Hi!
I just found the GhostBSD website about a week ago and have tried to find out a bit more about philosophy and differences from PC-BSD than what it says on the "About" page and Wikipedia.org, but I have not been successful in finding very much. So for this reason it would have been nice to have some more information on both the "About" page and Wikipedia.org I think.
For example; what are the specific reasons for making a new fork from FreeBSD when there is already PC-BSD as a desktop version? Like for example is it performance, usability, and/or security philosophies? Based on this it would also have been nice to hear a good reason, or reasons, for why I should choose GhostBSD instead of PC-BSD?
Thanks,
Monti
Why GhostBSD....?
Re: Why GhostBSD....?
First PCBSD and GhostBSD are not forks, they are redistributions of FreeBSD, like Ubuntu is the base of Kubuntu and Ubuntu-MATE.
GhostBSD is built with C, Python, GTK, and Bourne Shell - PCBSD is built with C++ QT and Bourne Shell programming.
PCBSD only distributes a 64bit system, GhostBSD distributes 32bit and 64bit systems.
PCBSD needs fairly new hardware and at least 4Gb of ram due to ZFS, whilst GhostBSD only needs 512Mb of ram and can run on a Pentium 3.
Basically the project was started when PCBSD was KDE only, and I never liked KDE, I started a Gnome build with FreeBSD. The name comes from Gnome hosted by FreeBSD G host BSD.
When Gnome3 came out I switched to MATE.
The big difference is PCBSD is KDE and QT by default, GhostBSD is MATE and GTK.
GhostBSD is built with C, Python, GTK, and Bourne Shell - PCBSD is built with C++ QT and Bourne Shell programming.
PCBSD only distributes a 64bit system, GhostBSD distributes 32bit and 64bit systems.
PCBSD needs fairly new hardware and at least 4Gb of ram due to ZFS, whilst GhostBSD only needs 512Mb of ram and can run on a Pentium 3.
This is something I will let you find out yourself.For why I should choose GhostBSD instead of PC-BSD?
Basically the project was started when PCBSD was KDE only, and I never liked KDE, I started a Gnome build with FreeBSD. The name comes from Gnome hosted by FreeBSD G host BSD.
When Gnome3 came out I switched to MATE.
The big difference is PCBSD is KDE and QT by default, GhostBSD is MATE and GTK.
Re: Why GhostBSD....?
Thank you very much for your reply Eric, I appreciate it. And thank you for pointing out "redistributions" 
Regarding MATE and GTK I think that was definitely the best choice. I have become a fan of both and I hope MATE will stay with it's foundation and never ever change this in the future. When I first started with GNU/Linux it was with Gnome 2, but clearly I didn't realize what I had, so did a round trip with other DS's before coming back to MATE. Now I think it is the best DS there is. I am now going away from GNU/Linux, because I believe the BSD kernel is more mature and efficient than the Linux kernel. Actually, what made the final tipping point is Systemd.
From what you wrote it seems like that with GhostBSD the main goal is to have a "lightweight" OS with the smallest possible imprint. Do I understand you correctly that this is the reason for the OS name choice also?
Regarding ZFS vs. UFS; if I remember right OpenBSD are sticking with the latter also, and I have not read anywhere that they are going to change this. From what I understand they have additional functions that monitors integrity.
Last, I am considering installing GhostBSD on my old man's computer. Would it be necessary to do a complete reinstall from 10.1 beta 2 to the release when it comes out?
Again thank you.
Monti
Regarding MATE and GTK I think that was definitely the best choice. I have become a fan of both and I hope MATE will stay with it's foundation and never ever change this in the future. When I first started with GNU/Linux it was with Gnome 2, but clearly I didn't realize what I had, so did a round trip with other DS's before coming back to MATE. Now I think it is the best DS there is. I am now going away from GNU/Linux, because I believe the BSD kernel is more mature and efficient than the Linux kernel. Actually, what made the final tipping point is Systemd.
From what you wrote it seems like that with GhostBSD the main goal is to have a "lightweight" OS with the smallest possible imprint. Do I understand you correctly that this is the reason for the OS name choice also?
Regarding ZFS vs. UFS; if I remember right OpenBSD are sticking with the latter also, and I have not read anywhere that they are going to change this. From what I understand they have additional functions that monitors integrity.
Last, I am considering installing GhostBSD on my old man's computer. Would it be necessary to do a complete reinstall from 10.1 beta 2 to the release when it comes out?
Again thank you.
Monti
Re: Why GhostBSD....?
If you install GhostBSD BETA2 you would have FreeBSD 10.1 RELEASE install. The only thing that would change to GhostBSD 10.1 RELEASE would be a bug fix in a tool we build for ghostbsd.Would it be necessary to do a complete reinstall from 10.1 beta 2 to the release when it comes out?
The only known bug right now is shutdown, but it get fix after doing the system update.
Re: Why GhostBSD....?
Now comes the 10.2 version of FreeBSD, there is no incompatibility with version 10.1 of GhostBSD? Congratulations on your great work, go ahead.ericbsd wrote:If you install GhostBSD BETA2 you would have FreeBSD 10.1 RELEASE install. The only thing that would change to GhostBSD 10.1 RELEASE would be a bug fix in a tool we build for ghostbsd.Would it be necessary to do a complete reinstall from 10.1 beta 2 to the release when it comes out?
The only known bug right now is shutdown, but it get fix after doing the system update.
Re: Why GhostBSD....?
Thanks a lot Eric!
By searching for something else I found by accident some more info and opinions over at the FreeBSD forums and have decided to give GhostBSD a try. I have been running the x64 version for a couple of hours and now I would like to try it from hard drive.
By searching for something else I found by accident some more info and opinions over at the FreeBSD forums and have decided to give GhostBSD a try. I have been running the x64 version for a couple of hours and now I would like to try it from hard drive.