Okay back *BSD
Since 9.1 was out I decided to give it a go.
I installed PC-BSD. I like the fact that it lays out my hard disks and gets me going with a desktop. Downside, I was not able to get my head wrapped around AppCafe, PBI and how they work with ports and packages.
PC-BSD has an option where it will setup a FreeBSD server. Free advice: when they say "installs a basic, vanilla installation of FreeBSD" they mean just that. Which for me works perfect. The fact that it will set up a ZFS drive is a bonus. Due to a server breach and the ongoing investigation there are no packages available from the FreeBSD servers. Building from ports really is not *ALL* that bad. Especially Xfce.
-JJ