GhostBSD is a user-friendly desktop operating system based on FreeBSD. Its default desktop is MATE, but a separate community edition with Xfce is available too. It also features a selection of commonly used software, a rolling-release development model, and a bootable live image with an intuitive graphical system installer.
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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Reader Ratings
Reader supplied reviews for GhostBSD
Average rating
7.2
from 44 review(s) Please specify which version of the distribtion you are reviewing. Please selecting a rating in the range of 1-10. Please write at least a few sentences about the distribution while limiting your review to 4080 characters.
C'mon Ghost! after all these years, the same problems remain. I downloaded the XFCE edition. It's a good looking, good running distro when it's plugged into the ethernet, but my Dell Latitude laptop still can't get a wifi signal. How long is that going to continue? Then the deal breaker. No audio icon! I couldn't find one anywhere. Even after downloading and installing PulseAudio. I could hear sound, I can raise and lower the volume, but nothing else. I can't record, or edit. This is fatal for a podcaster like myself. There are no sound controls anywhere within the distro itself. I have never encountered anything like this. I really want Ghost to work well, but I can't wait forever.
There are big advantages of using GhostBSD over Linux.
It's native zfs support makes it an outstandingly reliable workstation.
For any user, who is interested in reliability of zfs mirrored data this OS is choice #1.
Any PC in such a role as a workstation or even homeserver does NOT need Wi-Fi driver support at first place.
When security plays a role, a smaller software repo with well maintained apps is also not harmful at all.
The updater itself could be a bit more transparent during its activities: it only displays 1 line per downloaded software package.
A human wants instead see a full display with as many downloaded packages, as possible at the very same time. Including the possibility to manually save this log in a reserved location on disk.
On the documentation side, GhostBSD seems to have not yet found a stable workflow, where to put the latest information about fixing minor issues. These hints are spread over several locations - each having its specific (dis-)advantage(s).
I have good feelings about this distro, ven though I have only recently installed, it has impressed myself. What I was particularly impressed about that the filemanaher was able to instaly see and open a partion that is ext3 formated, something which when I tried FreeBSD there was some difficulty doing.
I also like, unlike FreeBSD, where everything is pretty much set-up out of the box, just have to make those small adjustments to make it more like what you want.
Did have difficulty (just like with FreeBSD) with slackwares lilo registering GhostBSD on the menu, so I installed slackware grub, and all is good.
Otherwise, I find it to be quick and smooth running.