Recently (see timeline below), I decided to try GhostBSD XFCE on a spareDell PC, expecting it to be just a quick experiment. The simplicity, stability, and performance were so impressive that I ended up continuing to use it.
I’m documenting everything I do with GhostBSD XFCE edition mostly so that next time I reinstall it, I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Feel free to use any of my tweaks if they apply to your setup.
GhostBSD Timeline
This timeline presents a chronological overview of the key events and tasks related to my GhostBSD journey. Each entry highlights important changes, milestones, and daily activities to provide a clear and organized view of progress over time. Use this timeline to easily track developments and understand the evolution of my workflow in a straightforward and accessible format.
Sep 25, 2025
Installed GhostBSD 25.02-R14.3p2 – XFCE.
First Backup Station snapshot and system update.
Installed zsh and switched to it with: chsh -s /usr/local/bin/zsh
Installed the powerlevel10k theme as documented in this tutorial.
Sep 26, 2025
PC > DisplayPort cable > Monitor. No audio when playing a YouTube video in Firefox. This tutorial explains how I fixed the no sound on GhostBSD.
Sep 27, 2025
First, I created another snapshot and then, I installed SimpleScreenRecorder to capture a YouTube video including system sound. Worked on the first try.
Sep 29, 2025
Took a new snapshot so I can revert all of today’s changes if needed. Installed Geany and Apache. Configured Apache config to host PHP sites locally.
Sep 30, 2025
To take Geany for a spin, I started working on Celebrations, a web app that helps me to remember birthdays and anniversaries. The source code is available here
Oct 2, 2025
Fresh install of the XFCE edition for the purpose of improving the documentation I publish here. Started a new web app so I can see how long my Logitech mouse battery lasts.
Oct 4, 2025
Today’s system update on GhostBSD completed without any issues. A special mention goes to Backup Station, which quietly did its job in the background by creating a boot environment snapshot before the update.
Oct 7, 2025
Installed smartmontools to check SSD health. Also published a quick tutorial for anyone interested in monitoring their SSD’s condition on GhostBSD.
In the coming days and weeks, I’ll be installing more software and implementing additional system tweaks.