PC-BSD 9.0 released

Being based on today's release of FreeBSD 9.0, the announcement of the publication of PC-BSD version 9.0 will not be a surprise to observers of BSD Unix releases. PC-BSD 9.0 is the latest version of the desktop-oriented distribution of FreeBSD that includes a variety of installable desktops including KDE 4.7.3, GNOME 2.32.2, Lxde 0.5.5, Xfce 4.8 and others.

The new version includes PBI Manager, a suite of command line tools for managing PBI (Push Button Installer) format packages, and an improved PBI system which allows for library sharing, binary diff updating, digital signing and custom repositories. A new control panel offers a consistent configuration interface across the various window managers and desktop environments, while networking has been enhanced with improved utilities and support for Wi-Fi quick connect. A new "Life-Preserver" utility also makes creating off-site rsync backups easier.

Mac users will find PC-BSD now supports installation to BootCamp partitions of Mac OS X systems and virtualised users of PC-BSD 9.0 will find the integrated guest tools in the new VirtualBox and VMWare disk images. UFS+Journalling is now supported without extra configuration and the system now has a graphical boot options page.

Further details, including a list of the included packages, are available in the release notes. PC-BSD 9.0 is available (under the 2 clause BSD licence) to download in 32-bit and 64-bit x86 versions of DVD and LiveDVD, boot-only USB, LiveUSB, lite USB (LXDE install) and full USB and CD ISO images, as well as VMware and VirtualBox disk images.

(djwm)