FreeBSD vows to compete with desktop Linux

The Unix descendent will soon be able to match Linux feature for feature, with GNOME desktop support expected this year, according to a core developer

Linux may soon have a stronger open source competitor on the desktop, if FreeBSD’s plans come to fruition.

FreeBSD developer Scott Long told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the operating system, descended from the Unix derivative BSD, is “quickly approaching” feature parity with Linux.

“Lot of work is going on to make FreeBSD more friendly on the desktop,” said Long. “Within the year we expect to have, or be near, parity with Linux.”

The main focus of developers is to integrate FreeBSD with the GNOME and KDE desktop environments, and to add plug-and-play hardware capabilities.

“Developers are doing work so you can plug in a USB stick and have it appear on the desktop and just work, without having to mess around with command prompts and work out arcane commands,” said Long.

Joe Clarke, who leads the team of developers working on FreeBSD for the desktop, said in a recent interview that developers are primarily working on integrating FreeBSD with GNOME, but hope to be able to add KDE support in the future, due to the work that is going on to create a set of common interfaces and tools for the environments.

Full article: ZDNet UK