FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
If a FreeBSD user wants to add Gnome, KDE Plasma, Xfce, or any other desktop environment, currently they have to manually install it, once the OS is up and running. That's about to change.
According to the FreeBSD Foundation's June 2025 update on GitHub, FreeBSD is about to get a full KDE desktop installer option. The FreeBSD Foundation states, "For FreeBSD 15.0, our goal is to extend the FreeBSD installer to offer a minimal KDE-based desktop as an install option. The initial concept is a low-interaction installation process that, upon completion, brings the user directly to a KDE graphical login screen."
The developers are evaluating the required package dependencies that will automatically select the proper graphics drivers to make this as easy as possible for users.
As far as the future is concerned, according to a GitLab post by Alfonso Siciliano, the plan is to include other desktop environments, GUI applications, and even using Wayland over X11.
For anyone who's wanted to give BSD a try, FreeBSD plans on greatly simplifying that process, which should be a welcome change.
You can always check out the kde-installer-logs GitLab page to find out more about this exciting addition to FreeBSD.
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