Desktop Applications

Firefox is an open source browser that features a standards-compliant HTML display engine, tabbed browsing, popup blocking, extensions, improved security, and more. Firefox is based on the Mozilla codebase.

To install the package of the latest release version of Firefox, type:

To instead install Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) version, use:

Localized versions are available in www/firefox-i18n and www/firefox-esr-i18n .

The Ports Collection can instead be used to compile the desired version of Firefox from source code. This example builds www/firefox , where firefox can be replaced with the ESR or localized version to install.

Opera is a full-featured and standards-compliant browser which is still lightweight and fast. It comes with a built-in mail and news reader, an IRC client, an RSS/Atom feeds reader, and more. It is available as a native FreeBSD version and as a version that runs under Linux™ emulation.

This command installs the package of the FreeBSD version of Opera. Replace opera with linux-opera to instead install the Linux™ version.

Alternately, install either version through the Ports Collection. This example compiles the native version:

To install the Linux™ version, substitute linux-opera in place of opera.

To install Adobe™Flash™ plugin support, first compile the www/linux-flashplayer port. Licensing restrictions prevent making a package available. Then install www/opera-linuxplugins . This example compiles both applications from ports:

Once installed, check the presence of the plugin by starting the browser, entering opera:plugins in the location bar and pressing Enter . A list should appear with all the currently available plugins.

To add the Java® plugin, follow install java/icedtea-web .

Konqueror is more than a web browser as it is also a file manager and a multimedia viewer. It is included in the x11/kde4-baseapps package or port.

Konqueror supports WebKit as well as its own KHTML. WebKit is a rendering engine used by many modern browsers including Chromium. To use WebKit with Konqueror on FreeBSD, install the www/kwebkitpart package or port. This example installs the package:

To install from the Ports Collection:

To enable WebKit within Konqueror, click “Settings” , “Configure Konqueror” . In the “General” settings page, click the drop-down menu next to “Default web browser engine” and change “KHTML” to “WebKit” .

Konqueror also supports Flash™. A “How To” guide for getting Flash™ support on Konqueror is available at http://freebsd.kde.org/howtos/konqueror-flash.php.

Chromium is an open source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable web browsing experience. Chromium features tabbed browsing, popup blocking, extensions, and much more. Chromium is the open source project upon which the Google Chrome web browser is based.

Chromium can be installed as a package by typing:

Alternatively, Chromium can be compiled from source using the Ports Collection:

The KDE desktop environment includes an office suite which can be installed separately from KDE. Calligra includes standard components that can be found in other office suites. Words is the word processor, Sheets is the spreadsheet program, Stage manages slide presentations, and Karbon is used to draw graphical documents.

In FreeBSD, editors/calligra can be installed as a package or a port. To install the package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection instead:

AbiWord is a free word processing program similar in look and feel to Microsoft™ Word. It is fast, contains many features, and is user-friendly.

AbiWord can import or export many file formats, including some proprietary ones like Microsoft™.rtf .

To install the AbiWord package:

If the package is not available, it can be compiled from the Ports Collection:

For image authoring or picture retouching, The GIMP provides a sophisticated image manipulation program. It can be used as a simple paint program or as a quality photo retouching suite. It supports a large number of plugins and features a scripting interface. The GIMP can read and write a wide range of file formats and supports interfaces with scanners and tablets.

To install the package:

Alternately, use the Ports Collection:

The graphics category (freebsd.org/ports/graphics.html) of the Ports Collection contains several GIMP-related plugins, help files, and user manuals.

Apache OpenOffice is an open source office suite which is developed under the wing of the Apache Software Foundation’s Incubator. It includes all of the applications found in a complete office productivity suite: a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program. Its user interface is similar to other office suites, and it can import and export in various popular file formats. It is available in a number of different languages and internationalization has been extended to interfaces, spell checkers, and dictionaries.

The word processor of Apache OpenOffice uses a native XML file format for increased portability and flexibility. The spreadsheet program features a macro language which can be interfaced with external databases. Apache OpenOffice is stable and runs natively on Windows™ , Solaris™ , Linux™ , FreeBSD, and Mac OS™  X. More information about Apache OpenOffice can be found at openoffice.org. For FreeBSD specific information refer to porting.openoffice.org/freebsd/.

To install the Apache OpenOffice package:

Once the package is installed, type the following command to launch Apache OpenOffice:

where X.Y.Z is the version number of the installed version of Apache OpenOffice. The first time Apache OpenOffice launches, some questions will be asked and a .openoffice.org folder will be created in the user’s home directory.

If the desired Apache OpenOffice package is not available, compiling the port is still an option. However, this requires a lot of disk space and a fairly long time to compile:

LibreOffice is a free software office suite developed by documentfoundation.org. It is compatible with other major office suites and available on a variety of platforms. It is a rebranded fork of Apache OpenOffice and includes applications found in a complete office productivity suite: a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, drawing program, database management program, and a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulæ. It is available in a number of different languages and internationalization has been extended to interfaces, spell checkers, and dictionaries.

The word processor of LibreOffice uses a native XML file format for increased portability and flexibility. The spreadsheet program features a macro language which can be interfaced with external databases. LibreOffice is stable and runs natively on Windows™ , Linux™ , FreeBSD, and Mac OS™  X. More information about LibreOffice can be found at libreoffice.org.

To install the English version of the LibreOffice package:

The editors category (freebsd.org/ports/editors.html) of the Ports Collection contains several localizations for LibreOffice. When installing a localized package, replace libreoffice with the name of the localized package.

Once the package is installed, type the following command to run LibreOffice:

During the first launch, some questions will be asked and a .libreoffice folder will be created in the user’s home directory.

If the desired LibreOffice package is not available, compiling the port is still an option. However, this requires a lot of disk space and a fairly long time to compile. This example compiles the English version:

For users that prefer a small FreeBSD PDF viewer, Xpdf provides a light-weight and efficient viewer which requires few resources. It uses the standard X fonts and does not require any additional toolkits.

To install the Xpdf package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection:

Once the installation is complete, launch xpdf and use the right mouse button to activate the menu.

gv is a PostScript™ and PDF viewer. It is based on ghostview, but has a nicer look as it is based on the Xaw3d widget toolkit. gv has many configurable features, such as orientation, paper size, scale, and anti-aliasing. Almost any operation can be performed with either the keyboard or the mouse.

To install gv as a package:

If a package is unavailable, use the Ports Collection:

Geeqie is a fork from the unmaintained GQView project, in an effort to move development forward and integrate the existing patches. Geeqie is an image manager which supports viewing a file with a single click, launching an external editor, and thumbnail previews. It also features a slideshow mode and some basic file operations, making it easy to manage image collections and to find duplicate files. Geeqie supports full screen viewing and internationalization.

To install the Geeqie package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection:

ePDFView is a lightweight PDF document viewer that only uses the Gtk+ and Poppler libraries. It is currently under development, but already opens most PDF files (even encrypted), save copies of documents, and has support for printing using CUPS.

To install ePDFView as a package:

If a package is unavailable, use the Ports Collection:

Okular is a universal document viewer based on KPDF for KDE. It can open many document formats, including PDF, PostScript™ , DjVu, CHM, XPS, and ePub.

To install Okular as a package:

If a package is unavailable, use the Ports Collection:

GnuCash is part of the GNOME effort to provide user-friendly, yet powerful, applications to end-users. GnuCash can be used to keep track of income and expenses, bank accounts, and stocks. It features an intuitive interface while remaining professional.

GnuCash provides a smart register, a hierarchical system of accounts, and many keyboard accelerators and auto-completion methods. It can split a single transaction into several more detailed pieces. GnuCash can import and merge Quicken QIF files. It also handles most international date and currency formats.

To install the GnuCash package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection:

Gnumeric is a spreadsheet program developed by the GNOME community. It features convenient automatic guessing of user input according to the cell format with an autofill system for many sequences. It can import files in a number of popular formats, including Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, and Quattro Pro. It has a large number of built-in functions and allows all of the usual cell formats such as number, currency, date, time, and much more.

To install Gnumeric as a package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection:

KMyMoney is a personal finance application created by the KDE community. KMyMoney aims to provide the important features found in commercial personal finance manager applications. It also highlights ease-of-use and proper double-entry accounting among its features. KMyMoney imports from standard Quicken QIF files, tracks investments, handles multiple currencies, and provides a wealth of reports.

To install KMyMoney as a package:

If the package is not available, use the Ports Collection: