Trying Out The FreeBSD-Powered TrueOS With Its Custom Qt Desktop

[danielnez1]

I do wish the TrueOS developers focussed on making a great Plasma 5 experience on BSD rather than developing another desktop, but its their prerogative. After trying the current version of Lumina, I really do think its nowhere near ready for being an option as an alternative desktop, let alone the only option during installation for TrueOS desktop users.

[aht0]

I do wish the TrueOS developers focussed on making a great Plasma 5 experience on BSD rather than developing another desktop, but its their prerogative. After trying the current version of Lumina, I really do think its nowhere near ready for being an option as an alternative desktop, let alone the only option during installation for TrueOS desktop users.

https://freebsd.kde.org/area51.php

Also, do a search in AppCafe. Might be you that you find MATE desktop (I don't recommend Cinnamon, it's been unstable on PC-BSD)

[nomadewolf]

I'm not making a judgement either way, but I believe the reason why they created Lumina instead of using one of the established DE's is because of licensing. They felt that there should be a BSD licensed DE for, well, BSD.

Well, in the case of BSD i guess it kind of makes sense for that reason.
My critic goes more in the Linux direction.
Not only de DEs, but everything is over-forked...
Except for the init system. We could use a new init system that does just that.

[aht0]

Question is not in licenses but in comparable efforts put in:
developing your own vs porting software written with Linux (and systemd) in mind.

[k1e0x]

I do wish the TrueOS developers focussed on making a great Plasma 5 experience on BSD rather than developing another desktop, but its their prerogative. After trying the current version of Lumina, I really do think its nowhere near ready for being an option as an alternative desktop, let alone the only option during installation for TrueOS desktop users.

I wish they would got with XFCE.. We need more XFCE love because its good. Yeah.. Your right though Lumina is an interesting project but it just feels wildly crappy to me.. I can't really explain it but it's one of my least favourite DE's. (Gnome > XFCE > KDE > Unity > LXQT > Mate > Lumina)

We are focusing on some of the bad though.. you can put pretty much and DE on TrueOS and one of the really nice features they have is the integration with ZFS. They have their backup program (Life Preserver?) That is really top notch. It graphical program that can send ZFS snapshots to a FreeNAS server, and also restore your system from boot CD from said ZFS snapshots. That is a really impressive program and they get a WELL DONE TRUEOS! for that.

[aht0]

I wish they would got with XFCE.. We need more XFCE love because its good. Yeah.. Your right though Lumina is an interesting project but it just feels wildly crappy to me.. I can't really explain it but it's one of my least favourite DE's. (Gnome > XFCE > KDE > Unity > LXQT > Mate > Lumina)

We are focusing on some of the bad though.. you can put pretty much and DE on TrueOS and one of the really nice features they have is the integration with ZFS. They have their backup program (Life Preserver?) That is really top notch. It graphical program that can send ZFS snapshots to a FreeNAS server, and also restore your system from boot CD from said ZFS snapshots. That is a really impressive program and they get a WELL DONE TRUEOS! for that.

Xfce is no longer in TrueOS binary package selection (tried pkg install xfce4) but accessible trough ports and seems to compile without issues. That's an option. (/usr/ports/x11-wm/xfce4)

I wish they would do less complicated and more useful stuff from the viewpoint of general desktop user.
1) GUI utility for (USB) 3G/4G modems. Well, it ain't hard to set them up manually. But WHY should I? This missing utility right here is going to make Average Joe go right back to his Linux desktop where Networkmanager is easily usable for most dimwitted and does everything but pays his ISP bills.
2) Same with configuring X. There used to be boot option for this in PC-BSD and GUI utility as well, it's no longer. I did TrueOS VESA install and had to manually straighten the X out trough the xorg.conf. Last time I had to do this in Linux was back sometimes in 2006.
3) Laptop custom hotkeys. I know TrueOS detects whether I have laptop or not (/usr/local/share/pc-sysinstall/backend-query/detect-laptop.sh). More love should flow into that portion of hardware, then develop stuff like Life-Preserver and whatever when basic creature comforts work..
4) Basic lame bugs in installer, which should NOT be there..

extra) That last TrueOS iteration is based off FreeBSD 12-CURRENT.. you can't go more bleedin' edge or unstable. Let's compare it to rolling-release Linux distro. Acceptable for desktop but they also offer TrueOS-Server which is also based off 12-CURRENT. Who in his right mind is going to use rolling-release analogue for production server???

At the moment I am not sure if I should love or hate TrueOS. It's got potential but it's like multiple war veteran, limping both on wrong hardware legs, while shiny on the sun.

[TiberiusDuval]

That last TrueOS iteration is based off FreeBSD 12-CURRENT.. you can't go more bleedin' edge or unstable. Let's compare it to rolling-release Linux distro. Acceptable for desktop but they also offer TrueOS-Server which is also based off 12-CURRENT.

Even for desktop I'm quite suspicious, I'm seriously thinking installing pure FreeBSD 11 when time comes to retire my PC-BSD 10.03. It will need some work, but on other hand something following experimental repo can and likely will backfire nastily.