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DragonFly BSD RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: DragonFly BSD

DragonFly BSD


Last Update: 2024-02-02 02:44 UTC


DragonFly is an operating system and environment designed to be the logical continuation of the FreeBSD-4.x OS series. These operating systems belong in the same class as Linux in that they are based on UNIX ideals and APIs. DragonFly is a fork in the path, so to speak, giving the BSD base an opportunity to grow in an entirely new direction from the one taken in the FreeBSD-5 series.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 135 (60), 6 months: 128 (69), 3 months: 145 (55), 4 weeks: 124 (56), 1 week: 120 (53)

Average visitor rating: 7.22/10 from 9 review(s).


DragonFly Summary
Distribution DragonFly BSD
Home Page http://www.dragonflybsd.org/
Mailing Lists http://www.dragonflybsd.org/mailinglists/
User Forums --
Alternative User Forums UnitedBSD
Documentation http://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/documentation/
Screenshots DistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors http://www.dragonflybsd.org/download/
Bug Tracker http://bugs.dragonflybsd.org/
Related Websites DragonFly BSD DigestSuper User's BSD Cross ReferrenceManual PagesWikipedia
Reviews 5.x: DistroWatch
2.x: LWN
1.x: OSNewsDistroWatch
Where To Donate, Buy, or Try

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2023-01-03: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 6.4.0
 • 2022-01-10: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 6.2.1
 • 2021-05-10: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 6.0.0
 • 2020-03-04: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 5.8.0
 • 2019-06-17: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 5.6.0
 • 2018-12-03: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 5.4.0
 • 2018-04-10: BSD Release: DragonFlyBSD 5.2.0
 • 2017-10-16: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 5.0.0
 • 2017-08-02: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 4.8.1
 • 2017-03-27: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 4.8.0
 • 2016-08-02: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 4.6.0
 • 2015-12-07: BSD Release: DragonFly BSD 4.4.1
 • More DragonFly releases...

  Headlines:
 • 2022-07-25 DragonFly fixes fetch utility timeouts
 • 2022-05-31 DragonFly BSD enables network interface descriptions
 • 2022-03-22 DragonFly BSD now avoids panics when HAMMER2 devices are removed
 • 2022-03-08 DragonFly swaps out LibreSSL for OpenSSL in ports
 • 2021-10-28 DragonFly gains support for creating FAT volumes
 • 2021-10-13 DragonFly publishes fix for Let's Encrypt issue
 • 2021-10-01 Let's Encrypt certificate expiry breaking package managers
 • 2021-08-04 HAMMER2 gets rolling snapshots in low disk space scenarios
 • 2021-07-06 How HAMMER2 tries to fail gracefully
 • 2021-04-22 DragonFly nearing version 6.0
 • More DragonFly headlines...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
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  • To compare the software in this project to the software available in other distributions, please see our Compare Packages page.
  • Notes: In case where multiple versions of a package are shipped with a distribution, only the default version appears in the table. For indication about the GNOME version, please check the "nautilus" and "gnome-shell" packages. The Apache web server is listed as "httpd" and the Linux kernel is listed as "linux". The KDE desktop is represented by the "plasma-desktop" package and the Xfce desktop by the "xfdesktop" package.
  • Colour scheme: green text = latest stable version, red text = development or beta version. The function determining beta versions is not 100% reliable due to a wide variety of versioning schemes.
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Feature 6.4.0 6.2.2 6.0.0 5.8.0 5.4.3 5.2.2 4.8.1 4.6.0 4.4.1 3.8 2.10 1.12 Feature
Release Date 2023-01-03 2022-06-10 2021-05-10 2020-03-02 2019-05-20 2018-06-18 2017-08-02 2016-08-02 2015-12-07 2014-06-05 2011-04-26 2008-02-27 Release Date
End Of Life                         End Of Life
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Free Price (US$)
Image Size (MB) 250-1000 250-1000 250-1000 250-1000 250-1000 250-275 205-205           Image Size (MB)
Free Download IMG, ISO IMG, ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO ISO Free Download
Installation Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Text mode Installation
Default Desktop FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM FVWM   Default Desktop
Package Management DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts DPorts TGZ TGZ Package Management
Release Model Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Release Model
Office Suite Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice Calligra, GOffice, LibreOffice GOffice, KOffice, OO.o GOffice Office Suite
Processor Architecture x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 i486, x86_64 i486, x86_64 i386 Processor Architecture
Init Software RC RC RC RC RC RC RC RC RC RC RC RC Init Software
Journaled File Systems HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER HAMMER N/A Journaled File Systems
Multilingual -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Multilingual
Asian Language Support -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Asian Language Support
Full Package List 6.4.0 6.2.2 6.0.0 5.8.0 5.4.3 5.2.2 4.8.1 4.6.0 4.4.1 3.8 2.10 1.12 Full Package List
Package 6.4.0 6.2.2 6.0.0 5.8.0 5.4.3 5.2.2 4.8.1 4.6.0 4.4.1 3.8 2.10 1.12 Package
abiword (3.0.5) 3.0.5 3.0.5 3.0.4 3.0.1 3.0.1 3.0.1 3.0.1 3.0.1 3.0.1 2.8.6 2.8.6 2.4.6 abiword (3.0.5)
alsa-lib (1.2.13) 1.2.2 1.2.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.1 1.1.0 1.0.27.2 1.0.22 -- alsa-lib (1.2.13)
amdgpu (23.0.0) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- amdgpu (23.0.0)
bash (5.2.37) 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.4 4.4 4.3 4.3 4.3.18 4.2 3.2 bash (5.2.37)
bind (9.20.3) 0.4.0 0.4.0 -- 9.14.10 9.13.7 9.13.0 9.11.1-P2 9.10.4-P1 9.10.3 9.10.0-P1 9.8.0 9.3.4-P1 bind (9.20.3)
chromium (131.0.6778.108) 108.0.5359.124 100.0.4896.127 88.0.4324.182 79.0.3945.130 72.0.3626.121 60.0.3112.116 55.0.2883.87 51.0.2704.106 46.0.2490.86 -- -- -- chromium (131.0.6778.108)
cups (2.4.11) 2.4.2 2.4.2 2.3.3 2.2.12 2.2.10 2.2.7 2.2.3 2.1.4 2.0.3 1.7.2 1.4.6 1.2.12 cups (2.4.11)
dhcp (4.4.3-P1) 1.3.1 1.3.1 1.3.0 4.4.2 4.4.1 4.4.1 4.3.5 4.3.4 4.3.3 4.3.0 4.1.1-P1 4.0.0 dhcp (4.4.3-P1)
e2fsprogs (1.47.1) 1.46.5 1.46.5 1.46.1 1.45.5 1.44.5 1.44.2 1.43.4 1.43.1 1.42.12 1.42.10 1.41.12 -- e2fsprogs (1.47.1)
firefox (133.0) 52.8.0 52.8.0 86.0 73.0.1 60.5.2 60.0.1 54.0.1 47.0.1 42.0 29.0 3.6.15 2.0.0.11 firefox (133.0)
freetype (2.13.3) 2.12.1 2.11.1 1.3.1 2.10.1 2.9.1 2.9.1 2.8 2.6.3 2.6 2.5.3 2.4.4 2.3.5 freetype (2.13.3)
gcc (14.2.0) 11 10 10 9.2.0 8.3.0 7.3.0 5.4.0 4.8.5 4.8.5 4.7.3 4.4.5 4.1.2 gcc (14.2.0)
gimp (2.10.38) 2.10.32 2.10.28 2.10.22 2.10.14 2.10.8 2.8.22 2.8.22 2.8.16 2.8.16 2.8.10 2.6.11 2.4.3 gimp (2.10.38)
glibc (2.40) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- glibc (2.40)
gnome-shell (47.2) 42.4 41.4 3.36.6 3.28.3 -- 3.18.5 3.18.5 3.18.4 3.16.3 -- -- -- gnome-shell (47.2)
gnucash (5.9) 4.12 4.10 4.4 3.8 3.4 3.1 2.6.15 2.6.13 2.6.9 2.6.3 -- 2.2.1 gnucash (5.9)
gnumeric (1.12.57) 1.12.52 1.12.50 1.12.48 1.12.46 1.12.43 1.12.28 1.12.28 1.12.28 1.12.24 1.12.11 1.10.13 1.6.3 gnumeric (1.12.57)
grub (2.12) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0.97 0.97 grub (2.12)
gtk (4.16.7) 4.8.0 4.6.3 -- 3.24.7 3.22.30 3.22.29 3.22.15 3.18.8 3.16.6 3.8.8 2.20.1 2.12.3 gtk (4.16.7)
httpd (2.4.62) 2.4.54 2.4.53 2.4.46 2.4.41 2.4.38 2.4.33 2.4.27 2.4.23 2.4.17 2.4.9 2.2.17 2.2.8 httpd (2.4.62)
inkscape (1.4) 1.2.1 1.1.2 1.0.2 0.92.4 0.92.3 0.92.2 0.92.1 0.91 0.91 0.48.4 0.48.1 -- inkscape (1.4)
k3b (24.08.3) 22.08.1 21.12.3 20.12.2 19.12.2 -- 2.0.3 2.0.3 2.0.3 2.0.3 2.0.2 1.0.5 -- k3b (24.08.3)
kmod (33) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- kmod (33)
krita (5.2.6) 5.1.1 5.0.2 4.4.1 4.2.8.2 -- 3.3.3 3.1.2.1 -- -- -- -- -- krita (5.2.6)
LibreOffice (24.8.3) 7.4.2.3 7.3.2.2 7.1.0.3 6.3.4 6.0.7 6.0.4 5.3.4 5.0.6 5.0.3 4.1.6 -- -- LibreOffice (24.8.3)
linux (6.12.3) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- linux (6.12.3)
Package 6.4.0 6.2.2 6.0.0 5.8.0 5.4.3 5.2.2 4.8.1 4.6.0 4.4.1 3.8 2.10 1.12 Package
lxpanel (0.10.1) 0.9.3 0.9.3 0.9.3 0.9.3 0.9.3 0.9.3 0.99.2 0.5.5 0.5.5 0.5.5 -- -- lxpanel (0.10.1)
mariadb (11.5.2) -- -- -- 10.4.12 10.1.38 10.1.28 10.1.24 10.0.26 10.0.22 5.5.35 -- -- mariadb (11.5.2)
mate-desktop (1.28.2) 1.26.0 1.26.0 1.24.2 1.22.2 1.20.3 1.20.0 1.12.0 1.12.1 1.10.2 1.6.1 -- -- mate-desktop (1.28.2)
mesa (24.3.1) 21.3.6 21.3.6 8.4.0 18.3.2 18.3.2 8.4.0 17.1.4 11.2.2 10.6.9 9.1.7 7.4.4 6.4.2 mesa (24.3.1)
mysql (9.1.0) -- -- -- 8.0.19 8.0.14 5.7.19 5.7.18 5.7.13 5.6.27 5.6.17 5.1.56 5.0.51 mysql (9.1.0)
nautilus (47.0) 42.2 41.2 3.36.3 3.28.1 3.28.1 3.18.5 3.18.5 3.18.5 3.16.2 2.32.2.1 2.32.2.1 -- nautilus (47.0)
NVIDIA (565.77) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- NVIDIA (565.77)
openbox (3.6.1) 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.5.2 3.4.11.2 3.4.4 openbox (3.6.1)
openjdk (23.0.1) 8.342.07.1 8.322.06.1 11.0.10 11.0.6 8u181 8u172 8u131 8u92 8u60 7u55 -- -- openjdk (23.0.1)
openssh (9.9p1) -- -- -- 8.1p1 7.9p1 7.7p1 7.5p1 7.2p2 7.1p1 6.1p1 5.8p1 4.7p1 openssh (9.9p1)
openssl (3.4.0) 0.5.0p 0.5.0p 1.1.1k 1.1.1d 1.0.2q 1.0.2o 1.0.2l 1.0.2h 1.0.2e 1.0.1g 1.0.0d 0.9.7g openssl (3.4.0)
perl (5.40.0) -- -- -- 5.30.1 5.28.1 5.26.2 5.24.1 5.24.0 5.20.3 5.20.0 5.12.2 5.8.8 perl (5.40.0)
php (8.4.1) -- -- -- 7.4.2 7.3.2 7.2.6 7.1.6 7.0.8 5.6.14 5.5.12 5.3.6 5.2.5 php (8.4.1)
plasma-desktop (6.2.4) -- -- -- 5.18.0 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- plasma-desktop (6.2.4)
postfix (3.9.1) 3.7.2 3.5.12 3.5.9 3.4.8 3.3.2 3.3.0 3.2.2 2.11.7 2.11.7 2.11.1 2.8.2 2.5devel postfix (3.9.1)
postgresql (17.2) 5.3.2 5.2.0 10.16 11.7 11.2 10.4 9.6.3 9.5.3 9.4.5 9.3.4 9.0.3 8.2.6 postgresql (17.2)
Python (3.13.1) 3.9 3.8 3.8.0 3.8.1 3.7.2 3.6.5 3.6.1 3.5.2 3.5.0 3.4.0 2.7.1 2.3.5 Python (3.13.1)
qt (6.8.1) 5.15.5 5.15.2 6.1 5.13.2 5.12.1 5.10.1 5.7.1 5.5.1 4.8.7 4.8.6 4.7.2 3.3.8 qt (6.8.1)
samba (4.21.2) -- -- -- 4.10.13 4.8.9 4.6.15 4.4.14 4.4.5 4.1.18 4.1.7 3.5.8 3.0.26a samba (4.21.2)
systemd (256.9) -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- systemd (256.9)
thunderbird (133.0) 102.6.0 91.10.0 78.8.0 68.5.0 60.5.2 52.8.0 52.2.1 45.2.0 38.4.0 24.5.0 3.1.8 -- thunderbird (133.0)
vim (9.1) 9.0 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.1 8.1 8.0 7.4 7.4 7.4 7.2 7.1 vim (9.1)
vlc (3.0.21) 3.0.18 3.0.17.4 3.0.12 3.0.8 3.0.6 2.2.8 2.2.6 2.2.4 2.2.1 2.1.4 1.0.6 -- vlc (3.0.21)
wayland (1.23.1) 1.21.0 1.18.0 1.18.0 1.16.0 1.16.0 1.13.0 1.9.0 1.9.0 1.9.0 -- -- -- wayland (1.23.1)
xfdesktop (4.18.1) 4.16.1 4.16.0 4.16 4.14.2 4.12.4 4.12 4.12.3 4.12.3 4.12.3 4.10.2 4.6.1 4.4.2 xfdesktop (4.18.1)
xorg-server (21.1.14) 21.1.4 1.20.14 1.20.9 1.18.4 1.18.4 1.18.4 1.18.4 1.17.4 1.17.4 1.12.4 1.6.5 1.3.0.0 xorg-server (21.1.14)

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for DragonFly BSD

Average rating
7.2
from 9 review(s)



What are your thoughts on DragonFly BSD?
Please include a few pros and a few cons, along with your overall impression of the operating system.
Our FAQ page has tips on writing a good mini-review.

Version:

Rating:    out of 10

Your review (minimum 250 words):




Past reviews - sort by:

Version: 6.4.0
Rating: 5
Date: 2023-12-22
Votes: 0


As a project, I wanted to try something different. Above all, I was curious as to the Hammer2 system, and also towards the supposedly fast speed of the Dragonfly OS.

But... I never got near installing it. The text on their site says "[...] If you use a USB .img file, it needs to be copied to a USB key directly. Use dd on unix-like systems [...]" And so I did. Bunzipped the image file, used dd to write it on a 1.7 giga usb stick. It did not boot.

Retried, this time using MX's GUI usb creator tool. Destination, the 1.7 G usb stick on /dev/sda, pointed the input to the dfly-x86_64-6.4.0_REL.img file on my hdd and... the usb tool stopped with "an encountered error".

So I left it with that. It sounds all interesting, but I got beached at the very simple task of creating the boot-usb.
Conclusion: this one is above my pay-grade, I'll keep an eye on it but will leave it to more skilled people to try it out. For myself, I will continue my experimentation with FreeBSD for now.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 6.4.0
Rating: 9
Date: 2023-10-21
Votes: 64


An excellent BSD system, but obviously it's not meant to be a replacement for Windows or Ubuntu. Some people should just stick with those operating systems if they can't manage a BSD. I use and prefer NetBSD myself, but I'm happy to acknowledge the distinguishing features of other BSDs. In the case of DragonFly BSD, the main selling point might be the Hammer file system, which is now at Hammer2. The project has also introduced the hypervisor NVVM, formerly developed on NetBSD. This had some excellent security advantages over, say, KVM on Linux, but unfortunately the main developer is prone to go missing. All in all, however, DragonFly BSD is a promising project, and one that I keep my eye on, even if I don't (yet?) use it as a desktop or server.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 6.2.2
Rating: 1
Date: 2022-08-11
Votes: 0


1) No GUI Live CD/DVD, to start with. (There's been back then, in the times of version 3.0...)

2) Non-intuitive text-mode Live USB. (You cannot write the ISO file on a USB stick with e.g. Rufus, you need the IMG file!)

3) Very non-intuitive hard disk notations, e.g. ad14. When the Dell Precision T3500 BIOS can name them Intel0 (RAID 1 storage), WDC160... (Western Digital 160 GB), etc. (also a 2-TB Seagate drive), why DragonFly BSD can't be at least that user-friendly?!!

4) I formatted the Western Digital 160 GB from within the Disk Tools of DragonFly BSD. However, the damn thing also wrote a GRUB on my main storage with a fresh Windows 10 installation, the Intel0 (RAID 1). After I restarted and removed the DragonFly BSD USB stick, Windows won't boot (I am left with a GRUB Rescue session). Moreover, the Windows 10 installer USB now complains that there is a missing media driver (supposedly of the Intel's RAID-capable chipset), and won't continue. It won't do any Repair of the Startup issue, because it cannot find the existing Windows 10 installation. (But it reads all the drives and their folder structure, although with some arbitrary drive letters, e.g. X: (Boot).)

Conclusion: Immature, no GUI Live medium nor installer, and it breaks other things.

Recommendation: Stay away (unless you are The Skynet and know what you are doing)!...

The worst distro that I've ever tried from DistroWatch, by the way!...


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 9 reader reviews of DragonFly BSD...

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