GhostBSD

[trigggl]

I thought I would give FreeBSD a try in a VirtualBox machine. My initial attempt proved bland and failed partially due to a dying hard drive. I decided to try again using Gentoo FreeBSD and that proved to be better looking, but less useful than a standard FreeBSD install. What's the point if it's not possible to install a window manager in the normal way? I finally found a FreeBSD 'distro' called GhostBSD. It's looking a lot better than FreeBSD because it comes standard with MATE (a fork of gnome2) and a graphical installer. Plus, it is FreeBSD, so it uses FreeBSD ports. FreeBSD ports has boinc-7.2.28. FreeBSD also has the option to run linux apps with emulation, so it's looking like it might be a fun thing to try. So far, the install has gone pretty smoothly and currently in the process of a boinc install attempt.

Will report back when I have more info.

[trigggl]

So far so good. I'm currently crunching a native NFS task and a Linux Convector task with both making progress.

http://escatter11.fullerton.edu/nfs/show_host_detail.php?hostid=391300
http://convector.fsv.cvut.cz/show_host_detail.php?hostid=2958

[Fire$torm]

Cool stuff there. Please keep us updated.

[trigggl]

One thing to note is that it's using Fedora packages for the Linux emulation. It downloaded a lot of fedora rpm-s when I installed boinc.

[trigggl]

Well, convector tasks completed and validated. At some point I may try an install on a real machine.

[Fire$torm]

I've DL'd it. Will have a look-see. May be worth investing some time on it.

[trigggl]

I've DL'd it. Will have a look-see. May be worth investing some time on it.

I may be moving from Gentoo Linux to this. This could happen sooner rather than later. The one thing I've had trouble with is getting Wine to work for a 64-bit system. FreeBSD only supports Wine as 32-bit and I haven't quite got that figured out yet. I do know that it is possible, though. I'll start with the PC you resurrected for me and see how it goes before converting my Desktops.

The reason for my decision is Gnome 3.8 and systemd, neither of which I care for at all. Gentoo has just set Gnome 3 as stable and are only supporting it using systemd rather than OpenRC which they were steering people towards on Gnome 2. Upgrading is a nightmare and took me 3 days! It is no small thing to upgrade from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3. Basically you're uninstalling one while installing the other. It would be easier to do a fresh install. However, the Handbook hasn't been updated to guide new users to start with systemd and Gnome 3.

The reason I'm seriously considering the switch is based on my successful upgrade on the resurrected PC. Can you say Windows 8? systemd isn't supported as well as OpenRC. Furthermore, the service "boinc" isn't supported. There is no startup script installed for it in systemd. You have to create your own (if you can figure out how to do it). Don't want to create a start up script? I can just make my own start up app like I did in Gnome 2 for Gnome 3, right? Um...no. There's no obvious way to do it.

There's a fork of Gnome 2 called MATE. It doesn't look like Gentoo wants to support it. It's standard on GhostBSD.

I don't want to leave Linux, but I want a ports based system and Gentoo is moving away from what works for me. So much for being free to make your own choices with it. Their choice to go with systemd and Gnome 3 is losing me. Might as well be using Windows (no offense).

[trigggl]

:p I just noticed I'm confined to i686 for linux tasks. Installing virtualbox now.

I've got BOINC running on GhostBSD on a real computer now. I'm just going to do BSD on one PC for now while I look for alternate solution to gnome on the other two.

[trigggl]

Also, this is something I didn't notice running BSD from a VirtualBox. There are NO cuda/opencl drivers in *BSD. I'm going to have to go back to Linux to use the GPU. On my main desktop I've switched from Gnome to XFCE and it works ok, so that's something I can switch to to keep Gentoo Linux the way I like it. I'll probably only run GPU tasks in Linux on that box and run a lot of CPU tasks from GhostBSD in a virtualbox. There are a few things that FreeBSD seems to do faster.

[DrPop]

Man, Trig, that sounds like a ton of work! :P Hope you get it all sorted out soon and can quit pulling the hair out. Although for someone of your Linux capabilities, maybe it's actually slightly "fun". :D

[Fire$torm]

Also, this is something I didn't notice running BSD from a VirtualBox. There are NO cuda/opencl drivers in *BSD. I'm going to have to go back to Linux to use the GPU. On my main desktop I've switched from Gnome to XFCE and it works ok, so that's something I can switch to to keep Gentoo Linux the way I like it. I'll probably only run GPU tasks in Linux on that box and run a lot of CPU tasks from GhostBSD in a virtualbox. There are a few things that FreeBSD seems to do faster.

Bummer. I was hoping for something friendlier. I think this push towards a touch screen, tablet centric experience will be the final straw that breaks the desktop's back. With the rise of the"Micro Brick" ala Intel's Nuc and the like, the concept of hardware upgrading and expandability will cease to exist. I think will will see a more "Disposable Paper Plate" mentality in personal computing's future. Think Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World".