all over the page. (I think it was go-to my pc, or something along those lines)
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Wireless Driver
2007-08-23 17:32:59 no_id [Reply | View]
Suspect many people may be curious with BSD. I definitely is interested in trying it out, unfortunately I am using the USB wireless adapter, Dlink-DWL-G122-RevC which is using the ralink rt73 chipset.
BSD does not have support for it while Linux has.
Any idea how to get this wireless dongle working in BSD :)
Cheers -
Wireless Driver
2007-08-28 05:30:20 Dru Lavigne |
[Reply | View]
The ural manpage should give you an idea if that model is covered:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ural&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.2-RELEASE&format=html
