Ever since I first used the Raspberry Pi OS in 2017, I've become obsessed with trying out different Linux distributions. Now that I’ve experimented with some of the most obscure distros out there, I figured I should focus my attention on FreeBSD distributions. Unfortunately, the FreeBSD landscape is typically dominated by non-desktop operating systems, with router distros like pfSense and OPNsense being the most popular FreeBSD operating systems alongside their NAS-centric siblings: TrueNAS Core and XigmaNAS.

Or so I thought until I came across GhostBSD, a desktop operating system that boasts a sleek, elegant UI as its standout feature. Since I’ve had some terrible compatibility issues with certain distros as of late (ESXi still gives me nightmares), I was fully expecting this project to end in vain. Instead, it went much better than I thought. If that sounds interesting, here’s a quick log of my experiment with using GhostBSD as my daily driver for a couple of days.

Installing GhostBSD was a cakewalk

It’s surprisingly easy to set up on my PC(s)

Obscure distributions often don’t work on the latest hardware, so I figured I should whip out my old rigs for this project. Yeah, rigs, as in plural, because I wanted to test GhostBSD on bare-metal and virtualized setups. I pulled my Ryzen 5 1600 + GTX 1080 out of the cupboard for a bare-metal installation, while my beloved dual Xeon Proxmox workstation served as the guinea pig for experimenting with a GhostBSD virtual machine.

To my surprise, GhostBSD is as easy to install as your average Linux OS. Since I use a PXE server, I set IPv4 Boot in my B550 motherboard’s BIOS and chose the GhostBSD ISO file in the startup menu. Within a few minutes, I arrived at a sleek desktop UI and opened the Install GhostBSD utility. The installation wizard was just as easy to follow along on my bare-metal and virtualized setups, though I had to modify the Storage drive to use the SATA protocol instead of the default iSCSI in the case of my Proxmox virtual machine. But aside from that minor quirk, the installation wizard had performed its magic in barely 15 minutes, and it was time to boot into the freshly set-up OS.

It’s as responsive as a lightweight Linux distro

And the MATE desktop environment is a welcome addition

The first thing I noticed after launching GhostBSD was its snappy UI. Since my bare-metal setup is essentially a PC with 8-9 year-old components, I was pleasantly surprised that the FreeBSD distribution felt as responsive as a lightweight Linux distro. MATE is probably the reason why, as it’s one of the lighter desktop environments out there. While I still consider KDE Plasma the most beautiful desktop environment, MATE’s aesthetics are nothing to scoff at either.

On the app front, GhostBSD uses Firefox as its default web browser, and it had no issues running over a dozen tabs without slowing down. My web apps were just as snappy to use. I even used Firefox to write half of this article, and given how responsive everything felt, I wouldn’t mind using GhostBSD for my daily writing tasks. But I digress…

After testing 4K video playback on Firefox (which resulted in zero dropped frames, by the way), I used the MATE terminal to run the sudo pkg update && upgrade command. With the OS mostly set up, the next step was to test the compatibility of typical apps and services.

Software support is pretty decent

Everyday apps work fine

For a FreeBSD-powered desktop OS, GhostBSD can run a surprising number of FOSS utilities. I consider LibreOffice the best alternative to Microsoft Office, and the free productivity suite pairs well with the GhostBSD’s lightweight nature. Likewise, GIMP, Krita, and Inkscape work without requiring extra tweaks, and you can even touch up RAW images using Darktable.

The all-powerful Blender also works on GhostBSD, and the same can be said for VS Code. For video-editors, you’ve got Kdenlive, and Audacity is a viable option for tweaking your audio recordings. If you want a dedicated email client, you’ll be glad to know that GhostBSD supports Thunderbird. I also tried to install Scribus and Emacs, and both apps worked fairly well on the FreeBSD-based distro. Unfortunately, Obsidian and Joplin were the only tools I couldn’t run on the OS – which is a real shame for note-taking lovers.

Bhyve and ZFS are what you’re here for

Although FOSS services are pretty useful, you’d typically want to use the highly secure FreeBSD ecosystem for server projects, and I can confirm that GhostBSD excels on that front. For a simple file-sharing server, you can create a ZFS volume and initialize a Samba share with the right credentials.

On the virtualization front, you’ve got the Unix-based Bhyve hypervisor. While I still consider KVM the best hypervisor out there, Bhyve is worth checking out if you’re a DevOps enthusiast like me. I went with the Bhyve Webadmin package, and it makes working with the hypervisor a lot easier, as I didn’t have to execute a barrage of terminal commands. I also experimented a little with jails, but the prospect of running even more scripts terrified me, especially since I spent a lot of time getting Steam to run on the distro. While we’re on the subject…

Steam simply refuses to run (which is understandable)

GPU support is always a pain on non-Windows operating systems, let alone a FreeBSD distribution. But to my surprise, installing drivers for my GTX 1080 was extremely easy, even though I had to install a couple of extra libraries afterward. Emboldened by this success, I figured I could set up Steam and try gaming on this FreeBSD distribution.

Unfortunately, that proved to be a terrible idea, as I spent half the day on a wild goose chase trying out every utility online to launch the Steam client. The linux-steam-utils method was a complete failure. Running the steam-install --allow-stealing-my-passwords,-browser-history-and-ssh-keys (yes, that’s the actual command if you don’t create a separate user for Steam) was eventually a failure because certain packages weren’t available in the repository. Mizumatari wasn’t successful either, as the app would throw the No executable file found error for every x86 app in its repository, not just Steam. The closest I got was the Steam client app rendering a broken login page after using the Run winetricks option inside the steam-bottler. With my dreams of playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a hard-to-crack OS shattered, it was time to judge the viability of this project.

Should you install GhostBSD?

If you’re looking for a highly secure platform that can deliver a snappy experience for everyday workloads, I’d say GhostBSD is definitely worth a shot. Apart from note-taking apps, it’s compatible with most productivity and creativity-oriented FOSS applications, and you get a stylish UI to top it off. For virtualization fanatics such as myself who want to tinker with a platform that’s completely different from KVM, Xen, ESXi and Hyper-V, you’ll have fun with Bhyve VMs and jails, especially if you’re honing your DevOps skills for Unix. I’m almost certain there’s some loophole or workaround to get Steam (and, by extension, Proton) running on GhostBSD, but I would suggest sticking to Windows (or even Linux) if you’re a gamer first and foremost.