A concise comparison of operating systems. Some focus on root-on-ZFS, and on Plasma. Not intended to be comprehensive.
Describing availability is not necessarily a recommendation to install what's available.
Whatever you chose to install, using pkg, before exiting the installer.
Firefox is available.
- remove Firefox
- have ungoogled-chromium alone.
Firefox ESR is in the dock (Plank Reloaded).
Firefox is uppermost in the dock.
The installer includes a GUI to resize partitions.
Boot of the installed system is likely to fail. A known issue.
The default.
The default, no other option.
Optional.
During installation:
- GELI is optional for OS and swap partitions
- OpenZFS encryption is optional for home directories.
For a ZFS-encrypted home to work with SDDM, additional configuration may be required.
Not possible during installation. A known issue.
GELI is optional for the home partition.
Optional during installation: OpenZFS-native encrypted root-on-ZFS.
A commitment to KDE with Wayland.
Packages can be installed whilst using the installer for the OS.
The largest of the operating system installer images includes packages for SDDM, KDE, Sway, and X.Org. The FreeBSD Project builds these images for RELEASE, but not for CURRENT.
The official installer image boots to MATE, and will install MATE.
Plasma and other desktop environments are available.
A non-official image will install Xfce.
Xfce by default. Alternatives are available.
GNOME and GDM by default.
Switch to Kubuntu (for KDE, SDDM, and so on):
sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop
Alternatives that are installable with tasksel:
- Cinnamon
- GNOME Flashback
- KDE Plasma (less comprehensive than the
aptapproach above) - LXDE
- LXQt
- MATE
- Xfce.
Available applications include:
- Discover
- OctoPkg
- Software Station
- Update Station.
The installer for FreeBSD-CURRENT can use packages to install the OS.
ports-mgmt/pkg version 2.1.2 is the norm.
Installation of the OS includes Software Station and Update Station.
2.1.2 is:
- installable
- not recommended for use with Update Station.
Discover is available.
Synaptic may be recommended.
bectl(8) is integral.
Also available:
Installation of the OS includes Backup Station and bectl.
Also available:
- beadm
- bemgr.
Available:
- bemgr
- zectl
- ZFSBootMenu.
Multiplatform. Tier-1:
amd64– 64-bit x86aarch64– 64-bit ARMv8.
Multiplatform.
AMD64.
Optional during installation:
- third party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware, including but not limited to NVIDIA drivers and similar
- support for additional media formats, including but not limited to MP3, MP4, MOV and similar.
Adapted from parts of https://forums.ghostbsd.org/d/327.
For NomadBSD, under https://gist.github.com/grahamperrin/a65f5d819a6a8c54aff6079f63db33f6#software-installation-and-updates I should add something about updating the base system.