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GhostBSD 25 review - Old-school work and frolic
Quoting: GhostBSD 25 review - Old-school work and frolic —
In terms of your Average Joe usability, GhostBSD is far behind the common Linux distro. Saying otherwise would be distorting the time-space continuum. In many ways, notably package management and administration, BSD is harder, more difficult, less compromising. The feeling is equivalent to how Linux was roughly fifteen years back. Since, Linux has gained lots and lots of GUI tools to do things, but then also added lots of unnecessary abstraction that makes classic administration harder, and became a lot less stable. On average.
BSD is BSD, and it never claims any fluffy usability. Some of the incarnations are more geared toward the everyday usecase, but you still need to work hard. In the end, you can get the job done, and if you must tinker, then you will appreciate the simple UNIX philosophy. Files are files. No tomfoolery. Now, I don't really see any conflict. It is possible to have this robust approach AND have fun everyday stuff. Sure, it takes investment and time. But technically, if BSD had a nicer package management tool (say like Plasma's Discover), and a complete Control Center, where you can manage 90% of everyday stuff, BSD could potentially be a contender to the common distro. But then, we get to major problems no.2 and no.3: hardware support and availability of common software. Perhaps this won't ever be truly resolved, and BSD is more suitable for somber, serious usage that limits the everyday fun factor.
GhostBSD 25 treads the fine line between its Old School DNA and the modern vices. Sometimes superbly, but not always successfully. There were a few issues and snags here and there, and these ought to be resolved. However, at the end of the day, I got most of my work done, and I am pleased with the results. The only question is, if and when a new issue arises, how quickly and simply will I be able to resolve them. After all, the purpose of operating systems is to support the user's needs, not to be constantly administered. Right now, I don't have a good, long-term answer to that question. But overall, I like GhostBSD. It works well, it's robust, and it could potentially be a serious challenger in the desktop arena. We shall see.