os platforms
Pre-built Amazon Machine Images featuring KDE Plasma, Chromium, and LibreOffice lower the barrier for newcomers
FreeBSD is now accessible as a desktop environment through an unconventional pathway: pre-configured Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) running on AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Colin Percival, a FreeBSD maintainer and release engineering lead, announced the availability of these images on Thursday.
“Most people think of FreeBSD as being a server OS which is used only via the command line, but as anyone who has attended a BSD conference can attest, it works just fine with a GUI too,” Percival wrote. While accurate, the base operating system does not include a graphical interface by default; users must install one themselves. These new AMIs eliminate that step by bundling the KDE Plasma desktop environment.
“Desktop AMIs are designed to make it easier for new users to discover and start using FreeBSD,” Percival explained. “You can boot them in EC2, including as part of the AWS Free Tier, and connect to them using the same Remote Desktop Protocol used for connecting to Windows VMs.” He added that the images have been “carefully designed to behave as much like Windows images as possible, with the exception, of course, that since they run FreeBSD, you don’t have to pay for the operating system.”
The AMIs ship with Chromium and LibreOffice pre-installed, a combination Percival describes as “a useful starting point.”
Percival’s announcement includes detailed setup instructions recommending the m7i-flex.large instance type, which runs on 4th-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and offers 2 to 64 vCPUs with 8 to 256 GB of memory.
He also noted a current limitation in the AWS Console: it does not recognize these AMIs as RDP-capable. Launching an instance via the “Launch an instance” wizard suggests a security group with TCP port 22 (SSH) open rather than TCP port 3389 (RDP), and the “Connect” wizard displays SSH instructions instead of the RDP guidance shown for Windows instances. Percival has requested that Amazon add a mechanism for AMIs to be marked as RDP-enabled to restore that functionality.
“If you’ve been thinking of trying out FreeBSD, this is your cue,” Percival concluded. “Go launch an instance!”