NomadBSD.....whoo, but this thing is FUN!

[MikeWalsh]

Well, I'm gobsmacked, boys & girls.....that I am.

I've been half-heartedly playing around with GhostBSD for a few weeks. I was keen as mustard to start with, having booted it up from a USB stick, 'cos you were supposed to be able to run it FROM a USB stick. Yeah, riiight; like every other Linux distro, you can do two things with the stick. Run it as a 'Live' session, or install to a hard drive. And that ain't what I wanted to do.

So; I kept on scouting around. And I think I've found what I wanted...

NomadBSD

This one will run from a USB stick, a la Puppy, annnd.....it's got "persistence", too! Like their guys say, they provide it as an .img file, NOT an ISO. For the simple reason that the ISO9660 file-system is read-only.....and since most installers write the thing to a stick using 'dd', you end up with the whole stick in ISO9660, and ya cannae save nowt.

This thing uses ZFS, has the afore-mentioned persistence, and has some real gems tucked away within.

Seems that most BSD 'spins' use FF, and they can't install Widevine to save their lives. So; no NetFlix (grrr.....) NomadBSD, however, will let you install the Linux variants of any Chromium-based browser within what looks like a 'buntu-based 'chroot', and run 'em from there. This works really, really well. I installed Chrome, since libffmpeg is built-in, and it comes with Widevine OOTB. So, I have NetFlix! Yay...!!

I'm impressed. It comes with FF built-in, T-Bird, VLC, the GIMP; Geany, Viewnior, HexChat, and qpdfview. Screenshot, SimpleScreenRecorder, Plank, Leafpad, Thunar, Midnight Commander, Sakura, too.....the list just goes on and ON. Since I spend better than 90% of my time online, I could honestly see this getting MORE than just occasional use. Yah; I'm impressed.....and for me, as a die-hard Puppy stalwart, that's saying summat.

I like it.

Mike.

 

[The Duck]

Sounds interesting I wonder if It can be run from a 40 GB HDD instead of a USB.

I skimmed over the website seems I saw something about drive trim so perhaps it might be possible.

I guess I'm going to have to buy another card of USB flash drives just to try.

 

[wizardfromoz]

The folk at King's Lynn will be wondering what the whoops of joy emanating from your house are, Mike.

When I grow up and become big and strong I am going to try BSD.

One of our old friends, Stan @atanere has played around with some BSDs, wonder if he has encountered Nomad.

Given what you have said, I may try it first.

Ta for sharing.

Chris

 

[The Duck]

When I grow up

I'm never going to grow up I've tried it and I didn't like it.

 

[The Duck]

Sounds interesting I wonder if It can be run from a 40 GB HDD instead of a USB.

NomadBSD can be installed from a USB flash drive and run from a HDD.

I also decided to give GhostBSD a try from a DVD and it's okay seems to be a learning curve so will have to do some learning but hat's okay good to stimulate the old grey matter.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@wizardfromoz :-

It's a LOT better than I was expecting, Chris, I will be honest.

I'm not a fan of "docks" in general - except my own, and they're not really "docks" at all; just boxes drawn on the wallpaper that allow me to group similar items together! - but I'm quite impressed with the way the team have implemented Plank. You can open the Menu, select an item & literally drag it from the Menu & drop it into the 'dock'.

Unless this is standard behaviour for Plank (I wouldn't know, 'cos I generally don't use these things).....but it's a level of "sophistication" I wasn't expecting from a BSD clone.

I can run this from USB on the Latitude in the front room and still 'file-share'....the HP desktop rig runs the Python SimpleHTTPServer module over the network, and all anything needs to do in order to access the files on there is to open a page in a web-browser. Literally, it's THAT simple.

And with a built-in 'screeny' tool, and SimpleScreenRecorder, I'm well set for doing the usual stuff I share on the forums I frequent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

I've gotta try printing yet. My ancient Epson SX218 runs better with the 'official' drivers, although I know for a fact there IS a Gutenprint 'filter' available for it. I presume this must be what the BSDs would use. It kinda worked for me in Haiku last year, but that's not saying much; there's a LOT about Haiku that's WELL "oddball" to start with..!

If that works, and I can find at least a word-processor that'll function under Nomad - there's a PDF viewer built-in - it would then be 'fully-functional' for me.

Fingers crossed, mate.

NomadBSD can be installed from a USB flash drive and run from a HDD.

I also decided to give GhostBSD a try from a DVD and it's okay seems to be a learning curve so will have to do some learning but hat's okay good to stimulate the old grey matter.

Well, that's nae problemo. We all have different tastes; some will like it, many won't. No biggie. You like EasyOS. My main 'squeeze' is Puppy. There's enough alternative OSs out there that most folks should be able to find something they can live with...

I just happen to like the more unusual stuff.....especially if it also happens to tick all the boxes for me. Which this one so nearly does.....as it comes, OOTB.


Mike.

 

[The Duck]

Well, that's nae problemo. We all have different tastes; some will like it, many won't. No biggie. You like EasyOS. My main 'squeeze' is Puppy. There's enough alternative OSs out there that most folks should be able to find something they can live with...

I just happen to like the more unusual stuff.....especially if it also happens to tick all the boxes for me. Which this one so nearly does.....as it comes, OOTB.


Mike.

Yes we do.

I don't like the mainstream flagship Linux distros.

I usually look for the small hole in the wall Linux distros.

Guess that's why I like Easy OS.

 

[KGIII]

I like GhostBSD. I've had it installed on bare metal before. I've never considered it as a viable 'live environment' for anything long-term. It's a pretty great-looking OS.

There's the Linuxulator compatibility layer for installing Linux software. While I've not tried it, you might be able to install the Linux version of Firefox, which might mean you can enable Widevine. I've never tried that. I've got some history with BSD but nothing truly recent. It has a lot of similarities with UNIX and Linux. MacOS is based on BSD, for those that don't already know that and want a bit of trivia.

 

[Trml]

.. and the backend of Netflix is (comically to the widewine issue at hand) based on FreeBSD.

I've had brief touching points with FreeBSD, albeit in professional circumstances. Personally, I never let go of having a parallel OpenBSD desktop up-to-date. Don't interpret it too much when I say it's a calm haven from hectic elsewhere. It has quite some disadvantages, particularly interoperability: No Linux compat, no choice of file-system, rather poor power management (laptop users), broad changes like deciding to block USB ports per default (don't question it, ha), etc. It can be tricky and challenging. I'd never recommend it to anyone, one either feels compelled to experience it or not. A lot of users will know OpenBSD puffs fish release logos. What you may not know they have release music too - a community of many talents.

That said, I absolutely love the NomadBSD default design - very elegant, and their innovative approach. I'll definitely try it out sometime after reading this rave review. I have a couple USB stick leftover anyway