# GhostBSD

GhostBSD is a Unix-like operating system based on FreeBSD for x86-64, with MATE (previously GNOME) as its default desktop environment and an Xfce-desktop community based edition. It aims to be easy to install, ready-to-use and easy to use. The project goal is to combine security, privacy, stability, usability, openness, freedom and to be free of charge.

## History

Prior to GhostBSD 18.10, the project was based on FreeBSD. In May 2018 it was announced that future versions of the operating system would be based on TrueOS. In 2020, with the discontinuation of TrueOS, GhostBSD switched back to FreeBSD.

## Version history
### FreeBSD based releases (1.0 - 11.1)

| GhostBSD version | Release date | FreeBSD version | Desktop environments | Changes |
| 1.0 | March 2010 | 8.0 | GNOME 2.28 | First general availability release |
| 1.5 | ? | 8.1 | GNOME 2.30 | Introduced Compiz support. (This version was also distributed with the January 2011 issue of the German magazine freeX, which also featured an article about the new OS.) |
| 2.0 | March 13, 2011 | 8.2 | ? | Improvements to GDM et al. |
| 2.5 | January 24, 2012 | 9.0 | ? | Choice of preconfigured GNOME or LXDE desktop |
| 3.0 | March 10, 2013 | 9.1 | ? | The last release to deploy the GNOME 2 desktop environment |
| 3.1 | June 28, 2013 | ? | ? | A point release primarily to fix bugs |
| 3.5 | November 7, 2013 | ? | MATE 1.6Xfce 4.10 | LibreOffice exchanged for Apache OpenOffice 4. |
| 4.0 | October 4, 2014 | 10.0 | ? | Various new features |
| 10.1 | September 13, 2015 | 10.1 | ? | Software additions |
| 10.3 | August 31, 2016 | 10.3 | ? | ZFS support, UEFI support, ... |
| 11.1 | November 16, 2017 | 11.1 | MATE 1.18 Xfce 4.12 | GhostBSD Software repositories, dropped i386 support, WhiskerMenu as default menu (Xfce) |

### TrueOS-based releases (18.10 - 21.01.20)

From GhostBSD 18.10 to 21.01.20, the project moved its base from FreeBSD to TrueOS. Following are TrueOS-based GhostBSD releases.
| GhostBSD version | Release Date | Desktop Environment | Changes |
| 18.10 | November 1, 2018 | MATE 1.20 | First release based on TrueOS |
| 19.04 | April 13, 2019 | MATE 1.22 and XFCE | |
| 19.09 | September 16, 2019 | MATE and Xfce | Moved from TrueOS CURRENT to STABLE |
| 19.10 | October 26, 2019 | MATE and Xfce | |
| 20.01 | January 22, 2020 | MATE and Xfce | |
| 20.03 | March 31, 2020 | MATE and Xfce | |
| 20.04 | August 10, 2020 | MATE 1.24 and Xfce | |
| 21.01.20 | January 23, 2021 | | |

### FreeBSD based releases (21.04.27 - present)

Beginning from GhostBSD 21.04.27, the project has moved its base back to FreeBSD.
| GhostBSD version | Release Date | Desktop Environment | Changes |
| 21.04.27 | April 29, 2021 | | GhostBSD is now based on FreeBSD 13.0-STABLE |
| 21.5.11 | May 11, 2021 | | |
| 21.09.06 | September 7, 2021 | | Switch from OpenRC to FreeBSD rc.d |
| 21.09.08 | September 9, 2021 | |
| 22.06.15 | June 18, 2022 | | |
| 22.06.18 | June 20, 2022 | | |
| 23.06.01 | June 5, 2023 | | |
| 23.10.01 | October 28, 2023 | MATE 1.26.0 | |
| 24.01.01 | February 13, 2024 | | Based on FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE |
| 24.04.1 | May 20, 2024 | MATE 1.28.1 | Based on FreeBSD 14.0-STABLE |

## License

GhostBSD was originally licensed under the 3-clause BSD license ("Revised BSD License", "New BSD License", or "Modified BSD License")
In 2014 Eric Turgeon re-licensed GhostBSD under 2-clause license ("Simplified BSD License" or "FreeBSD License"). GhostBSD contains some GPL-licensed software.

## Recommended system requirements

The following are the recommended requirements.
* 2 GHz dual core Intel/ARM 64-bit processor
* 4 GB of RAM
* 15 GB of free hard drive space
* Network access

## Reception

Jim Salter of Ars Technica concluded that GhostBSD was "... perfectly reasonable choice for a desktop distribution." However, Google Chrome support was unlikely to come anytime soon. Without a specific desire for running BSD he wouldn't recommend the operating system instead of a more mainstream Linux distribution.