NomadBSD 1.3 Released To Offer A Pleasant FreeBSD 12.1 Based Desktop Experience

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NomadBSD 1.3 Released To Offer A Pleasant FreeBSD 12.1 Based Desktop Experience

Along similar aims to GhostBSD and MidnightBSD, GhostBSD is another one of the BSD distributions focused on providing a nice out-of-the-box experience. NomadBSD 1.3 is now available that is in turn based on the recent FreeBSD 12.1...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...D-1.3-Released

[kpedersen]

Unlike Linux, FreeBSD has a true upstream project so these distributions do not seem quite as useful.

The persistent USB storage feature (making this a usb stick distro) is fairly interesting but the choice of *heavy!* GUI tool choices makes it too clunky and bloated for a decent usb experience (4 gigs for a bare image! Where do I store... my stuff?).

I could see this being more useful to the community as a whole as a set of patch kits (or an automatic setup script) around FreeBSD directly.

But I wish it luck! It has a clean aesthetic and the name "Nomad" is quite cool for the project goals

[andyprough]

kpedersen

. [4 gigs for a bare image! Where do I store... my stuff?)

on the other 12 or 28 or 60 GB on your flash drive?

[kpedersen]

kpedersen

on the other 12 or 28 or 60 GB on your flash drive?

Flash drive? haha, my SSD is only 40 gigs.

If you need a flash drive the size of a hard disk... why not just use a hard disk and a traditional install?

[dreich]

Unlike Linux, FreeBSD has a true upstream project so these distributions do not seem quite as useful.

Unlike freebsd, Linux is a kernel and has a true upstream. Hovever, for people who want a desktop environment out-of-the-box that is mostly irrelevant as long as the system works as advertised.

[andyprough]

Flash drive? haha, my SSD is only 40 gigs.

If you need a flash drive the size of a hard disk... why not just use a hard disk and a traditional install?

Because this is 2019 and you can get a 16GB USB drive for the price of a cup of coffee? Because it's not 2007 anymore?

You were the one who said "The persistent USB storage feature (making this a usb stick distro) is fairly interesting". Do whatever you like.

[kpedersen]

Unlike freebsd, Linux is a kernel and has a true upstream. Hovever, for people who want a desktop environment out-of-the-box that is mostly irrelevant as long as the system works as advertised.

Upstream FreeBSD project already provides a desktop environment so you don't really need distros.

Upstream Linux kernel provides... a kernel. So you need distros.

You were the one who said "The persistent USB storage feature (making this a usb stick distro) is fairly interesting". Do whatever you like.

Yep, interesting. One that requires basically a hard drive rather than a USB stick... less so.

[starshipeleven]

(4 gigs for a bare image! Where do I store... my stuff?).

brand-name 16GB flash drives are like 5$ now, so I'm not sure what is your problem.

Flash drive? haha, my SSD is only 40 gigs.

brand-name 160GB or even 250GB ssds can be bought for 30$.

I actually have a couple 160GB M.2 ones in external enclosures that I use as "portable OS" with a full install with tools and stuff. I'm not even using more than 20GB of their total capacity, I use them only because they are actual SSDs and therefore they run circles around much more expensive USB flash drives, and this matters a lot when I need to do stuff with the tools in them.

If you need a flash drive the size of a hard disk... why not just use a hard disk and a traditional install?

Their image is basically a disk image of a traditional install that you write on USB with dd, and they recommend using faster and quality USB flash drives because the normal ones are slow.

There is no "mobile flash drive distro" features like say the Puppy derivatives or Slax where they are using ultra-compressed read-only stuff and/or images loaded in RAM so they don't run like crap because the USB itself isn't fast enough and all that.

This isn't really a "USB flash drive distro" in any way, imho.

[kpedersen]

This isn't really a "USB flash drive distro" in any way, imho.

Exactly, I very much agree.

Even though their site specifically says it is ("NomadBSD is a persistent live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD^®"), I just can't see it.

[caligula]

Unlike Linux, FreeBSD has a true upstream project so these distributions do not seem quite as useful.

The persistent USB storage feature (making this a usb stick distro) is fairly interesting but the choice of *heavy!* GUI tool choices makes it too clunky and bloated for a decent usb experience (4 gigs for a bare image!

AFAIK Knoppix and other live Linux distros have compressed their files for years. Even most distros expect larger than 650 MB CD-R(W) these days. So that pretty much results in the same size.

Where do I store... my stuff?).

Like other already said, the sticks have more capacity these days. FWIW, the most widely available sticks are 32 or 64 GB, USB 3.0 or 3.1. Consider upgrading, they're a lot faster too.