Guest post by The PC-BSD project has announced a new plan to introduce desktop and server roles into the installation process. A role is essentially a group of pre-defined packages which will be included in a new installation of the operating system.
Roles would be a installation experience for PC-BSD that would allow more flexibility and a more focused package installation based on what you need or want for your role. If you are a web developer maybe you need an IDE or packages specifically focused on that. If you are wanting the best desktop workstation experience maybe you would get an installation with LibreOffice and some other productivity apps.
Roles are not just for desktop users, server administrators will be able to select roles too, enabling web server and ownCloud confiigurations out of the box. People who have suggestions for pre-defined roles or who would like to ask questions about th new feature can join the discussion on the PC-BSD forums.