UbuntuBSD – A combination of FreeBSD and Ubuntu

UbuntuBSD - Unix for Human beings

Today, I stumbled upon a great news folks. Yes, meet UbuntuBSD, the power of FreeBSD kernel with familiarity of Ubuntu OS. In layman terms, It is a Unix-like operating system, and has the feel, functionality and look of Ubuntu. It comes for Desktop and as well as Server systems. UbuntuBSD ships with FreeBSD kernel, XFCE desktop environment, Firefox, LibreOffice , and of course Ubuntu software center. Since it is based on FreeBSD kernel, the default filesystem is Z file system, or ZFS, which is developed by Sun Microsystems.

Install UbuntuBSD

UbuntuBSD is hosted in the Sourceforge website now. Go to the following link and download the latest version.

• Download UbuntuBSD

As of writing this guide, UbuntuBSD is currently in beta stage, and It is based on FreeBSD 10.1 and Ubuntu 15.10. So, you might end up with some bugs for sure.

After downloading UbuntuBSD ISO, burn it on DVD or USB drive and create a bootable media. Check the following guide to know how to make bootable USB media using dd command.

• How to create bootable USB drive using dd command

Then, boot up with system with installation media. You should see the following screen. UbuntuBSD provides a Debian text-based installer.

Select the language to be used for installation process and press ENTER to continue.

Select your Country and press ENTER.

The installer will automatically try to configure Network interface card if you have DHCP server enabled on your network. If you don't have DHCP server, you need to select your Network interface and enter the IP address, netmask , gateway, and DNS details manually.

Then, Enter the hostname for your system.

Next, you'll asked to create a new user account. Enter the full name for the user.

Enter the username for the new user.

Enter password for the new user.

Re-enter the password.

Check the selected current time zone is correct.

Now, it is important step. Select your partitioning method and press ENTER.

Select the disk to partition.

Review the partitions. If everything is ok, select YES and press ENTER to continue.

Now, UbuntuBSD installation will start.

Enter the hostname of the mirror from which Ubuntu will be downloaded. Just leave the default values and press ENTER.

Enter the directory in which the mirror of the Ubuntu archive is located. Leave the default value and press ENTER.

Enter proxy server details if you have any or just leave empty and press ENTER.

The installer will start to download Ubuntu. This will take some time depending upon your Internet connection.

Select the list of software to install. You can either install UbuntuBSD server or desktop. I am going to install UbuntuBSD desktop version, so I selected Xubuntu desktop.

Select the model of your Keyboard.

Next, Choose Country or origin for the keyboard.

Select Keyboard layout.

Now, the installer will start to download Xubuntu Desktop environment. It will take some time. Sit back and grab a cup of coffee.

We have come to the final stage. Select YES and press ENTER to install bootloader.

Press ENTER to set system clock to UTC.

Congratulations! UbuntuBSD has been installed. Remove the installation media and reboot your system.

Log in to the newly installed UbuntuBSD desktop.

Here it is how my UbuntuBSD desktop looks like.

UbuntuBSD desktop edition ships with some day-to-day usage applications including audio/video players, Libreoffice, Firefox, and many.

You can install, update, upgrade, and remove applications as the way you do in the normal Ubuntu desktop.

For example, to install shutter application, just run:

$ sudo apt-get install  shutter

Also, UbuntuBSD ships with graphical package manager 'Ubuntu software center', so you can install applications easily.

As I mentioned above, the latest UbuntuBSD version is based on FreeBSd 10.1 and Ubuntu 15.10.

$ uname -a

Sample output:

GNU/kFreeBSD ubuntubsd 10.1-0-amd64 #0 Thu, 17 Dec 2015 15:42:16 +0000 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/kFreeBSD

$ cat /etc/*-release

Sample output:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=15.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=wily
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 15.10"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="15.10 (Wily Werewolf)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 15.10"
VERSION_ID="15.10"
HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

UbuntuBSd developers have tried their best to bring FreeBSD kernel into Ubuntu linux, and of course they have succeeded. But, It is still in beta stages of development, and probably has many bugs. So, it is not recommended to use for production environments.

If you found a bug, submit a report here - https://sourceforge.net/p/ubuntubsd/tickets/

Conclusion

So, If you need a more lightweight, secure, fast, robust and reliable desktop or server operating system with simplicity in usage, UbuntuBSD is pretty much perfect. Ubuntu is linux for human beings, whereas UbuntuBSD is Unix for human beings. Give it a try and let me what do you think about this Unix operating system.

That's all for now folks. I will be here soon with another interesting article. Until then, stay tuned with OSTechNix, and support our site by sharing this article on your social networks.

Cheers!

Reference link:

• UbuntuBSD Website