I just saw this today!!! PC-BSD 9.0 has been released! I didn't know about this, but today, I was looking up something on PC-BSD, and went to the main site, and saw that almost a week ago, they released it!

For those of you who don't know much about PC-BSD; PC-BSD is FreeBSD, but with a paint job, and some very easy to use tools, and Drivers and everything, are loaded up and ready to use out of the box with a default install.

I'm running PC-BSD 8.2 (Based on FreeBSD 8.2) right now on one of my machines, and have had no real issues with it at all, and I like it a lot.

This new release, is based on FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE, and I'm downloading it right now!

I'm getting a great speed too; I'm grabbing the 32-bit CD version, and, well, it just now popped up telling me it's finished!

I got about 2,000 KBs a second the WHOLE time.

If you'd like to check PC-BSD out, and learn more, go here:

http://www.pcbsd.org/

If you'd like to see the downloads section, just look here:

http://www.pcbsd.org/get-it/download-pc-bsd-isotope

You have a LOT of options for using it, in fact, this is what you'll see on the downloads section:

DVD 64-Bit
DVD 32-Bit
USB BootOnly 32-Bit
USB BootOnly 64-Bit
USB Live 32-Bit
USB Live 64-Bit
VMware disk image 32-Bit
VMware disk image 64-Bit
VirtualBox disk 32-Bit
VirtualBox disk 64-Bit
CD 64-bit
CD 32-bit
Live DVD 64-Bit
Live DVD 32-Bit
USBLITE 64-Bit
USBLITE 32-Bit
USB 64-Bit
USB 32-Bit

That's quite a few options. Most of my machines are 32-bit, so I simply grabbed the 32-bit CD. I could have gotten the DVD, but we're a little low on those, and I have CDs, so, I decided to grab that.

It really doesn't matter much anyway, because when you install PC-BSD, it actually will let you install more stuff it can grab over the Internet.

This new version apparently has a HUGE list of new features. I won't post them all here because you can read most of it right on the site anyway.

Anyway, I highly recommend this to ANYONE who wants to use BSD, but wants a Desktop System.

If you want a Server to set up, or you already are a FreeBSD user, then FreeBSD is good. I currently have FreeBSD 9.0 installed on my BSD workstation, and my Laptop.

I use BSD quite a bit. Actually, some of you may find this odd, but as of right now, I'm using BSD on almost everything.... I have Slackware Linux 12.0 installed on my FTP Server, with a 236 day current uptime, since 12.0 doesn't have much in terms of Kernel updates, which means, I have a fully patched Server running, and I don't need to reboot because, well, installing patches on Unix based stuff, only really needs a reboot if you mess with the Kernel.

Anyway, PC-BSD is in fact FreeBSD, with a very nice paint job, and some custom applications that make installing software a point and click experience. The PBI system PC-BSD has it great.

And, of course, since it IS FreeBSD with just a paint job and some easy to use custom applications, you also have access to the FreeBSD Ports Collection.

The Software Manager is VERY easy to use; You click on it, open it, give the root password, and then go through a list of categories and click on whatever you want installed.

Now, of course, every once in a while, a download does fail and says to try again later, and, to date, that doesn't happen very often, and when it does, I'll usually just try again a few days later, and it works fine!

So, give this a try!