FreeBSD 现在终于也可以用于桌面端了，尽管是以一种曲折的方式。该开源操作系统的维护者兼发布工程负责人科林·珀西瓦尔（Colin Percival）于周四宣布推出了这个桌面发行版。“大多数人都认为 FreeBSD 是一个只能通过命令行使用的服务器操作系统，但正如任何参加过 BSD 会议的人所能证明的那样，它在图形用户界面（GUI）下也运行得很好，”他写道。他说得没错，但没有明说的是，FreeBSD 默认并不包含图形界面，用户必须自行安装。因此，该操作系统的桌面版本内置了 KDE 桌面。珀西瓦尔将其打包成了一个亚马逊机器镜像（AMI），即亚马逊弹性计算云（EC2）运行实例所需的镜像。“桌面 AMI 旨在让新用户更容易发现并开始使用 FreeBSD，”珀西瓦尔写道，“你可以在 EC2 中启动它们（包括作为 AWS 免费套餐的一部分），并使用连接 Windows 虚拟机时所用的相同远程桌面协议（RDP）进行连接。”“事实上，我精心设计了这些 AMI，使其尽可能像 Windows 镜像，”他补充道，“当然，除了一个例外——因为它们运行的是 FreeBSD，所以你无需为操作系统付费。”你没看错：开源社区中一位杰出的成员希望他参与的项目表现得像 Windows 一样！这些 AMI 预装了 Chromium 和 LibreOffice，珀西瓦尔认为这个组合“是一个有用的起点”。他的文章包含了详细的安装说明，其中提到了使用 m7i-flex.large 实例——这是一种运行第四代英特尔至强可扩展处理器、拥有 2 到 64 个 vCPU 以及 8 到 256GB 内存的云虚拟机类型。
FreeBSD is now available for the desktop, in a roundabout way. Colin Percival, a maintainer and release engineering lead for the open-source OS’s release, announced the desktop distro on Thursday. “Most people think of FreeBSD as being a server OS which is used only via the command line, but as anyone who has attended a BSD conference can attest, it works just fine with a GUI too,” he wrote. He’s not wrong about that, but left unsaid is that FreeBSD doesn’t include a GUI. Users need to install one. The desktop version of the OS therefore includes the KDE desktop. Percival packaged it as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI), the image Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud needs to run an instance. “Desktop AMIs are designed to make it easier for new users to discover and start using FreeBSD,” Percival wrote. “You can boot them in EC2, including as part of the AWS Free Tier, and connect to them using the same Remote Desktop Protocol used for connecting to Windows VMs.” “Indeed, I've carefully designed the AMIs to behave as much like Windows images as possible,” he added, “with the exception, of course, that since they run FreeBSD, you don't have to pay for the operating system.” You read that right: One of the more prominent members of the open source community wants the project he works on to behave like Windows! The AMIs include Chromium and LibreOffice pre-installed, a combination Percival rates “a useful starting point.” His post includes detailed installation instructions that mention using an m7i-flex.large instance, a cloudy VM type that run 4th-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, with 2 to 64 vCPUs and 8 to 256 gig of memory. Percival also points out that the AWS Console “doesn't understand that these AMIs support RDP, so if you launch an instance via its ‘Launch an instance’ wizard it will suggest creating a security group with port TCP/22 open rather than port TCP/3389; and the ‘Connect’ wizard will show SSH instructions rather than the RDP instructions which are shown for Windows.” “I've asked Amazon to provide a mechanism for AMIs to be marked as RDP-enabled in order to turn on that missing functionality.” “If you've been thinking of trying out FreeBSD, this is your cue,” Percival’s post urges. “Go launch an instance!” ®
Percival还指出，AWS控制台“并未意识到这些AMI（Amazon Machine Images）支持RDP（Remote Desktop Protocol）；因此，当你通过其‘启动实例’向导创建新实例时，系统会建议创建一个允许TCP/22端口通用的安全组，而不是TCP/3389端口；而‘连接’向导也会显示适用于Windows系统的SSH连接说明，而非适用于RDP系统的连接说明。”他呼吁：“我已经请求亚马逊提供一种机制，以便能够将这些AMI标记为‘支持RDP’的类型，从而恢复这一缺失的功能。”Percival的文章最后建议：“如果你一直在考虑尝试使用FreeBSD操作系统，那么现在就是时候了——赶紧去创建一个实例吧！”
FreeBSD is now available for the desktop, in a roundabout way. Colin Percival, a maintainer and release engineering lead for the open-source OS’s release, announced the desktop distro on Thursday. “Most people think of FreeBSD as being a server OS which is used only via the command line, but as anyone who has attended a BSD conference can attest, it works just fine with a GUI too,” he wrote. He’s not wrong about that, but left unsaid is that FreeBSD doesn’t include a GUI. Users need to install one. The desktop version of the OS therefore includes the KDE desktop. Percival packaged it as an Amazon Machine Image (AMI), the image Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud needs to run an instance. “Desktop AMIs are designed to make it easier for new users to discover and start using FreeBSD,” Percival wrote. “You can boot them in EC2, including as part of the AWS Free Tier, and connect to them using the same Remote Desktop Protocol used for connecting to Windows VMs.” “Indeed, I've carefully designed the AMIs to behave as much like Windows images as possible,” he added, “with the exception, of course, that since they run FreeBSD, you don't have to pay for the operating system.” You read that right: One of the more prominent members of the open source community wants the project he works on to behave like Windows! The AMIs include Chromium and LibreOffice pre-installed, a combination Percival rates “a useful starting point.” His post includes detailed installation instructions that mention using an m7i-flex.large instance, a cloudy VM type that run 4th-gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors, with 2 to 64 vCPUs and 8 to 256 gig of memory. Percival also points out that the AWS Console “doesn't understand that these AMIs support RDP, so if you launch an instance via its ‘Launch an instance’ wizard it will suggest creating a security group with port TCP/22 open rather than port TCP/3389; and the ‘Connect’ wizard will show SSH instructions rather than the RDP instructions which are shown for Windows.” “I've asked Amazon to provide a mechanism for AMIs to be marked as RDP-enabled in order to turn on that missing functionality.” “If you've been thinking of trying out FreeBSD, this is your cue,” Percival’s post urges. “Go launch an instance!” ®