Dedicated applications like Okular or Xournal++ provide a much better experience.

vimanuelt … installs the OS, then … could be 7 task selections for the user. …

Many people hate to be interrupted – repeatedly – when they simply want to begin browsing.

Consider the readiness of Kubuntu (on Ubuntu). What does the pinning of a browser icon, alongside a file manager, tell us?

Also, the readiness before installing GhostBSD – live mode:

    Choosing a browser sounds good for those of us who are informed about browsers - which I imagine that most newcomers to GhostBSD might well be. But @grahamperrin makes a good point: You want a ready-to-go desktop, even if you're just "trying it out" in a Live or Virtual environment before installation. You read something and need to do a search of it before you opt for it and install the OS, you need some browser installed in order to do that.

    Another thing I found irksome was after following instructions to install Brave on GhostBSD, I watched all this "Linuxy stuff" scroll by in the terminal window - including the dreaded systemd! I aborted it immediately and felt like I had irretrievably polluted my OS. So I re-installed and chose a browser strictly from the repositories so as to avoid all the "Linuxy stuff." The list of browsers to choose from should include only ones that are packaged for GhostBSD, whether Firefox, Librewolf, ungoogled-chromium, etc.

    !

      From https://forums.ghostbsd.org/d/340/9:

      I did try those two at the time (Monday 2025-05-05 18:27) in Ungoogled Chromium in GhostBSD, I'm almost certain that there was – with GhostBSD – the slowness that I saw with FreeBSD-CURRENT.

      Now, touch wood, no problem. Maybe it was fixed through the hundreds of package upgrades that came later in the day:

      Re: https://pkg-status.freebsd.org/beefy18/build.html?mastername=main-amd64-default&build=p641386d44e51_s2a042fab4f9 it'll be some time before I can retest properly with an upgrade to port packages on CURRENT. (The previous upgrade was badly bugged.)

      Opting for Ungoogled-Chromium as the default browser appears to be a sensible decision.

      I have implemented a dual-approach system comprising an installation ISO that includes only the base operating system, accompanied by a post-installation "Hello" application. This is the method currently employed in PolarisBSD. Unlike traditional installers, it functions as a network-based setup. While not especially fast, it affords users the flexibility to customize their desktop environment, should they wish to include one. Users transitioning from Linux may find this installation method somewhat inconvenient. However, I hoped the four-minute installation process would mitigate this issue. (For users who opt out of installing a desktop environment, the installation time is closer to two minutes.)

      This approach also enables installation of GhostBSD on machines with as little as 1 GiB of RAM, although most modern web browsers do not perform well with such limited memory.

      If users prefer a complete desktop experience with applications preinstalled, we will eventually need to raise the recommended RAM requirement to 8 GiB or more. I understand that some have requested a richer default application set. This does not personally affect me, as my systems typically have 32 GiB of RAM or more. Nevertheless, I maintain a laptop with 4 GiB of RAM to ensure that the latest ISOs remain bootable on older hardware. To support continued use of such machines, trimming the default application set remains essential.

        Your feedback has been valuable and is greatly appreciated. Maintaining GhostBSD on its current path as an out of the box, ready to use system appears to be the path of least astonishment for users.

        Thanks,

        vimanuelt … trimming the default application set …

        I'd expect a reduction in the size of the disk image, not necessarily a reduction in the minimum memory requirement for an installed system.

          vimanuelt … an unwanted browser …

          More than nine million users of uBlock Origin, I should assume that a significant proportion (on any platform) do want a browser that can use the extension.

            Eric approved the move from firefox to ungoogle-chromium as the default browser. I'll submit a patch.

              The other option, akin to Debian's "netinstall" is what I would try first, choosing Xfce, ungoogled-chromium, Geary or Evolution, libreoffice, and a very minimal set of applications for school and work.

                Robin
                We have a netinstall available, but it's not publicly accessible. I prefer to keep certain things private, especially when Eric isn't fond of them. I genuinely want to contribute to the project, but not all of my ideas align with its direction, so I often explore them in other distributions. :-)

                  grahamperrin
                  Ah yes, you were advocating Pale Moon earlier. ;-)

                  The good news is that users can easily install and remove applications to meet their preferences. :-)

                      grahamperrin
                      I initially thought you were serious about considering Pale Moon as a contender, given that it does not include a telemetry component. To evaluate the options more thoroughly, I created feature comparison charts to better assess the browsers. LibreWolf, Firefox, and Ungoogled Chromium emerged as the top three. However, since our goal was to identify a suitable replacement for Firefox, that effectively left us with only LibreWolf and Ungoogled Chromium.

                          grahamperrin
                          Ungoogled-Chromium goes to greater lengths than LibreWolf to remove upstream telemetry, but both projects face limitations from their respective upstream codebases (Mozilla Firefox and Google Chromium). Neither can promise absolute isolation from all data transmission, though they are among the best options for privacy-conscious users today. :-)

                            vimanuelt users can easily install and remove applications

                            Users can easily install Ungoogled Chromium.

                              Ungoogled Chromium is a strong candidate for default inclusion due to the following characteristics:

                              • No Background Google Services: All calls to Google domains, including safe browsing, autofill, and update pings, are removed or disabled. This reduces passive data leakage.

                              • No Embedded Web Services: The browser avoids integrations that rely on upstream cloud services, such as spell checking, metrics reporting, or URL predictions.

                              • No Auto-Update Mechanism: Software updates are handled via the operating system’s package manager, maintaining alignment with GhostBSD’s update process.

                              • Compatible with Most Chromium Extensions: Users can still access the Chrome Web Store, including privacy-enhancing tools like uBlock Origin, HTTPS Everywhere, or LocalCDN.

                              • Less Surface for Remote Configuration: Unlike Firefox’s Normandy (Shield Studies), Ungoogled Chromium does not include infrastructure for silent remote changes or experimental deployments.

                              While Firefox offers unique features like container tabs and first-party isolation, these require careful manual configuration to achieve meaningful privacy gains. In contrast, Ungoogled Chromium is focused on a hardened baseline without requiring deep configuration knowledge.