• Home Page, Headlines
 • DW Weekly, Comments
 • Packages, Package Management
 • Glossary, FAQ, Mobile Site
 • Search, Sitemap
 • Major Distributions
 • Submit Distribution
 • Upcoming Releases
 • About DistroWatch
 • Page Hit Ranking
 • Advertise
 • Torrent Downloads

NomadBSD RSS Feed DistroWatch.com: NomadBSD
Advertisement
MALIBAL Linux Laptops

MALIBAL Linux Laptops

MALIBAL: Linux Laptops Custom Built for You
MALIBAL is an innovative computer manufacturer that produces high-performance, custom laptops for Linux.

If your MALIBAL laptop is not the best Linux laptop you have ever used, you can return it for a full 100% refund. We will even pay the return shipping fees!

For more info, visit: https://www.malibal.com

NomadBSD


Last Update: 2023-01-30 01:13 UTC



NomadBSD is a 64-bit live system for USB flash drives, based on FreeBSD. Together with automatic hardware detection and setup, it is configured to be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery.

Popularity (hits per day): 12 months: 157 (59), 6 months: 143 (75), 3 months: 167 (49), 4 weeks: 165 (41), 1 week: 158 (40)

Average visitor rating: 8.13/10 from 30 review(s).


NomadBSD Summary
Distribution NomadBSD
Home Page http://nomadbsd.org/
Mailing Lists https://www.freelists.org/list/nomadbsddevs
User Forums https://forum.nomadbsd.org/
Alternative User Forums  
Documentation http://nomadbsd.org/handbook/handbook.html
Screenshots http://nomadbsd.org/screenshots.htmlDistroWatch Gallery
Screencasts
Download Mirrors http://nomadbsd.org/download.html
Bug Tracker --
Related Websites https://www.freebsd.org/
Reviews 1.3: DistroWatch
1.2: It's FOSS
1.1: DistroWatch
Where To Buy or Try

Recent Related News and Releases
  Releases announcements with download links and checksums:
 • 2022-12-04: BSD Release: NomadBSD 131R
 • 2021-05-13: BSD Release: NomadBSD 130R-20210508
 • 2021-03-04: BSD Release: NomadBSD 1.4
 • 2021-01-27: Development Release: NomadBSD 1.4 RC1
 • 2020-07-06: BSD Release: NomadBSD 1.3.2
 • 2020-03-08: BSD Release: NomadBSD 1.3.1
 • 2019-12-10: BSD Release: NomadBSD 1.3
 • 2019-11-18: Development Release: NomadBSD 1.3 RC1
 • 2019-04-21: BSD Release: NomadBSD 1.2
 • 2019-01-18: Development Release: NomadBSD 1.2 RC1
 • More NomadBSD releases...

Table Notes and Explanations

(Please refer to the table below.)
  • Select view:
  • 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.
TUXEDO
TUXEDO Computers style=

TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!

Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.

Star Labs

Star Labs Systems | Laptops designed for Linux

Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.



Feature 131r 130r 1.4 1.3.2 1.2 1.1
Release Date 2022-12-04 2021-05-11 2021-03-03 2020-07-06 2019-04-21 2018-07-07
End Of Life            
Price (US$) Free Free Free Free Free Free
Image Size (MB) 1900-2100 2000-2100 2300-2400 2200-2600 2100-2200 2000-2000
Free Download IMG IMG IMG IMG IMG IMG
Installation Text Text Text Text Text Text
Default Desktop Openbox Openbox Openbox Openbox Openbox Openbox
Package Management pkg pkg pkg pkg pkg pkg
Release Model Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
Office Suite -- LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice LibreOffice
Processor Architecture i386, x86_64 i386, x86_64 i386, x86_64 i386, x86_64 i386, x86_64 x86_64
Init Software RC RC RC RC RC RC
Journaled File Systems UFS, ZFS UFS, ZFS UFS, ZFS UFS, ZFS UFS, ZFS UFS, ZFS
Multilingual Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Asian Language Support            
Full Package List 131r 130r 1.4 1.3.2 1.2 1.1
Package 131r 130r 1.4 1.3.2 1.2 1.1
abiword (3.0.5) -- -- -- -- -- --
alsa-lib (1.2.9) 1.2.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.2 1.1.2
amdgpu (23.0.0) 22.0.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 19.1.0 18.1.0 --
bash (5.2.15) 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.4
bind (9.18.15) -- -- -- -- -- --
chromium (113.0.5672.126) -- -- -- -- -- --
cups (2.4.2) 2.4.2 2.3.3 2.3.3 2.2.13 2.2.10 2.2.8
dhcp (4.4.3-P1) -- -- -- -- -- --
e2fsprogs (1.47.0) 1.46.5 1.46.2 1.45.7 1.45.6 1.45.0 1.44.2
firefox (113.0.2) 102.5.0 78.10.0 78.7.1 68.10.0 66.0.3 61.0
freetype (2.13.0) 2.12.1 2.10.4 2.10.4 2.10.1 2.9.1 2.9.1
gcc (13.1.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
gimp (2.10.34) 2.10.32 2.10.24 2.10.20 2.10.18 2.10.8 2.8.22
glibc (2.37) -- -- -- -- -- --
gnome-shell (44.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
gnucash (5.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
gnumeric (1.12.55) -- -- -- -- -- --
grub (2.06) -- -- -- -- -- --
gtk (4.10.3) 3.24.34 3.24.27 3.24.24 3.24.10 3.24.7 3.22.29
httpd (2.4.57) -- -- -- -- -- --
inkscape (1.2.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
k3b (23.04.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
kmod (30) -- -- -- -- -- --
krita (5.1.6) -- -- -- -- -- --
libreoffice (7.5.3) -- 7.1.2 7.1.0 6.3.4 6.2.2 6.0.5
linux (6.3.4) -- -- -- -- -- --
Package 131r 130r 1.4 1.3.2 1.2 1.1
lxpanel (0.10.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
mariadb (10.11.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
mate-desktop (1.26.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
mesa (23.1.1) 21.3.8 20.2.3 20.2.3 18.3.2 18.3.2 18.1.2
mysql (8.0.33) -- 5.7.33 5.7.33 5.7.30 5.6.43 --
nautilus (44.2) -- -- -- -- -- --
NVIDIA (530.41.03) -- -- -- 440.31 -- --
openbox (3.6.1) 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6 3.6
openjdk (20.0.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
openssh (9.3p1) 9.1p1 8.2p1 8.2p1 7.8p1 -- --
openssl (3.1.0) 1.1.1s 1.1.1j 1.1.1h 1.1.1d -- --
perl (5.36.1) 5.32.1 5.32.1 5.32.1 5.30.3 5.28.1 5.26.2
php (8.2.6) -- -- -- -- -- --
plasma-desktop (5.27.5) -- -- -- -- -- --
postfix (3.8.0) -- -- -- -- -- --
postgresql (15.3) -- -- -- -- -- --
Python (3.11.3) 3.9.15 3.7.10 3.7.9 3.7.7 3.6.8 3.6.8
qt (6.5.1) 5.15.5 5.15.2 5.15.2 5.13.2 5.12.1 5.10.1
samba (4.18.2) 4.12.15 4.12.14 4.12.9 4.10.15 -- --
systemd (253.4) -- -- -- -- -- --
thunderbird (102.11.2) 102.5.0 78.10.0 78.7.1 68.10.0 60.6.1 52.9.0
vim (9.0) 9.0 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.1 8.1
vlc (3.0.18) 3.0.18 3.0.12 3.0.11 3.0.11 3.0.6 2.2.8
wayland (1.22.0) 1.21.0 1.19.0 1.18.0 1.18.0 1.16.0 --
xfdesktop (4.18.1) -- -- -- -- -- --
xorg-server (21.1.8) 21.1.4 1.20.11 1.20.9 1.20.8 1.18.4 1.18.4

Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for NomadBSD

Average rating
8.1
from 30 review(s)



What are your thoughts on NomadBSD?
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: 131r
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-04-04
Votes: 0


If you have an older video card, watch out. The first thing you need to do is edit /etc/rc.conf. Change kld_list="radeonkms" and reboot your system. All the error messages go away, and your video card works properly. My i-7 literally flies and everything works as it should. Once that is done, install it. You will be amazed at how fast your system runs. By the way, don't install any programs until you put Nomad onto your hard drive. Why, because it works slowly on a stick. Since installing it onto my hard drive, downloading and uploading has also improved. This is FreeBSD at its best, in my opinion. Sadly, I spent hours attempting to get FreeBSD 13.1 to run on my Dell Studio XPS 8100. This unit was built in 2009, and FreeBSD no longer supports their original video drivers. Instead, FreeBSD uses a video driver, Cuse for BSD. That driver causes the video cards to run faster than designed, and the cards stop working because of over-heating. After setting this up, I won't be returning to Linux anytime in the near future. My distro hopping days are over. I am willing to bet that GhostBSD, NomadBSD, and many other BSD have seen numerous complaints since updating to FreeBSD 13.1's official release, and this single issue of the video card driver is responsible for causing all the error messages.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 131r
Rating: 10
Date: 2023-02-06
Votes: 3


Very polished system and uses very little resources. Runs fast and was easy to install. The install does everythig for you. All of the peripherals were recognized and they worked perfectly out of the box. The system is very stable and i have not had any issues with it. The openbox window manager looks very nice and professional. Everything is easy to make it look the way you want. It is easy for those who want to transition to BSD and not have to worry about things not working. Recommend to anyone.


Was this review helpful? Yes No
Version: 131r
Rating: 7
Date: 2023-01-27
Votes: 0


TL;DR This is the only "what"BSD that interested me because it features persistence on external USB disk. I tried it once, before the Dec-2022 update but it was less usable than it is now. Either way, it cannot recognize the touchpad of my 10-year-old budget HP laptop.

It takes a fairly long time to start, like any Linux with KDE Plasma maybe except EndeavourOS or Q4OS LOL. After it asked me for specific settings such as keyboard layout, it asked me to reboot. I did so, in single-user mode but it went right into the desktop without asking me for the password. Is that normal?

It seems to behave like Linux system equipped with a window manager. Right-button mouse click on panel to close a program won't be to everyone's taste. Recalling a new panel "theme" with "Tint2", to change its settings is very slow. For one of them I only wanted to change its position, because both the panel and "Plank" were at the bottom.

It consistently runs hot on the left-hand side of my 10-year-old laptop. I have a lot of trouble getting any Linux installation to be alike.

It comes with some programs such as Geany (better than the editor proposed in the initial setup) and VLC (which is garbage in any distro), but no office suite. It's because the file system "image" is already 4GB uncompressed. Web browser is Firefox (with "UBlock Origin" preinstalled!) but probably a different one could be installed. This OS also comes with the "older" release of Thunar (ie. no split view and customizable keystroke shortcuts). To view PDF files there's Qpdfview which absurdly, is located in the AUR in Arch Linux world. I did the full-system update with OctoPkg. It took a long time to finish. Before that the OctoPkg was on the dock on the bottom of the screen, but it took itself off. It seems it is set to display packages already installed on the system, and I have to open web browser to "FreeBSD ports" site or whatever to discover what else could be installed.

The DSBMC doesn't seem to find all the partitions of my computer, in particular of an internal hard disk when the system is booted via external USB. It came up with ESP, the C: drive of Windows and other NTFS partitions but missed one of the "ext4" partitions (32-bit Slackware) probably because the latter doesn't have an EFI entry. (I was unable to boot this system itself via UEFI which is interesting.) The app to mount partitions doesn't recall disk or partition labels which could put off somebody not confident working with an Unix-like OS.

I wish I could disable the stupid animations which are for small children. The Handbook is pretty good, might be too brief, could be read offline but unfortunately some information such as that for DSBMC and for using Linux programs causes an online visit. I should spend weeks with this system to be able to give more useful information that would satisfy an "expert". This was for NomadBSD for 64-bit and "ZFS".


Was this review helpful? Yes No

See all 30 reader reviews of NomadBSD...


Copyright (C) 2001 - 2023 Atea Ataroa Limited. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Privacy policy. Change privacy settings.
DistroWatch.com is hosted at Copenhagen.

Contact, corrections and suggestions: Jesse Smith
Tips: bc1qtede6f7adcce4kjpgx0e5j68wwgtdxrek2qvc4
86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le
PayPal.me/distrowPatreon.com/distrowatch