Version: 19.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-07-17
Votes: 1
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For me GhostBSD is still the only solution for a pre-built BSD. I use the community XFCE edition at I consider MATE to be very inefficient with resources.
It installs easily, it runs well, and everybody should have at least one machine with BSD on.
I'm not too thrilled that their website is not HTTPS, so I would tread carefully when browsing their site.
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Version: 19.04
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-04-28
Votes: 3
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Installed from a USB-Stick (flashed with Etcher, Rufus works as well) without problems on Dell XPS 15 with 16 GB RAM and a M2SSD, package manager could really use some improvements, Libre Office and Thunderbird work out-of-the-box. USB-mouse works well, track pad does not, ZFS-file-system is a charme!
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Version: 19.04
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-04-14
Votes: 5
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Not perfect, but Real Good. After trying to get FreeBSD and OpenBSD to install, I finally have GhostBSD 19.04 RC up and running. I'm going to be playing with this for a while. Good work!
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Version: 19.04
Rating: 7
Date: 2019-04-14
Votes: 0
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Looks good.
But really slow live, didn't bother installing.
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Version: 18.12
Rating: 5
Date: 2019-03-04
Votes: 6
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GhostBSD (i.e. FreeBSD, et-al) have a very serious FLAW with their installation media format...
For the uninitiated, any attempt to create a USB stick from an '.iso' will result in a flawed image. Moreover, the USB stick in question may cause a BSOD when inserted into a Windows system.
The problem stems from BSD's refusal to adopt the 'hybrid' ISO image format used by Linux, Windows, and MacOS. The BSD image GPT table is misaligned, and the stick gets bricked.
The *BSD devs need to get with the 21st century and adapt to the mainstream instead of clinging to an ISO 'standard' which has been rendered non-standard by all other OS, including Solaris.
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Version: 18.12
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-03-03
Votes: 2
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GhostBSD is my first successful install of a BSD OS in VirtualBox with a desktop environment. I ranked it an 8 because the install was painless and it works decent in vbox. Right out of the box the MATE desktop worked, and with some tweaks to the system reached a satisfactory state.
While there are plenty of other OS options out there like many well established Linux distros, I think it desirable to have further alternatives. To have a BSD OS with easy install and a nice GUI right out of the box is a worthy accomplishment. Keep up the good work Ghost team.
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Version: 18.12
Rating: 6
Date: 2019-01-07
Votes: 0
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So many - main line Linux Versions - are head and shoulders over ghostBSD. Unless you're hard core BSD Junkie - I don't see the value of trying BSD distros. Its a mystery to me.
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Version: 18.12
Rating: 1
Date: 2019-01-05
Votes: 3
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Doesn't boot in uefi mode.
Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard with latest BIOS (3602)
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Version: 18.10
Rating: 9
Date: 2018-12-30
Votes: 1
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Very easy to use. The basic installation is perfect. Some packages don't work well. The directory structure has an authorization problem such as sendmail, but these can be easily repaired.
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Version: 18.10
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-12-26
Votes: 1
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excellent usability. great out-of-the-box experience - all the proper drivers were installed in home my hardware was instantly functional after installatiob.
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Version: 18.10
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-12-03
Votes: 1
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Very easy to use. Looks great and for me at least, everything just works.
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Version: 18.10
Rating: 7
Date: 2018-11-23
Votes: 24
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Am impressed with the ease-of-install and functionality of this distro of BSD, while not everything works out-of-the-box, just enough does to give me a working machine, which is what I need. I have tried other versions of BSD and drivers are an immediate concern. I do not mind configuration, I have used Linux-based distros like Gentoo and Slackware, but when your hardware is not recognized, then adopting this OS becomes a lot more difficult. Yes, I have tried PC-BSD/True OS, but had real nightmares mounting storage drives, using the wifi and trying to use it for day-to day-tasks. While GhostBSD could not mount NTFS drives, it did read my USB keys and USB-based digital music players just fine. The track pad for my laptop does not work and the lone person on the GhostBSD IRC channel did not know what to do, at least my USB mouse works. The graphics driver performs awesome (AMD based graphics) and better than the Linux OS install! My laptop is old with cruddy hardware, but was pleasantly surprised to see it stream some anime just fine. Software install-wise, while I do not get everything I want, I get what I need and the installs are fast and easy. Wifi works fine, the OS recognizes my wifi card so I did not need to resort to a dongle. The GUI, while not my favorite, is not bad either, it looks pretty, actually. GhostBSD crashed on me a grand total of one time, when I tested how many programs I could run simultaneously. I have very little RAM, so 5 programs gave me a crash issue. While I realize that many people who use BSD can write their own device drivers in their sleep, and can configure the machine to perform well and they prefer to roll-their-own-gui, some of us are not as sophisticated and REALLY APPRECIATE IT when we are allowed to get a toe-hold on the OS so we can learn and grow with it. 7/10 as a cautious rating, but will likely up it to 8 or higher the longer I use it. Something like this is sorely needed for "the rest of us".
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Version: 18.10
Rating: 9
Date: 2018-11-03
Votes: 5
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As a desktop-oriented BSD OS, it has the most beautiful desktop environment ever occured, pre-configured apperance sets such as Element style and Windowy style is out of box.
User experience is much more stable than common Linux desktop distributions. The power of ZFS is still not tested on GhostBSD, though I have experience on Solaris managing zpools, it is far not convenient on GhostBSD for not having a GUI tool as it is a desktop-oriented OS. And if it is installed on laptops, yet not having NetworkManager is a challenge for those beginners.
Driver support might follow most of the modern hardwares as GhostBSD uses TrueOS which based on FreeBSD 12 current.
The default outdated apperance of rEFI during boot process seems not matching the elegant desktop environment, so does the text based RC infomation. Adding a boot flash like macOS or elementaryOS will not be something difficult for experienced users, but it would be more attractive to desktop and laptop users when it is coming out of box.
The default office suite is just like any other open source OSes, FreeBSD repos and GhostBSD repos are both useable in GhostBSD, no reason for lack of apps. Medias can be played, codes can be typed and complied, web can be browsed, mail can be sent and received. But a GUI configure tool of repos would be more acceptable.
Display under ultra-high resolution such as 4K is not tested, while MATE 1.20 should support ultra-high resolution.
Apart from the buggy GhostBSD 11.1, the new GhostBSD 18.10 can be the choice for those who wants a UNIX-like workstation with desktop environment and much more robust kernel but does not prefer to Linux or other OS.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 8
Date: 2018-09-24
Votes: 1
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I have HP Compaq 6715s laptop and Windows 10 and Linux won't work in it. Laptop is 10 years old. I bought it with Vista Basic when it was new. GhostBSD / FreeBSD works in it. Only sad thing is that I couldn't upgrade 11.1. version to 11.2 version of FreeBSD release. Linux won't work because of single core of AMD 64bit processor. Finally I got operating system that work in my laptop and I can still use it. Wlan and bluetooth won't work but xfce-GUI is working fine with 1280*800 resolution and everything else also. I'm quite happy with this OS distro.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-07-31
Votes: 11
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I am enjoying the stability and ease of use.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 1
Date: 2018-07-01
Votes: 3
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Unfortunately I couldn't test it, the X doesn't work... Basically it doesn't support UEFI.
Same as Linux Lite...
It's a pity... I'd like to take a look on it...
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-06-26
Votes: 12
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After kicking the tires on the live usb version of GhostBSD (add persistence, devs!) and thoroughly enjoying it, I went ahead and did a full install. The installation was straightforward, uncomplicated, and successful. The user interface is intuitive, easy to use, and comes pre-loaded with plenty of useful programs. I chose the Mate desktop, which has a very nice look and feel to it. If you're considering BSD, GhostBSD is a painless way to cut your teeth. Once installed, I would recommend opening a terminal, as root, and typing "pkg install networkmgr". Everything else worked out of the box, and has been fantastic. I will continue to use and donate to this project, and would like to see it grow. It has great potential.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 5
Date: 2018-05-20
Votes: 4
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I downloaded and tested the GhostBSD 11.1 Mate edition and was pleasantly surprised to see that almost everything worked out of the box (e.g. my external monitor was detected and I was able to set correct resolution etc. - I had to edit a config file in freeBSD for my external VGA monitor to be recognized).
The only thing that did not work was wifi which is no big deal since I use my laptop at a fixed location with Ethernet and external keyboard etc. attached.
The default fonts are a bit strange so I changed them to "dejavu sans book" and everything looked perfect. There are some nice desktop backgrounds included too.
Regarding software there is plenty installed out of the box including LibreOffice and media players etc.
I was so impressed by GhostBSD that I decided to go ahead and install in on a test laptop with a view to replacing Debian Stretch on my main laptop (I am not happy with the increasing responsibility given to systemd or it's use of binary log files).
However, from what I can tell there is one major flaw with this release - you cannot choose full disk encryption during installation. This is unacceptable in this day and age. I know the development team is small and progress takes time and effort but security should be top of the priority list. I deduct a full 5 points for this as it renders the system useless for me.
During install it indicates the strength of your root password as "very weak", "weak", "strong", "very strong" etc. which gave me a laugh since if someone physically takes your laptop, all they need to do to access ALL of your data is boot it will a live CD - such as GhostBSD :-)
I hope that I am wrong and someone can correct me on the full disk encryption option but I'll stay away from GhostBSD for now and check back during the next release to see if they have the full disk encryption option included.
Thanks.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 8
Date: 2018-02-14
Votes: 34
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I'm using GhostBSD MATE and I have to congratulate whoever have created this distro based on FreeBSD. By far, it's the best user-friendly BSD I have tried... It reminds me of Linux Mint. Maybe this is the Linux Mint of the BSD's family? I don't know really but you guys have done a create job on it. Of course it isn't perfect, but it's way better than TrueOS or the pure FreeBSD. Very, very pleasant to use. As a BSD it can be a great pick for desktop users. I never thought I would recommend a BSD to someone who wanted to use a distro for desktop.
Pros:
- Really user-friendly and good-looking BSD distro
- It brings only the essential. For some reason, it reminds me Peppermint OS.
- So damn fast and responsive.
- Nice package manager
- It detected my printer without any problems.
- Default fonts are cool!
- Low RAM usage: 250 to 350 MB
- You don't need to compile nothing.
Cons:
- The panel icons changes its position everytime I reboot the system, it gets messed up and it's annoying to set up everything again
- Some inconsistencies and slowness when you install some packages using pkg
- Some programs have missing icons
- It takes longer to boot up compared to some linux distros, maybe its because it isn't using systemd
- Everytime I open OctoPkg it synchronizes databases and it's kind of annoying if you want to install or search for something graphically and fast.
- I didn't like its display manager that forces you to type the user name perfecly, if you have chosen to the user name as Mark you should login as Mark, if you type mark or MARK you won't login and there's no option visible for automatic login.
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 8
Date: 2018-01-10
Votes: 9
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You guys are very close to achieve a gui solid os as good or better than linux.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-01-10
Votes: 2
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The most perfect Unix (is FreeBSD) desktop (Workstation). The selection of software can solve all your need, but not solve all software brands.
GhostBSD is better solution and more stabe as TrueOS for the desktop.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2017-12-24
Votes: 6
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I highly recommend this if you want to play with FreeBSD.
Long time FreeBSD user. For a desktop system I used PC-BSD and moved with them when they transitioned to TrueOS. TrueOS is now a rolling release on the FreeBSD-CURRENT revision lots of great stuff, but I wanted a simple stable GUI for in VMs based on RELEASE, not CURRENT. GhostBSD so far is exactly what I was looking for. The new version of Mate is really nice and clean, OctoPkg is a nice clean GUI for the FreeBSD package manager (that I had actually used before).
I installed GhostBSD 11.1 it into a VBox 5.2 VM without issue. VirtualBox Additions were pre-installed. I added the dev tools I needed (llvm39, cmake and a few others). OctoPkg handled everything fine. OctoPkg checked all my software versions and recommended an update cycle, which it performed without issue. The OS recognized an update for 11.1 was available and performed the update without issue.
I've used it for a few things now and I have no complaints. GhostBSD is a nice stable GUI based on FreeBSD that mirror FreeBSD release cycles. Great package.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 1
Date: 2017-12-06
Votes: 0
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Are you kidding me? No network connections, my display is limited to VGA, Boot manager is "graphical" text a la 1990s.
Is this a BSD thing? Because another BSD based distro suffers the same maladies.
What a waste!
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2017-11-21
Votes: 47
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I try GNU/Linux distributions since long time just for fun and everything seems to be boring in Linux desktop world. I already knew FreeBSD is an amazing OS, but never tried a desktop variant based on it util now. I was highly surprised how good the GhostBSD desktop is. Not only that everything worked for me, but the desktop is simply beautiful. The MATE theme, the fonts, the icons and the default selection of applications just play very well as a package. I mainly use macOS as a desktop at home and at work because I really value beauty, simplicity and practicality and I found GhostBSD to delivery the same on top of the solid FreeBSD base.
As a side note I don't understand why Linux community focus on desktops like Gnome3 and KDE Plasma and I am happy the MATE desktop exist. The MATE desktop design is practical, beautiful and logical.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 5
Date: 2017-11-19
Votes: 5
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The live environment worked fine. I had no trouble connecting to the internet. The default user doesn't log in, and I had to login as root to actually reach the desktop. The partitioner didn't use the 300GB empty space on a drive that I gave it, it instead took the 300GB and made it free space and then wiped out 200GB of NTFS partitions and set that area as "FREEBSD" space. This is a major error and should place this software back in a beta state. If you want to try this O/S, be sure to disconnect any drives that contain other operating systems and to make sure that you are willing to lose any data on the disk you're trying to install it on.
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Version: 11.1
Rating: 6
Date: 2017-11-17
Votes: 5
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Tried the 11.1 beta a few weeks ago, the installer would stop on partitioning. . . Much to my surprise (since I read about this issue a few weeks ago) the installer closes on partitioning. The live environment would loop with "failed to execute" for the auto-login for the user "ghostbsd" just as it did in the beta. The only option I had was to type in root. I would really like to give this a try, but as far as I'm concerned it's still beta. I hope they sort things out, because the live environment looked really nice. The drivers picked for my gpu gave me a clean & crisp visual environment. Good luck GhostBSD! I look forward to trying you again soon.
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 7
Date: 2017-10-03
Votes: 4
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Hits most my expectations, except it appears no bluetooth support? Apart from that, full samba support, although unable to open media directly from samba shares. Support using the forums is keen and an answer good or bad is given quickly. Firefox and Flash is supported and I must say most apps I used under Linux - including hplip!
Installing apps is easy though pkg install or the ports.
Very responsive, fast and promising OS what has got my curiosity and i recommend you give it a try.
if bluetooth and opening media though samba can be sorted by default then it will be my goto OS.
BSDs are NOT LINUX! But don't let this scare you off! ;)
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-09-06
Votes: 5
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Been using 10.3 (XFCE) release for maybe 6 months or so and never had a problem, 10.3 has been by far the best GhostBSD release yet, in the past I had tried previous releases that had issues, and moved on to somthing else,
or just installed a desktop enviroment on FreeBSD from scratch (not hard to do and a good learning experience)
but everything has been great with 10.3.
Tried multiple browsers and media players, all worked good.
Installed Kodi and it works ok
The good thing about GhostBSD is that its pure FreeBSD, so the FreeBSD handbook is applicable to anything about the system.
The only complaint about any BSD compaired to any Linux is that watching video (with a media player) is not as smooth
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Version: 11.1-ALPHA1
Rating: 1
Date: 2017-09-02
Votes: 1
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This is even worst than 10.1, at least it would boot up. 10.1 wouldn't do much else, and the wifi never worked, but 11.1 Beta 1 can't even boot.
I've been testing Linux distros for quite a while, and I now realize that distros based on Arch, Gentoo, and BSD are nothing but trouble. Best to stick to operating systems based on Debian, Slackware, Fedora, or Ubuntu.
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-06-17
Votes: 2
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GhostBSD installs out of the box without problems. The X-Window system is working fine, but not in all case in the optimum resolution. the best of all is the simple fast install of applications, with a graphical package manager.
GhostBSD is an configured FreeBSD ready for the desktop, without packages failure like PC-BSD (today TrueOS).
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 5
Date: 2017-04-13
Votes: 0
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I did not get farther than the installer. All went smooth, but then the copying of the files to the system took so long I gave up. Im am talking about hours, not minutes. And honestly, it is difficult to see if this actually boring installer does anything at all. I used MATE, but hope XCFE installs much faster.
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 9
Date: 2017-04-04
Votes: 5
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GhostBSD was easy to install. Always let the installer know that something was happening. No black screen to leave you wondering. I think it is one of the best Distros out there. good wifi support which is lacking in a lot of distros out there. Even the sound worked. Menu a little confusing: menu said web browser; clicked it and Firefox executed but said it was not my default web browser. Have no idea what the default web browser is? No biggy. I usually try to put Vivaldi web browser on my systems these days. Really like it. Very fast. The folks at GhostBSD did a fabulous job!
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 10
Date: 2017-02-06
Votes: 2
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Great OS for non computer experts. I wish that there was a way to install a vpn on i t.
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Version: 10.3
Rating: 9
Date: 2017-01-23
Votes: 13
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Used on an old Lenova laptop, I mainly use GhostBSD to surf the web or watch online video such as YouTube or BBC iplayer with headphones late at night, so as not to wake up neighbours. It is also used used for some office work and some jobs done in the terminal.
Wifi worked out-of-the-box for me too, though when I plug the machine into the mains, I have to turn off wifi off using the command line with:
#ifconfig wlan0 down
though there may be an easier way to do this, as yet undiscovered by this BSD-noob, but I do not want to turn it off from the panel as it may take longer turning it on again next time.
Wifi should not be automatically enabled when not needed, that is the only downside encountered so far.
GhostBSD feels rock solid and the update notifications make it easy to keep it modern and secure. Gnome Mplayer is used to watch DVDs (from laptop DVD drive) and works well. LibreOffice is for office applications.
I first installed this just over 6 months ago (July 2016) as 10.3_alpha and it has been a pleasant experience so far.
This operating system deserves more users, more publicity and more eyes on the code in order to develop, but even at this time, worth a try.
The big bonus is that it's system D free.
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