The default GhostBSD desktop. GhostBSD offers the user-friendly MATE desktop environment. BSD, or Berkeley Software Distribution (aka Berkeley Standard Distribution), is a discontinued operating system based on Research Unix. BSD was first developed in the late 70s and adopted by some workstation vendors in the early 80s as an alternative to DEC Ultrix and Sun Microsystem’s SunOS. Eventually, BSD faded away, but the code remained behind. In the early 90s, a new port of BSD for Intel CPUs called 386BSD was developed by William and Lynne Jolitz. Development for 386BSD slowed and eventually stalled. A small group of 386BSD users decided to rename the project FreeBSD and released the first iteration in November 1993. Although FreeBSD has received less attention compared to Linux, it is considered one of the most reliable operating systems.
The solution to a truly rock-solid operating system is GhostBSD. GhostBSD uses the Mate desktop to create a user-friendly environment that is easy enough for anyone to use. The pre-installed software includes MATE tools, Shotwell, Firefox, Transmission (BitTorrent client), Evolution, Atril Document Viewer, Rhythmbox, VLC Media Player, and Software Station (GUI frontend for the pkg package manager). The developers of GhostBSD took the right path on the desktop front by opting for MATE. That is not to say GhostBSD is a slouch, as this FreeBSD spin is pretty fast and the operating system greatly simplifies the usage of FreeBSD. GhostBSD offers a stable alternative and is suitable for those who place a high priority on stability.
GhostBSD: A Unique Choice for Trying Out BSD
