6.6 Summary

While FreeBSD is popular among ISPs for its performance and stability, it is quite ready for day-to-day use as a desktop. With several thousand applications available as packages or ports, you can build a perfect desktop that suits all your needs.

Once you have achieved the installation of your desktop, you may want to go one step further with misc/instant-workstation. This “meta-port” allows you to build a typical set of ports for a workstation. You can customize it by editing /usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation/Makefile. Follow the syntax used for the default set to add or remove ports, and build it with the usual procedure. Eventually, you will be able to create a big package that corresponds to your very own desktop and install it to your other workstations!

Here is a quick review of all the desktop applications covered in this chapter:

Application Name	Package Name	Ports Name
Mozilla	`mozilla`	`www/mozilla`
Opera	`opera`	`www/opera`
Firefox	`firefox`	`www/firefox`
KOffice	`koffice-kde3`	`editors/koffice-kde3`
AbiWord	`abiword`	`editors/abiword`
The GIMP	`gimp`	`graphics/gimp`
OpenOffice.org	`openoffice`	`editors/openoffice-1.1`
Acrobat Reader®	`acroread`	`print/acroread7`
gv	`gv`	`print/gv`
Xpdf	`xpdf`	`graphics/xpdf`
GQview	`gqview`	`graphics/gqview`
GnuCash	`gnucash`	`finance/gnucash`
Gnumeric	`gnumeric`	`math/gnumeric`
Abacus	`abacus`	`deskutils/abacus`