A Taste of FreeBSD With VirtualBSD

ReeceTarbert writes "If you wanted to try FreeBSD but didn't have the right hardware, or enough time to make it useful on the desktop, VirtualBSD might fit the bill: it's a VMware appliance based on FreeBSD 7.1-RELEASE and features the Xfce 4 Desktop Environment and a few of the most common applications to make it very functional right out of the box. If you're curious you can have a look at the screenshots, or proceed to the download page and grab the torrent file right away. (Note: VirtualBSD also works in VirtualBox 2.x as long as you create a new virtual machine and select the virtual disk from the archive instead of creating a new one)."

Re:Terminology

[gstoddart]

Did I miss some sort of shift in terminology? When did virtual machines start getting referred to as "Appliances"? When I think "appliance", I usually think of toasters, microwaves, stoves, refrigerators, etc. Images for operating systems is the last thing that comes to mind.

I think it becomes an 'appliance' when it comes already configured and downloadable to you like a black box.

VMware currently hosts some large number here [vmware.com]. Like an 'appliance', you plug it in and go without worrying about the fiddly bits.

Of course, if you want to install it all from scratch, go ahead. :-P

Cheers