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Review: FreeBSD 15.1 with an install-time desktop
Quoting: DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD. —
After a few hours of digging and reading reports and comparing blog posts like a conspiracy theorist on a caffeine-binge, I surfaced with a few thoughts and conclusions.
First, I'm sure it is of no surprise to anyone that there is a lot of made up news in the world. Some of it is LLM-generated; some of it is reports which comment on possibilities, mentioned elsewhere, as facts; others were probably accurate at the time of writing, but have become outdated as developments happened. Whatever the reason for the misinformation, it is important to remember that reports on-line, especially ones which don't link to an original, official source, may be false, reframed, or misinterpreting the information.
In a similar vein, some tech blogs and news sites will copy and paste just about anything without confirming it. Some of them will even copy screenshots which either are not real or are not for the release they are covering. This is part of why DistroWatch tries to always provide its own, created in-house screenshots and we test any tips or tutorials to confirm they work as reported.
Ironically, accurate news is not always well-cited or sourced. The two reports I could find confirming FreeBSD's new features were being delayed did not have any supporting link or quote. It was a case of one person copying something someone else had told them. It appears the information was correct, but there was no way for me (someone who didn't go to the Open Source Summit) to confirm the desktop environment setup feature was being delayed.
Finally, and this may seem harsh, but I don't feel a though the FreeBSD Foundation (and the FreeBSD project) did a good job of sharing information on these new features and their eventual delay. As an example of this, the FreeBSD Quarterly Status Report in April reported the following: "A version of the [desktop setup] script was later adapted for integration into bsdinstall and into an installation ISO. After successful testing on both CURRENT and STABLE, a review has been submitted to add the desktop script to bsdinstall.
That report says the feature has been tested in the project's STABLE branch and it has been submitted to be included in the installer. That was two months prior to the 15.1 release, so it sounds like a fait accompli. As far as I can tell, there was no official report from the project or the Foundation after that, saying the feature had been pushed back to a later version. As a result, blogs and reviewers continued to run with the stale information. Some of us, such as myself, took the time to test for the feature and noticed it was missing. Others appear to have just let an LLM write their review, as one report stated: "FreeBSD 15.1 includes several enhancements over previous versions, such as improved hardware support, updated WiFi drivers, and better power management. It also introduces a new KDE Plasma desktop install option, aiming to enhance the user experience on laptops and desktops."
I feel like the confusion, and some false reports, could have been avoided if the FreeBSD project had been a bit more up front about what they were including and what they were holding back in the FreeBSD 15.1 release. As it is, there are some people out there who are probably going to wonder why they can't get the new desktop setup feature to work. The simple truth is: it doesn't yet exist.