# Installed FreeBSD 11 RC3 as VM :)



## TiberiusDuval (Sep 18, 2016)

I have been for years PC-BSD user, but now since they changed project to TrueOS, and based it on FreeBSD-CURRENT, I have become somewhat sceptical about it. So I deciced to check out real alternative, normal FreeBSD.  And I must say I'm most positively surprised. It has been years since I last tried original FreeBSD, and then experience was not so funny. Maybe years of using PC-BSD had taught me something usefull, or FreeBSD has become somewhat more user-friendly, or both. After some initial difficulties I managed to install X11, vbox-quest-additions, KDE4, and configure them run satisfactorily. 
And seems to me that FreeBSD 11 is pretty fast even when running under VM and using ZFS. 

Way to go  Seems quite possible that when FreeBSD 11 is finally released I may install it to real hardware.


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## Snurg (Sep 18, 2016)

You are welcome!
Basically you only lose the pc-* setup/configuration utilties and pc-updatemanager.
Maybe you'll miss AppCafe if you used it at all despite of its problems.

The GUI based configuration tools stopped working some release ago when not being run under some DM. So they are useless to people who don't use KDE, Gnome or the like.
The infamous pc-updatemanager is responsible for frequent and regular system breakages, most of them total failure to start system or applications stopping working due to only partial or otherwise incorrect updates. Other surprises like mysterious automatic downgrades or even deinstallations of applications mock many PC-BSD users, too.
About a quarter of the PC-BSD forums' threads only deal with such breakages and how to fix them.
(At least, most times it requires only a few mouseclicks to select an earlier, working boot environment, so these stoppages  are not such a big issue like when a Linux or a Windows system bricks. Except the less frequent case that the PC-BSD update manager breaks the GRUB config, which then requires console intervention)

Thus I am sure you won't regret switching to FreeBSD. You'll enjoy the long-term stability.

Nevertheless, PC-BSD is great if one needs to set up an office PC in 15 minutes. Like my laptop which I do not use much.
It attempts to shield users from the depths of BSD waters and saves users hours of configuring a standard office system.
This is why I usually would recommend people coming from Linux or Windows to try PC-BSD first instead of starting with FreeBSD directly. Then later when switching to FreeBSD the learning curve won't be that steep.
So I consider PC-BSD a groundbreaking project which in turn benefits all BSDs, which deserves our sympathy.


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## TiberiusDuval (Sep 18, 2016)

Yes, I have mostly installed what ever I wanted with command line pkg-tools anyway, and usually used quite little those GUI-based configuration tools. So my habits generally are such that switching seems not to be overwhelming issue anymore.


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## Yampress (Sep 18, 2016)

In this days FreeBSD is relly easy. When I started (times Freebsd 6.0).  FreeBSD  was difficult.


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