Chapter 7 Desktop Applications

Table of Contents
7.1 Synopsis
7.2 Browsers
7.3 Productivity
7.4 Document Viewers
7.5 Finance
Contributed by Christophe Juniet.

7.1 Synopsis

While FreeBSD is popular as a server for its performance and stability, it is also suited for day-to-day use as a desktop. With over 24,000 applications available as packages or ports, it is easy to build a customized desktop that runs a wide variety of desktop applications. This chapter demonstrates how to install some popular desktop applications effortlessly using packages or the FreeBSD Ports Collection.

As FreeBSD features Linux® binary compatibility, many applications developed for Linux can be installed on a FreeBSD desktop. Many of the ports using Linux binary compatibility start with “linux-”. This chapter assumes that Linux binary compatibility has been enabled before any Linux applications are installed.

This chapter demonstrates how to install the following desktop applications:

Type of ApplicationApplication NamePackage NamePorts Name
BrowserFirefoxfirefoxwww/firefox
BrowserOperaoperawww/opera
BrowserKonquerorkde4-baseappsx11/kde4-baseapps
BrowserChromiumchromiumwww/chromium
ProductivityCalligracalligraeditors/calligra
ProductivityAbiWordabiwordeditors/abiword
ProductivityThe GIMPgimpgraphics/gimp
ProductivityApache OpenOfficeopenofficeeditors/openoffice-3
ProductivityLibreOfficelibreofficeeditors/libreoffice
Document ViewerAcrobat Reader®no package due to license restrictionprint/acroread9
Document Viewergvgvprint/gv
Document ViewerXpdfxpdfgraphics/xpdf
Document ViewerGQviewgqviewgraphics/gqview
FinanceGnuCashgnucashfinance/gnucash
FinanceGnumericgnumericmath/gnumeric
FinanceKMyMoneykmymoney-kde4finance/kmymoney-kde4

Before reading this chapter, you should know how to:

For information on how to configure a multimedia environment, refer to Chapter 8. For information on how to set up and use electronic mail, refer to Chapter 29.