BSD systems were built to be servers and graphical displays were not a priority until recently. Being a server, not a desktop system, you will find that the graphical experience is not very much like the MacOS or Windows. In fact, a basic installation of a BSD system does not include a graphical user interface (GUI). Instead everything can be done from the command-line, but should you want to use BSD system as a workstation with a graphical desktop you can turn to the X Windows System from the XFree86 Project. It offers little more than a graphical display while projects like KDE and Gnome add features you expect from other conventional systems.

The X Windows system is different than the other graphical displays found on systems like MacOS and Windows. For starters, X Windows runs as a client and a server. You can display the graphical interface on your local machine or even export the display to another computer on the network. The X server works with the video card to produce the display and the client relays feedback to the server. Each mouse movement and click of a keyboard button is passed back to the server. It can be very useful to export your graphical display to another computer. As an example, you may have some monitoring software like xload on some servers on your network and you would like to monitor each server. You can simply export the display of each xload applicaton to your workstation and keep them running as long as you like.

X Windows can take up a substantial amount of system resources. Graphics require lots of memory and updating the display can eat into your CPU time. A good video card may help, but running X Windows still eats up some resources. Fortunately, if you are not using the computer you can turn off the X Windows system. If your workstation is running network services you can allow the computer to give those resources to those services.

In order to run X you will need the proper supported hardware. This means you need the right video card and monitor. The XFree86 project is constantly adding new support for video cards and monitors all the time. But before you starting your X Windows installation, you should know what kind of monitor and video card you have. Once you have that information you will be able to look up the various settings which you will need to use when configuring X Windows. You will want to print out the specs for your video card and monitor. If you have good current hardware you will likely be able to set up X Windows with few problems.

(Warning: Improper configuration can cause damage to your hardware.)

For specific information please use the related links below.

• Overview of X (FreeBSD)
• Configuring X (OpenBSD)
• X Documentation for NetBSD
• X Free86 Project
• Gnome
• Ximian Gnome (an easy install)
• KDE