GhostBSD

GhostBSD is a Unix-like operating system based on FreeBSD for x86-64, with MATE (previously GNOME) as its default desktop environment and an Xfce-desktop community based edition. It aims to be easy to install, ready-to-use and easy to use. The project goal is to combine security, privacy, stability, usability, openness, freedom and to be free of charge.

History Prior to GhostBSD 18.10, the project was based on FreeBSD. In May 2018 it was announced that future versions of the operating system would be based on TrueOS. In 2020, with the discontinuation of TrueOS, GhostBSD switched back to FreeBSD.

Version history

FreeBSD based releases (1.0–11.1) GhostBSD version Release date FreeBSD version Desktop environments Changes 1.0DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 361, 5 July 2010 March 2010 8.0 GNOME 2.28 First general availability release 1.5 8.1 GNOME 2.30 Introduced Compiz support. (This version was also distributed with the January 2011 issue of the German magazine freeX, which also featured an article about the new OS.) 2.0 March 13, 2011 8.2 Improvements to GDM et al. 2.5GhostBSD 2.5 review | LinuxBSDos.comDistroWatch Weekly, Issue 443, 13 February 2012 January 24, 2012 9.0 Choice of preconfigured GNOME or LXDE desktop 3.0 March 10, 2013 9.1 The last release to deploy the GNOME 2 desktop environment 3.1 June 28, 2013 A point release primarily to fix bugs 3.5DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 535, 25 November 2013 November 7, 2013 LibreOffice exchanged for Apache OpenOffice 4. 4.0DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 582, 27 October 2014 October 4, 2014 10.0 Various new features 10.1DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 633, 26 October 2015 September 13, 2015 10.1 Software additions 10.3 August 31, 2016 10.3 ZFS support, UEFI support, ...11.1DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 745, 8 January 2018 November 16, 2017 11.1 MATE 1.18Xfce 4.12 GhostBSD Software repositories, dropped i386 support, WhiskerMenu as default menu (Xfce)

TrueOS-based releases (18.10–21.01.20) From GhostBSD 18.10 to 21.01.20, the project moved its base from FreeBSD to TrueOS. Following are TrueOS-based GhostBSD releases:

GhostBSD version Release date Desktop environment Changes 18.10 November 1, 2018 MATE 1.20 First release based on TrueOS 19.04 April 13, 2019 MATE 1.22 and Xfce 19.09 September 16, 2019MATE and Xfce Moved from TrueOS CURRENT to STABLE 19.10 October 26, 2019 20.01 January 22, 2020 20.03 March 31, 2020 20.04 August 10, 2020 MATE 1.24 and Xfce 21.01.20 January 23, 2021

FreeBSD based releases (21.04.27–present) Beginning from GhostBSD 21.04.27, the project has moved its base back to FreeBSD.

GhostBSD version Release date Desktop environment Changes 21.04.27 April 29, 2021 GhostBSD is now based on FreeBSD 13.0-STABLE 21.5.11 May 11, 2021 21.09.06 September 7, 2021 Switch from OpenRC to FreeBSD rc.d 21.09.08 September 9, 2021 22.06.15 June 18, 2022 22.06.18 June 20, 2022 23.06.01 June 5, 2023 23.10.01 October 28, 2023 MATE 1.26.0 24.01.01 February 13, 2024 Based on FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE 24.04.1 May 20, 2024 MATE 1.28.1 Based on FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE 24.07.3 September 12, 2024 24.10.1 November 17, 2024 UFS installation support removed from installer 25.01-R14.2p1 February 28, 2025 1.28.2 Now based FreeBSD RELEASE with a new versioning scheme 25.02-R14.3p2 August 25, 2025 Addition of a community-supported GNUstep desktop environment 26.1-R15.0p2 April 18, 2026 Display server now XLibre (X.Org Server before), shell now zsh (fish before)

License GhostBSD was originally licensed under the 3-clause BSD license ("Revised BSD License", "New BSD License", or "Modified BSD License")

In 2014 Eric Turgeon re-licensed GhostBSD under 2-clause license ("Simplified BSD License" or "FreeBSD License"). GhostBSD contains some GPL-licensed software.

Recommended system requirements The following are the recommended requirements: 2 GHz dual core Intel/AMD 64-bit processor 8 GB RAM (system memory for physical and virtualized installs) VGA capable of screen resolution 15 GB of free hard drive space Network access

Reception Jim Salter of Ars Technica concluded that GhostBSD was "... perfectly reasonable choice for a desktop distribution." However, Google Chrome support was unlikely to come anytime soon. Without a specific desire for running BSD he wouldn't recommend the operating system instead of a more mainstream Linux distribution.

GhostBSD

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