From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jul 29 9:35:54 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C9B7F37B400 for ; Mon, 29 Jul 2002 09:35:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.thundernet.cz (mail.thundernet.cz [62.77.87.114]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 0DBF343E5E for ; Mon, 29 Jul 2002 09:35:48 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from neuhauser@bellavista.cz) Received: (qmail 16955 invoked from network); 29 Jul 2002 16:35:41 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO freepuppy.bellavista.cz) (62.168.44.50) by mail.thundernet.cz with SMTP; 29 Jul 2002 16:35:41 -0000 Received: by freepuppy.bellavista.cz (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 4F1951F5; Mon, 29 Jul 2002 18:35:40 +0200 (CEST) Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 18:35:40 +0200 From: Roman Neuhauser To: Peter Christie Cc: grog@lemis.com, FreeBSD-Questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What do we need in a FreeBSD desktop? (was: Peter heads back to M$FT WinBloze [support groups]) Message-ID: <20020729163540.GL73294@freepuppy.bellavista.cz> Mail-Followup-To: Peter Christie , grog@lemis.com, FreeBSD-Questions@freebsd.org References: <20020729102059.GA73294@freepuppy.bellavista.cz> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.1i Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 11:21:35 EDT > From: Peter Christie > Subject: Re: What do we need in a FreeBSD desktop? (was: Peter heads back to M$FT WinBloze [support groups]) > To: grog@lemis.com > Cc: FreeBSD-Questions@freebsd.org Hi Peter, please, keep the length of lines you emit below 73 chars, please. Also, it would be very considerate of the freebsd mail servers if you could snip irrelevant parts of the mail you reply to. > As an aspiring hacker, I find the challenge of learing FreeBSD very > rewarding in and of itself, but would I put it on my 'home' computer > for my wife and kids to use? not as it is now . . . it's hard enough > keeping them up and runnning with windoze, and the kids are into games > mostly, and FreeBSD is not a good gaming platform. I could probably > get the wife converted, as she mostly uses the net for web browsing > and e-mail. Pardon me, but if it's hard enough for someone to operate windows, why should freebsd try to be *the* os for them? clearly, and it's been said too many times, use a tool you can manage. > But the idea here is to set up a "convert" (be it from M$, Mac, or > otherwise) with a 'basic' desktop system that can be up and running > with minimum effort and complications. This would let more people > 'use' FreeBSD as a desktop, and provide feedback for the developers. hm, i'm afraid freebsd is not for the faint of heart. if you're a {windows, mac} convert, you better start learning with a unixlike os aimed at you: redhat, mandrake, suse. *or* you have to get ready to rtfm, rtfm, rtfm. which is what i did. it's not a coincidence i oppose the idea of converting freebsd to another dualbooter's toy. the nature of freebsd has been very attractive to me, and i'm really glad this os is what it is. after all, choice is a Good Thing(TM). if freebsd turns into Just Another Linux Distro, why would anyone (read: i) want to use it? > FreeBSD will never be a great desktop OS if you don't build a huge > user-base, which will then get you support from manufacturers for > drivers and such, as well as the 'other' software companies for > user-land apps / games. i don't think this holds water, strictly speaking. freebsd already *is* a great desktop os: what is a "great desktop os" lies in the eye of the beholder. i've been using freebsd exclusively since last september. *for me*, it is the best desktop os i've ever used. it supports all the hardware and software i use, with just the right "ease of use". i put the term "ease of use" in quotes, because it's actually something that is in the eye of the beholder, again. > FreeBSD wouldn't change as far as the 'power-user' is concerned, but > would be simple to install and use for the average, new to *nix, > 'desktop-user'. no. the existence of yast2 doesn't make use of vi any easier on suse linux. i'm glad freebsd has sysinstall, not yast2. /stand/sysinstall is really easy to use without mouse. summary of my POV: quite a few linux distros are combining the "ease of use of windows" (read: you *must* use those pesky point'n'click interfaces for everything because the underlying config is so mangled it's no longer editable by hand) with the "ease of use of unix" (read: it's cryptic) please, don't turn freebsd into another linux distro. there's enough of them. -- FreeBSD 4.6-STABLE 6:08PM up 13 days, 4:27, 9 users, load averages: 0.28, 0.13, 0.08 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message