PC-BSD Goes Into 9.0 Beta With New Features

Written by Michael Larabel in BSD on 2 August 2011 at 06:21 AM EDT. 1 Comment
BSD
Following the news yesterday that FreeBSD 9.0 Beta 1 is now available, the PC-BSD crew has spun their first 9.0 beta release. Beyond incorporating the updates from FreeBSD 9.0, the PC-BSD 9.0 release is set to carry other desktop-friendly advancements on top.

Among the PC-BSD 9.0 Beta 1 features are support for multiple window managers, support for meta-pkgs, an improved PBI system, a new AppCafe, an updated installer, network setup GUI improvements, a new system-update utility, a new backup utility, and a new PC-BSD control panel.

The window managers supported by PC-BSD 9.0 include KDE 4, GNOME 2 (there's no sign of GNOME 3), XFCE 4, LXDE, and others.

AppCafe is a new PC-BSD application for easily browsing, installing, and managing BSD applications. Basically it's a BSD "application store." The improved PBI system meanwhile allows sharing of files / libraries between applications to reduce the disk / runtime space required.

PC-BSD 9.0 installer updates make it more easy to install to a ZFS file-system and also offering up support for GELI encryption, among other benefits.

The last 9.0-BETA1 feature worth detailing is the new PC-BSD Control Panel, which tries to further simplify the BSD desktop and make it easy to configure various system options.

More details on this new development release or to download the build, visit the PC-BSD Blog.
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