Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2002 19:15:13 -0400 From: Joshua Lee <yid@softhome.net> To: Peter Leftwich <Hostmaster@Video2Video.Com> Cc: FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.Org Subject: Re: Peter heads back to M$FT WinBloze Message-ID: <20020802191513.47f4b009.yid@softhome.net> In-Reply-To: <20020726195011.N18019-100000@earl-grey.cloud9.net> References: <20020726195011.N18019-100000@earl-grey.cloud9.net>
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On Fri, 26 Jul 2002 20:06:27 -0400 (EDT) Peter Leftwich <Hostmaster@Video2Video.Com> wrote: > Dear List, I've been reading some compelling posts lately about people > giving up on FreeBSD, and may soon -- sadly -- join their ranks! It's really not for everyone as a desktop, but I prefer it over windows even for that task. > my FreeBSD 4.3 CDROMs and installed them by the seat of my pants, but could > never get XFree86 3.3.6 working - blank screen! 4.6 installs version 4.2.0 by default now, and it's a lot easier to set up usually than 3.3.6. > XFree86 4.2.0 now suddenly works Yep, like I said, it's easier to set up. > as does KDE and a very "krashy" Konqueror browser (sigh). I prefer Mozilla, though Konqueror has improved much in KDE3, you might want to try upgrading to KDE3 (it's in ports, it really should be the default now) if you like KDE. > Realizing that plugins are impossible (Flash), and the hassle of I don't use Konq, or KDE (anymore since moving from Lin to BSD), but Flash works fine here. Have you tried installing it? Maybe it needs a seperate installation step. > sound players working If you have a recent soundcard usually all you have to do is add "device pcm" to your kernel configuration file and recompile the kernel. (Yes, I know recompiling's a pain - in the meantime running kldload snd0 will work.) > and my Canon scanner and webcam and PDF readers and PDF readers are easy, you have a choice between Acroread (the same product used under Windows), and the various ghostview clones such as gv. KDE even comes with a good one of those, kghostview, that autmatically executes from the konqueror file browser. I think you can even create PDF files in BSD without paying for Acrobat, I know creating postscript files is a cinch... > *.DOC readers, Openoffice, and for simple DOC files Abiword, are word processors that have some DOC compatability. > I think I may be out of the FreeBSD workstation game. Don't give up yet! The only thing FreeBSD is really lacking in is 3D games; at least my nvidia card doesn't work with this. (Other video cards may have AGP and hardware 3D support with 4.6 (and I seem to recall 4.5) FreeBSD.) > Finally going from UNIX user (since 1992) to sysadmin was a terrific That's around the time that I started, though I did very rudementary sysadmin work by installing 0.95 Linux on a 386sx-16. :-) (at the time 386BSD 0.x was buggy and BSDI had the AT&T lawsuit...) > learning experience, but a "learning XP" seems more attractive for now It depends upon what you like to do. > especially as XP is built on (sort of) NT and is 32bit and uses > protected memory ... FreeBSD is a heck of a lot more reliable than XP, and is 32 bit with protected memory too, and not just in recent versions. :-) > until FreeBSD is 34,523,455% more of an OUT-OF-THE-BOX-GUI OS. :( Assuming sysinstall goes smoothly, it is an out-of-the-box GUI. It offers KDE2, Sawfish or E with GNOME, and fvwm; and nearly any other x11 window manager available for X is available in /usr/ports/x11-wm. (I currently use Windowmaker; but you might not like that because rather than being a Windows clone it's a NeXT-step clone.) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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