Version: 1.3
Rating: 9
Date: 2020-01-14
Votes: 2
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I've installed NomadBSD to the hard drive on my 6 year old Inspiron 15 i3, and it runs awesomely. Now that I've gotten used to BSD, I prefer it. The entire desktop is more responsive and the graphics are much crisper. I tried some other BSDs, and this one wins for being the easiest to use.
Like most, the biggest problem I have with BSD is the wifi. It goes out in the middle of package installation and I'm hosed. When I asked for help, I got the rtfm/no noobs allowed respose that's a hallmark of BSD. And according to their manual, my wifi is not supported.
But I don't think bsd has a wifi problem so much as it has a router problem. It doesn't configure modern multi-band routers correctly. Once I figured out that I had to configure each channel separately... Using the wifi network manager, select 'show all networks', and my ssid, 'cthulhu' shows up several times. I set the password and activate each one (I never have to do that on linux or windows). Now it works all the time. So much for rtfm (when I was young, Unix was an exclusive club for middle age white guys obsessed with job security. The culture hasn't changed much).
Generally speaking, BSD is it's own punishment. The devil is in the configuration details. NomadBSD lets me set the configuration in the live-usb, and that configuration, as well as any software I've installed there, will migrate to my hard drive when I install the os. I'm a developer, so I re-install the os frequently. But less often than I had to with Linux, and the unique live usb gets me back up and running faster.
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Version: 1.3
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-12-29
Votes: 0
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NomadBSD can't detect Atheros QCA6174 wifi adapter and ELAN touchpad. Other than that, it definitely a solid BSD up to run on daily computer tasks. If you want to use it from persistent USB stick live, just keep the packages at minimum to maximize the performance.
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Version: 1.3
Rating: 6
Date: 2019-12-23
Votes: 0
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This had a good review on distro watch so I tried it
on my first computer when put a usb the print was so small on the screen I could not read it
I tried it on my other computer . it stopped booting at the shell and I had to call open box myself with “ exec openbox " . but it did boot to open box .
their were few programs in the repository . and it could not mount other devices
the amount of ram it took seemed biog 7400 just short of a gig I usually use fluxbox or other that take about 300 so this was big for me .
But from what I could see the software that came with it was good for a desktop
did not seem bad just no better than most distros that article on distro watch made it seem better than it truly was .
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Version: 1.3
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-12-18
Votes: 0
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More predictable and working than expected. On an amd pc. This pc would have issues with earlier ghostbsd livecds until 201909 or so, when the latest amdgpu patches to both linux kernel and ghostbsd were submitted. I was still anxious of Nomad not working given FuryBSD shows me black screen and is completely unusable.
Issues: Kbd and mouse needed to be unplugged and replugged to work. M
Mic gave me issues but acc to audacity, seems to work. Seems because...
Sound FAILS. Im not sure if I care to hack and debug as to why, but that is dealbreaker for me.
When suspend, a popup tells you it wont work because the usb would be shut off. While nice to warn, I dont remember ever having issues with linux usb distros not resuming from suspend.
Software installed great. The slowness is likely due to the usb key which is slow for any distro.
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Version: 1.3
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-12-18
Votes: 0
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It took a while to download, as started slow, then took off as it completed. I am a novice, so it took a bit to get onto the old USB2 used. Would not work (graphics issue) on 2011 era i5, but started up fine on '06 Core 2 Duo. Found wifi. Am still trying it out, but really like the desktop and the way it operates. Again, Novice speaking, not expert. Look forward to using and learning more.
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Version: 1.3
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-12-13
Votes: 1
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I actually was enjoying using this BSD on a *persistant* flashdrive. It's too rare to be able to test a 'live' version of a distro of any kind and be able to use it for several hours straight only to reboot into it later and all your work is gone.
Because this is one of those rare persistant live versions, it gets a perfect 10 for that. Period.
Openbox...well, it's okay, but it makes it far too difficult for me to put a few apps I honestly truly enjoy using on it, like krusader, audacious, kate, and kipi-plugins, kim4 (those latter two for the right-click menu of the mouse combined with pacpl installed on the system so that I can do a huge number of things with images and music files so easily).
Other than that, it was fun to use, but unfortunately was a little slow opening apps, even on my AMD FX-8350.
Only one thing though really bummed me out and will keep me from using it anymore is the fact that no matter what I installed that was supposed to fix it, I couldn't see my two hard drives on my system, both with Slackware Linux (One is 14.2 x86, the other 14.2 x64). I wanted to bring over several files and folders to use on the NomadBSD, but I couldn't find my hard drives, so it was a deal breaker right there.
I really was looking forward to getting a BSD I could use as a main OS, since linux distro's are screwing up more and more by going with that garbage known as 'systemd'. That's just my opinion of things 'linux' presently. NomadBSD looked promising because it wasn't going to make me jump through fiery hoops just to get a DE and UI on it to make it usable for plain ol' dummies like me who have too hard a time trying to remember cli commands anymore and have too many things I like doing online that require a UI app of some sort, etc.
Hopefully this one problem will get fixed in the next version of this app.
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-06-26
Votes: 6
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Very very nice distro, I tried to use it but I had some problems: fuse don’t work and I can’t browse windows partition and USB stick or external hard disk, and more: in a Lenovo ideapad 110-17ISK laptop wifi card Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 (don’t work) is without driver and system hang configuring network. If have solution, after tested a lot of system I will use it as my default system because finally I found the system I looking for, it is strong speed friendly and secure
Thanks for yours effort
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-05-17
Votes: 14
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Perfect for everyday use.
The openbox menu accessed by right clicking anywhere on the desktop is such a simple and direct way to access applications and settings. HP printer setup is so easy using the HP Device manager, but I find you have to use the Printer configuration utility (CUPS web interface shortcut) to print a test page, think its actually a HPLIP problem that I noticed on other systems. The dock gives the desktop a somewhat MACish or XStreamOS feel. OctoPKH works good for adding or updating applications.
love it. best desktop I have come across
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-05-14
Votes: 12
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Wow, unbelievably great BSD desktop system
Used on 3 different computers, the first I installed on a SSD HD, the other two I just used a USB3 flash drive.
Besides Ethernet on the first install, I tried 3 different wireless connections on the second two, the ath PCI card worked without and changes or problems, the rtwn USB adapter didn't want to use channel needed, the run USB worked fine after reading man page and adding 2 lines to /boot/loader.conf.
No problems mounting FAT32 or NTFS USB storage drives without any configuration changes, video files play fine in VLC and mp3 music in DeadBeeF player. good documentation on website
everything about this system and the preinstalled applications is great.
far better then TrueOS or its derivatives Trident or GhostBSD
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 10
Date: 2019-04-30
Votes: 4
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I've given Nomad a 10 for effort and what it's team has achieved but it's still hobbled by the same thing that is destroying any chance *BSD has got of challenging GNU/Linux on the desktop.
In a word: WiFi
Nomad looks beautiful and worked well in my brief test but that's the end of it. No Wifi? No dice. Laptops are the order of the day now and have been for probably over a decade. Seems like the *BSD people have been sitting on their hands pretending this isn't an issue presumably because they are focused on the server and workstation market.
Thing is, *BSDs like Ghost and Nomad can knock spots off Linux distos simply because they are working on a better kernel and userland. Perhaps someone can get the developers to hold their noses and do some form of NDIS wrapper that doesn't take a C programmer to understand.
People complain that MacOSX is too easy - but honestly, Windows 10 isn't that hard to set up now either. It's even bearable as a daily driver ... if you can put up with the adverts (I can't so I don't).
HaikuOS, also a strong contender as a daily driver (despite being a bit odd) suffers from the same problem for precisely the same reasons.
There are other criticisms I could point to in *BSD - slow boot time is one when compared to systemD or even RunIt on Void, but that's not a major issue.
Lack of good WiFi support is as much a deal killer as is lack of a decent web browser. I've yet to find a WiFi system that *BSD does support out of the box on the hardware I've come across. Every single one has worked with Linux (only once was I forced to compile a driver, but at least there WAS a driver.)
OK, rant over... but really, Nomad looks like a strong contender for the desktop crown under BSD since Ghost seems to have lost its way and the others... well... less said about those, the better.
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-04-28
Votes: 1
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I run the 64-bit Mac spin on a 2011 MacBook Pro, using an external USB SSD.
Pros: Simple, stable, portable desktop environment. Great for daily web browsing etc.
Cons: Filesystem activity can be slow unless using an SSD rather than USB stick. FreeBSD does not support as many hardware types [e.g. WiFi] as Linux. So I can only use wired network.
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-04-27
Votes: 0
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I am testing out the 64-bit Mac OS version. For testing I am running it on Parallels on my MacBook Pro right now. I am going to test it next on my Trashcan MacPro. It is working great right now.
It is a little slow, but I am figuring most of that is to my aged USB drive, but for the most part it is quite usable. This is one distro I am going to keep my eye on!
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 2
Date: 2019-04-26
Votes: 0
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Have tried a liveUSB 32-bit. First boot and getting GUI up are painfully slow. Based on log messages it was able to detect my USB mouse but after GUI was up and running mouse got frozen.
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 8
Date: 2019-04-26
Votes: 1
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Nomad 1.2 has the option to install to HDD/SSD, this makes it a great contender to GhostBSD for being a good introduction to BSD for new users. This has to be a good thing.
It's been running on an old Lenovo T410 for about two weeks now and has not thrown me any curve balls.
A definite thumbs-up from me.
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Version: 1.2
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-04-22
Votes: 10
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This Nomad FreeBSD flavor is just amazing!
It is what Freebsd misses on the Desktop side - plug into USB, boot and use. In its vanilla state it has bundled all mostly used GPU drivers - one gets the native resolutions and GPU speeds, all sound codecs are preinstalled too. And this is just the beginning, because it is highly customizable - one can have any set of those 32000 Freebsd packages installed, configured and persisted too if desired, ports too - all depends on the size&speed of the flash drive, use of an external SSD highly recommended.
Geli encryption is another area where Nomad shines upon initial setup.
I've tried switching among different hardware - desktops and laptops, and Nomad just works from the USB, hardware not always was fully discovered - mostly wifi hardware, however my choices of persisted additional installs were always available & usable.
Pros: Nomad is a Superior Live distro over any Linux Live equivalents out there in terms of functionality and customization.
Cons: Nomad is an Inferior Live Distro compared to Linux Live equivalents in terms of hardware support, however these are Freebsd shortcomings, not Nomad's fault.
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-04-21
Votes: 5
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I am trying a lot of distributions for fun. Sometimes i fall in love with at the first moment of trying. This is one of these. A persistent live thumbdrive to use on different computers! That's a great challange. For me it works on two different of my Laptops. There were no problems for me to choose the right Keyboard typ. I choose one these for HP and Fujitsu Laptops and its worked for me. The 9 points I'am giving to this project are too much becauce of the many blobs and inskills. But I want to motivate the Team to go on furthrer - this project is grounded on a great idea!
Pros:
- nice Desktop
- its Freebsd
- a persistent thumbdrive for daily use
Cons:
- many inskills and blobs
- running slowly on my Laptops
sorry about my bad english
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 5
Date: 2019-01-27
Votes: 0
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Can't imagine to switch to NomadBSD. Such a long and unfriendly process to set up! Do I know which keyboard model my laptop uses? Do I know which lanugage mnemonic I have to choose? It refused to accept the first given root password, and only accepted the second one. Later on I realized it used the first one! I configured the bash shell, but was given the fish shell. I clicked a few items in the GUI, everything was very slow. Finally ended with a busy wait and an unresponsible system... at that point I gave up!
I like FreeBSD and know it doesn't deserve this damage of reputation.
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 3
Date: 2019-01-25
Votes: 2
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The whole thing is such a manual process. I got it on a USB stick and booted it up and went through a very laborious setup question after question. I can't tell you how many times I had to select English not to mention you have to identify the model of your keyboard. This *should* be consolidated. There is no reason to have so many questions.
After that, it displayed a non-working desktop. Right-click on the desktop to select programs. First thing I did was open up a Terminal. It would not give me a terminal prompt so couldn't do anything in there. I opened up a File manager - wouldn't work. Calendar just showed a black screen. Calculator came up but none of the buttons would work. I don't know what the issue was and not being able to get a Bash shell was frustrating. A longer bootup time compared to a normal GNU/Linux. I tried it on an Intel NUC that never has any issues with Linux. I finally dumped it. Wasn't worth my patience.
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 9
Date: 2019-01-24
Votes: 3
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NomadBSD fonctionne parfaitement sur mon PC ACER et Station de travail.
Un distribution qui mérite de s'y attarder
Rapide, élégante, je ne regrette que l'impossibilité actuelle de pourvoir l'installer sur le HDD.
Pour ma part après installation et comparatif de Trident OS remplaçant de TRUE-OS et de GHOSTBSD je préfère de loin cette petite distribution NOMADBSD.
Toujours en développement certains points restent à améliorer en particulier la prise en compte de certains périphériques par l'intégration de pilote (driver).
Donc n'hésitez pas à tenter l'aventure !!
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-08-29
Votes: 17
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The download package (2 gig) needs to be unpacked and installed on a USB stick with the simple instructions contained on the NomadBSD download page. The only hurdle to installing the 3.2 gig UFS partition image and boot setup to the disk is being confident with using "dd" and identifying the USB stick to copy the image to.
Boot the computer and select F12 to select the USB stick to boot from.
First boot finishes with a script that sets up a number of items and whether you want an encrypted home directory for user "nomad". You end up with a nice desktop to work from, right click gives you the menu. This is a desktop configured FreeBSD system that uses all the standard FreeBSD package manager and update mechanisms - brilliant!!!
I found the 3.2 gig partition too limiting so using gpart FreeBSD utility explained here: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/disks-growing.html I installed to a spare USB HDD I had and enlarged the partition to give me more room to install what I wanted. Gpart is standard with NomadBSD so presumably you can install it to a laptop HDD in the same way and have a full laptop setup pre-configured.
Don't forget, this is 64 bit only on a UFS file system.
Loved it - a great system out of the box with capability to build what you like from it.
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 1
Date: 2018-08-14
Votes: 0
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I tried once only to have a problem when applying the initial setup settings to the usb stick. EGAD but when that happens you have to rewrite the image to usb again because now it refused to boot.
Rewrote to usb and tried once again. It is unable to write any changes to the usb stick. Perhaps it is trying to use EFI on my legacy computer? I don't know..
I am out of patience and my rating would be a zero if it were possible
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Version: 1.1
Rating: 10
Date: 2018-07-24
Votes: 15
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This is a very ambitious project, indeed. There are a ton of GNU/Linux distros floating around, but I had yet to find any FreeBSD spins with persistent data. This was the answer to my prayers. NomadBSD is loaded with a plethora of useful and highly practical programs pre-installed, and will now become a daily driver for me, carried on my Swiss Army Knife's keyring. If you're tired of distro hopping from one Debian-based distro with different wallpaper to another, have always been curious about FreeBSD (but didn't know where to begin), or are just up for a really cool OS that you can take with you, then give this one a go. 10/10.
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