PCBSD / Windowmanager

[lurhesch]

When doing the PCBSD install, I was unable to choose which windowsmanager I wanted to use.
So I just continued the installation thinking it would install the standard KDE desktop.
5 min later everything was unpacked and installed ???
Wow, this is fast, so I thought: this is way to fast the system must be broken. But it booted anyway like nothing (much faster than the previous versions) but with LXDE?
How do you choose KDE when installing PCBSD?
(ok, just discovered after reading several pages that this is only on the dvd and not on the cd, this should actually be mentioned at the downloads too like:
Complete install with LXDE, no optional components (no KDE, GNome etc).
Now the pc I try to install on only has cd so how do you install kde or gnome?)

Anyway, I really think PCBSD is very impressive (I tried almost every OS in Distrowatch so I can compare).
However, I mentioned this already about 2 years ago. PCBSD needs a slick design (just like GHOSTBSD), still think the background is really (REALLY) terrible.

You guys are putting a Rolls Royce / Ferrari together and instead of making a beautiful body on top of all the goodies you put a body on it like the pic attached (I really do not understand). Slick and beautiful attracts people, it is called marketing and something this good as PCBSD deserves much better.

[kmoore134]

Did you download the CD image or DVD? The CD is a slimmed down release
which contains LXDE only, but you can install KDE and others via the
Control Panel -> System Manager anytime post-install

What in particular do you not like about the default isotope wallpaper?

[lurhesch]

Indeed I used the cd install, in never read the 'smaller' or 'italic' letters as usually they are a waste of my time ;-)
The post install I found already when messing with the system settings but it kept hanging when I tried it for KDE. Now I am doing a net (re)install for the moment to see what that gives.

Concerning wallpaper, I am a fanatic when it comes to eyecandy, you should ask the guys at askgv.com if they want to make special themes for PCBSD.

What looks better, the standard Gnome interface or link below for Ubuntu
http://www.askvg.com/win2-7-pack-mak...ike-windows-7/

the wallpaper looks like post communist era.

I do not understand why most distros deliver the standard windows managers anyway, like that they look all the same and what is the point installing or even using them. Ok, you can change them afterwards but good looks sells.
For instance, why not deliver KDE with non standard setting like with different icons like KFaenza which look much better:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php...content=143890

Concerning the interface of the installer, it looks like an improved version of win98.
Ok, I admit, I like something that works good (like PCBSD) but that looks good too (like OSX or WIN7) allthough KDE is coming close when you spend some time with it.

Anyway, thanks for PCBSD, I really like it.

[Linuxis]

The reason I'm using PCBSD is because they offer alternative Window Managers, if it was just KDE it's sad to say that I wouldn't use PCBSD because KDE would crash my computer. I love that there is the choice, I love LXDE, Fluxbox, Openbox and I also like Enlightenment.

Hey Lurhesch, have you ever tried Enlightenment? That's eye candy for you and it's fast. It's had compatibility issues with PCBSD so it was taken out.

But I am yelling at the staff! Don't leave FVWM behind!! FVWM-Crystal is surprisingly user friendly, and it offers amazing eye candy for such a lightweight desktop. (I wish some of it's glitches would fixed though)

...And new Window Managers are being developed as we speak. A few months ago I stumbled on Blue Tile, which is a user friendly Tiling window manager. (WTF?)

Not really eye candy but it integrates with Gnome so you get the Tiling experience, plus Gnome.

Remember that a lot of us have to sacrifice eye candy for speed because our hardware isn't good enough.
With Enlightenment and FVWM, we don't have but I wish there were even more Window Managers like them.

Personally I like Openbox or Fluxbox with Cairodock or Wbar, it's eye candy enough for me.
But please Lurhesch, Please do not diss the old hardware people. We are people too.

PS: I never thought Windows 7 was pretty looking, I always thought it was boring.
I like colors and textures, not pointless over transparency. There were themes for Windows XP and Vista, (Still on Deviantart) which make Windows 7 look like Win98.

[kmoore134]

FYI, Just added FVWM to the list of unsupported desktops for RC2, it
includes FVWM-Crystal as well so you can play around with both

[Linuxis]

ooooooooooooo Thankie.

Quick question though, Fvwm-crystal on linux always came with zero-install.

I just wanted to get your input about zero-install and whether it is a security compromise. Also the list of applications that can be installed via Zero-install is rather slim and you could probably get those same applications from the Appcafe.

That being said, is Zero-install still good to have to maintain FVWM-Crystal the way it's developers wanted it to be or is it pointless and not needed?

[kmoore134]

In this case zero-install really just duplicates PBI functionality, and
is even depreciated in the FreeBSD ports tree.

[Linuxis]

Zero install is a good idea in theory but it's far too underdeveloped and I don't even know if it's own developers are continuing to update it.

[lurhesch]

1) Hi Linuxis,

I had once a multi boot with +30 os ;-), it was at the time the Linux kernel was just switching to a new kernel were as the old one only supported a limited number of partitions (before I had found that out it was a hell checking why it would not install etc )
Enlightment you can use combined with other Window Managers as far I know. I had the Linux distro MoonOS installed too, the previous version had to most beautiful enlightment desktop I have encountered so far. It is just not another Ubuntu based distro with nice looks but they altered plenty of stuff below the surface too.

But I am learning by doing it as I do not have any IT eduction and I do not want Linux, I want FreeBSD and I am a KDE fan too.

2) Hi Kris,
I do not understand, the word 'unsupported'. You do not 'support' them but you deliver them? I saw it when doing the installation but did not understood the unsupported comment.
Anyway a few installs later I still have to say I am very impressed with the new installer and all the options of PCBSD. Very impressive job. There are almost no distro's out there who offer so many choices in window managers and also the new AppCafe and the fact you can upgrade without having to reinstall the entire thing is very nice.
Does the system actually also updates the FreeBSD below as in version 8 I did
# freebsd-update fetch
# freebsd-update install
as i believed they were not installed automatically.

Why is there no partition manager included in BSD installers generally?
Also, I used cd install and net install but there are no options included to have several packages pre included in the installation like firefox / thunderbird / libreoffice which was the case in version 8 when doing dvd install.

Thanks anyway for PCBSD.

[Linuxis]

Hiya - Lurahesch

I don't have an IT education either. I'm just a casual user but I'll answer your question about what they mean by unsupported because I read a few posts on here and had some discussions about it as well. Supported desktops are desktops that the staff feel are easy to use and configure, they also support PCBSD mime types.
Unsupported desktops, aren't as easy to configure (for new people) and will sometimes have compatibility issues, which will have to be resolved by experts.

That's why when you place your cursor on the Unsupportive desktops line in the Installer, a little balloon will pop up saying, "Desktop environments for experts"

True, you can find tutorials online, (which is how I learned to use openbox) and posts on other forums asking questions and receiving answers for them, however on the main, people with no technical knowledge will have much difficulty handling the unsupported desktops.

Another point is, yes Enlightenment is easy to use and you can just download themes and toys for it online. But the PCBSD staff couldn't get it to properly handle mime types, (which are application references for media and document types) and the E17 desktop had to keep being rebuilt at every update. This was proving too tedious for the staff to maintain, so they dropped E17 completely.

Fvwm-crystal hasn't been tested yet. They are fiddling with it now and it will be released with the RC2. It's a pretty easy to use desktop environment, I thought. It comes with plenty of themes, however making your own themes takes some work.

Also I had glitches with it in Linux Mint, but that was because of the program Zero-install which the PCBSD staff have removed.

On the main, Fvwm-crystal does offer a Enlightenment/mac like theme called Dock. It's pretty and FVWM-crystal always comes with beautiful wallpaper.
If you don't care about doing anything specially advanced, Fvwm-crystal should work fine. It does take a while to get used it's menu placement though.

So...if you haven't tried FVWM-Crystal, I hope you'll give it a go when the next release comes out. Also I stumbled upon another window manager which will be getting popularity in the near future. It's called Trinity, it's based on KDE (KDE 3.5 to be exact) and it's going improve on KDE 3.5 with new features and remove some of the glitches with old KDE. This means that in the future of the X11 desktop world, Trinity will be another place to go for eye candy. However again, it won't be for my hardware.