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Date:      Mon, 26 Jul 1999 09:13:39 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Seth <seth@freebie.dp.ny.frb.org>
To:        Radu-Cristian FOTESCU <rfotescu@idsrom.com>
Cc:        "'freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG'" <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   RE: What to tell to Linux-centric people?!
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.10.9907260856110.567-100000@freebie.dp.ny.frb.org>
In-Reply-To: <C1F3617BDC52D21185E40000214C247C154055@id-bucharest.idsrom.com>

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On Mon, 26 Jul 1999, Radu-Cristian FOTESCU wrote:

> > Because the application list is already on any modern FreeBSD system if
> > you've installed the ports collection.  Ports is one of the FreeBSD's
> 
> Yeah, but this is NOT what I meant! Imagine that thousands of people are
> making, for their own use or not, thousands of free [well, GPLed] Linux
> apps. Why should I use Yahoo! to find that it *might* be on that world some
> app which could help me? Instead... I can go to linuxapps.com, take the
> source from there, and compile it either for Linux, either for FreeBSD!
> However... :-(

I'm a bit confused then.  You're saying that "the ports collection isn't
comprehensive enough, and when I need an application that isn't included,
I have to search for it"?  That doesn't seem to be too onerous a task...
there are plenty of search engines out there (web, IRC, gopher, whatever)
that will point you in the right direction.

Personally, if there's an app that I need that's not in the ports, I don't
want to get it from anywhere but the "official" distribution site if
that's  possible.  This reduces that chance of my picking up some modified
code.  As a last resort, I might try freshmeat or linuxapps.  Most of the
apps I've needed have built just fine (the exception being the ones using
non-portable Linux networking code w/ no -DBSD).

If you're not willing to do a bit of legwork on the rare occasion you need
to install an app for which there is no port, I'm not sure FreeBSD is for
you (as someone else pointed out).  I don't like saying that, since it
smacks of "my[our] way or the highway", but the Project has other, more
pressing concerns than these issues which can be resolved with minimal
effort in the ports collection or via a search engine.

> 
> Yes, but things could me MUCH better! I just want the _regular_ daemon, at a
> greater size! Not the "new" daemons! The daemon from cdrom's cover, that is.
> And I saw in an article, the same BSD daemon showing a "Will work for free"
> sticker, but it was ways too small!

Why not make one and submit it then, if the dozens of existing images
don't meet your needs?  You might need to get McKusick's permission to
redistribute it...

Things could always be "much better".  FreeBSD has done a great job in
creating a system that meets the base needs of a majority of its users,
while being customizable enough to meet most (if not all) of the needs of
those users who want things done a little differently.  In some cases,
this requires a little bit of work.  If your biggest gripe about the OS is
that it doesn't install color-ls and daemon wallpaper for X by default, I
think we're on the right track.

SB





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