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PC-BSD 7 Beta 1 Available |
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The PC-BSD team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PC-BSD version 7-BETA1! This release marks the first PC-BSD based on FreeBSD 7-STABLE and the KDE 4.1 desktop, and also provides many new ways to install, including DVD, USB and Network/Internet installation choices. Our PBI site has also been updated with a wide variety of software ready for PC-BSD 7, with more being added weekly. 
This release is beta, which means things are still being worked on and fixed in preparation for the final release. Users are highly encouraged to report bugs to our bug database or our testing mailing list. In addition to this, many translations are still waiting to be finished for this release. If you would like to help translate PC-BSD 7 into your native language, please visit our translation website. Lastly a very special thanks needs to go out to our team of developers and testers who have been working so hard to make this release happen!
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Interview with Kris Moore, PC-BSD lead developer |
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Distrowatch.org has interviewed Kris Moore on PC-BSD, it's history, the reason for creating it, the upcoming version (7.0) etc. "The so-called "distribution for the average Joe" market has been
expanding at a rapid pace in recent years. While the vast majority of
these projects is invariably based on Linux, we have also witnessed a
few attempts to create a user-friendly "distribution" based on
operating systems that traditionally belonged to the hacker's domain,
notably FreeBSD and OpenSolaris. One of them is PC-BSD, a project
launched in 2005. Its main goal? To hide the complexity of FreeBSD and
to deliver an alternative to Linux on the desktop. Its main claim to
fame? The web-based software installation infrastructure called PBI.
Its community? Over 8,000 registered forum members and a growing
network of world-wide community sites. All this thanks to the original
vision and undying conviction of Kris Moore, the founder and lead developer of PC-BSD." Read the whole interview here.
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The PC-BSD team has been hard at work over the past few months, preparing for the next major release of PC-BSD, also known as PC-BSD 7. This new version will be based on FreeBSD 7, and include KDE 4.1 as the primary desktop interface. We are currently releasing weekly Alpha ISO's, that allow us to test out the new features, and fix bugs associated with the switch to a FreeBSD 7 and KDE 4.1 base. Users who wish to preview this release and help out in testing, are able to do so by signing up on our Testing mailing list. As soon as the Alpha releases begin to stabilize and bugs are hammered out, we will release a public Beta, and freeze the UI interface for the translation work to begin.
PC-BSD 7 Desktop in Action:
Also, a new version of the PBI Builder software has been made available today. This update will allow the building of PBI files & modules for the upcoming release of PC-BSD 7. We at PC-BSD also wish to thank the developers over at KDE on FreeBSD , who have been instrumental in bringing KDE4 to the FreeBSD platform. Users and developers who wish to help them out in bringing KDE 4 to FreeBSD, are encouraged to test out KDE4 and report any bugs to the team. |
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PC-BSD version 1.5.1 is now available for download as both ISO and updates from version 1.5. This version provides updates to the default port set, as well as numerous bug fixes to the system tools & utilities. Also, additional translations have been added to provide a more complete localized experience. Users currently running 1.5 may download a standalone PBI patch, or may simply check for updates via the System Update tool. |
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Jeremy White from CodeWeavers has made the announcement that an experimental build of CrossOver Games is now available for PC-BSD users. This unsupported edition will allow users to test out playing Windows games on their PC-BSD desktop. At this time Wine support for BSD is greatly improved from where it once was, although more porting still needs to be done. Jeremy has also issued a challenge to the BSD community to show their support for this release by signing up with CodeWeavers, and voting for BSD support as a requested feature.
Update:
Some users have asked if this version will run on FreeBSD. Since PC-BSD is not a fork, the answer is yes, it will run on FreeBSD as well. The only caveat is that if you are on FreeBSD 6.x, you will need to apply a system patch from http://wiki.freebsd.org/Wine to enable wine to function properly. Users of FreeBSD 7.0 and higher do not need this patch. |
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1.5 VMware image available |
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Whilst we're still working on the 1.5 Live CD, users who want to try PC-BSD without having to install it, or those who want to use PC-BSD for testing/developing purposes can now download the 1.5 VMware image. The image is a .zip file that needs to be extracted to be able to run it within the VMware Player. The login details for the vmware image are username pcbsd with password pcbsd. The root password is also pcbsd |
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