[talk] Project Trident vs. GhostBSD

[George Rosamond]

Charles Sprickman:
> Hi all,
> 
> The closest I’ve come to desktop *nix that’s not OS-X for the last decade is occasionally peeking at a random Linux distro in vmware fusion…
> 
> I’ve got enough spare junk around to put together a Core2Duo desktop (8GB RAM, Nvidia 7500-series video) with a decent monitor in my workshop area. I have so little desire to learn Linux systemd stuff at this point, so I thought I’d check in to see what happened to PC-BSD (it’s dead, it seems).
> 
> My very brief Googling suggests that “Project Trident” and “GhostBSD” are the two FreeBSD-based desktop options out there.
> 
> Any feelings on either? I want simple, all binary packages (do NOT want to build Chrome or the latest CLANG on a Core2Duo), and that’s about it. Both seem to offer non-KDE, non-Gnome desktops so they both win there. I think easy and up to date package management that does not require futzing with dependencies too much is way up there too.
> 
> I’ll throw this in too, since I spend a fair amount of time in vmware, which open source option for virtualization of windows is preferred these days? I’ll probably wedge a Win 7 VM on there because I’ll at some point need some weird piece of windows-only hobbyist software…
> 
> Any advice appreciated!

Hey Spork...

I don't follow the *BSD desktop stuff and didn't give the time to PC-BSD
that it probably deserved, but I feel like the old era of bad binary
packages in far in the past overall.

PC-BSD is now TrueOS https://www.trueos.org/...

With OpenBSD it's all so simple, and I think it's the same with FreeBSD
at least. The old days of needing to use ports on FreeBSD to get what
you want seem to be far over.

Binary packages have always been the preferred method for OpenBSD users,
and they always just seem to work.  And as of recently, there are now
binary packages for OpenBSD -stable for at least amd64 and i386:

https://ftp4.usa.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/6.5/packages/

Tools like sysupgrade and syspatch also eliminate another need for
keeping the source local and using patch(1).

And not using some repackaged BSD distro means sticking with strong
project support.

I know it's not necessarily "parent-friendly", but dealing with dangling
files is simple enough.

You can dump your core packages with "pkg_info -m", delete all the
packages, then just readd the package from the output of `-m`.

I really can't imagine things being any easier than today with binary
packages.

The one thing I do wish for which is a wip in my ports tree is a
stripped down xfce. Custom packages are nice, but aren't really in the
vein of what you're talking about either. And the default package
configs address what I think you're seeking...

When it comes to vmware, etc, I have no thoughts or comments!

Not sure if this even approaches your query, but thought I'd give you my
$0.02.

g