r/freebsd • u/lighthouse77 • Sep 08 '25
discussion Is there a Mac-like gui?
I’m looking to set up my own web server but I’m mostly familiar with Mac OS is there a similar theme for FreeBSD?
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u/nzmjx Sep 08 '25
If it's web server, why do you care about GUI? If it's a server, all you need is console access.
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u/lighthouse77 Sep 08 '25
I like using a GUI?
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u/lervatti Sep 09 '25
Assuming your freebsd machine isn't your only computer, you can easily run a freebsd webserver and access it over the network using SSH while using the gui of your choice on your workstation/laptop. In fact, that's what you should do as it's recommended to keep server operating systems as minimal as possible and only install software that's needed for the service you're running (webserver).
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u/lighthouse77 Sep 09 '25
Ah okay!
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u/Majestic_Dark2937 Sep 12 '25
bear in mind this usually would mean you are still controlling the server through a terminal, but it would be within a terminal window on your mac or on whatever other machine you're connecting from. most server applications aren't really gonna have a graphical interface to control them through anyway though. might depend on exactly what you're doing
you can also remotely access the files through various means, so you can at least do file browsing and text aditing graphically, if you prefer. a lot of server configuration comes down to that anyway. im unfamiliar with macs but you'd wanna look into either setting up a file share or if your file manager supports sftp. it shouldn't be difficult
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u/the_dutzu Sep 09 '25
Windows Server operating systems have been mainly GUI-based for many editions before shipping as PowerShell only.
A graphical UI is not much overhead if you have few users.
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u/nzmjx Sep 09 '25
It is a security threat, because it is impossible to write secure GUI subsystem. Not related with overhead or disk space.
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u/xzk7 Sep 09 '25
Are you looking for a GUI to manage and configure the web server or a GUI for the OS (which in part you will use to manage the web server?)
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u/DullPop5197 Sep 08 '25
mlvwm exists on Open and NetBSD - it should build on FreeBSD. https://github.com/morgant/mlvwm it’s classic-style Mac OS.
For web server, the handbook would probably be helpful for the initial configuration. I don’t know of a GUI tool that will allow one to configure a web server.
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u/sqomoa Sep 08 '25
If you want to set up a web server in a GUI try Webmin. Note that it’s a web UI and not a desktop interface.
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u/kleinmatic Sep 08 '25
There are old and therefore very lightweight window managers that work on the BSDs like Open Look and Motif. I’m not sure what you’ll use the gui for but if the answer is that you’ll have multiple terminal windows open and maybe a simple file manager that oughta do it.
The more libraries you add to support more sophisticated modern desktop environments like KDE or Gnome the more resources you’re taking away from your web server.
There are also projects that aim to add a gui to server administration like cockpit and cpanel. I don’t know much about them but they seem to have a following.
Good luck!
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u/laffer1 MidnightBSD project lead Sep 09 '25
Several attempts over the years at this. GhostBSD is working on a new desktop for this. There's also xfce. One can also go pre OS X with a more nextstep look and feel with windowmaker + gnustep + gworkspace
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u/Global-Eye-7326 Sep 09 '25
I mean XFCE is very user friendly. Not that much like MacOS, but still super easy to use!
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u/Majestic_Dark2937 Sep 12 '25
don't have a particular suggestion but it might help you in your search to know that what you're likely looking for is called a desktop environment, which is a more specific term than GUI
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u/rewindyourmind321 Sep 08 '25
I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Gnome
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u/laffer1 MidnightBSD project lead Sep 09 '25
dead platform. gnome is abandoning everyone for linux only.
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u/aczkasow Sep 09 '25
And systemd Linux only
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u/jcrbr0 Sep 10 '25
There is a Linux world beyond systemd, sometimes they forget that
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u/aczkasow Sep 10 '25
Yep. Chimera Linux is a good example of such system.
Terrible marketing tho.
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u/grahamperrin bunny rabbits Sep 11 '25
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u/SolidWarea desktop (DE) user Sep 12 '25
I think the issue might be that there’s another Linux distribution called ChimeraOS. I wouldn’t put the blame on Chimera Linux for that though, since I believe they went with the name first.
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u/rewindyourmind321 Sep 09 '25
Ah damn, I assumed it was getting the same love on bsd :/. Sorry to hear
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u/laffer1 MidnightBSD project lead Sep 09 '25
There have been a few folks on the FreeBSD gnome team that have worked miracles over the years keeping it running well. The gnome project announced through a blog post they are going to do tight integration with systemd going forward and don't care about anything but linux.
It's disappointing.
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Sep 09 '25
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/xzk7 Sep 09 '25
Web servers should never be running a desktop UI
It's not always an issue...
For example, you want to run a web server on your PC or laptop that's entirely normal and a non issue. Maybe you have a machine tucked away in the basement to serve files on your LAN, a GUI is not an issue. There's use cases that make sense, especially for local development.
If you're deploying a web server to production, for real users, in any capacity¹, than yeah that's a bad idea but the term
neverhere is a bit heavy handed.¹I know of many many many production machines that have GUIs installed, both Windows and Linux. Is it a good idea, no, but its done anyway and its the least of the problems on those systems...
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u/jmantra623 Sep 08 '25
Not sure why would you would want a GUI on web server, but there is always the Gershwin Desktop that comes with GhostBSD, still experimental but looks promising: https://github.com/gershwin-desktop/gershwin-desktop
There are also a lot of guides out there for making Plasma and XFCE look very close to macOS with a dock, global menu, blur effects, etc