Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2012 20:57:42 -0400 From: Alex Goncharov <alex-goncharov@comcast.net> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why Are You NOT Using FreeBSD ? Message-ID: <E1Sacf0-0008vg-Qb@wotan.home2> In-Reply-To: <201206020012.q520CEcf057568@hugeraid.jetcafe.org> (message from Dave Hayes on Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:12:14 -0700) References: <CAOgwaMvsv3e1TxDauV038Pp7LRiYeH7oAODE%2Bw-pxHt9oGrXMA@mail.gmail.com> <201206020012.q520CEcf057568@hugeraid.jetcafe.org>
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,--- Dave Hayes (Fri, 01 Jun 2012 17:12:14 -0700) ----* | 2) I don't use FreeBSD for a 'modern' desktop. By 'modern' I mean | areas which most rank and file users would need: day-to-day non | technical browsing with flash, applications like skype, syncing to | mobile devices, etc. First, two statements and one statement/question: S1. Flash works pretty well -- sometimes almost perfectly -- in FreeBSD: in Firefox, Opera or Chrome. Some software upgrades (the plugin in ports or base, I haven't figured out) lead to periodic hangs on (I think) plugin disconnects, so the plugin processes better to be cleaned up by 'kill' periodically. A nuisance but can be lived with, if FreeBSD seems a better option in other respects (which it does for me.) I visit scores of very "flashy" Web sites every day and am, on the balance, happy with what I get with either of the mentioned browsers in FreeBSD there. S2. I tried Skype in FreeBSD 9 a few months back and, IIRC, all there worked: at least I was able to use Skype for instant messaging. S3? Syncing to Ip*d and BB PlayBook is something I would really like to do in FreeBSD and I haven't figured out if that is possible. I played with "fuse", "gtkpod" and other things that work in Linux. No luck for me. So does anybody know if this is possible somehow? (After all, one can see these devices as SCSI "something". Is "fuse" of any good for this?) | I'd imagine this is important for rank and file users. However, I'm an | old schooler who likes text based applications and command lines, and I | personally feel that a lot of the desktop technologies out there (Gnome, | KDE, Aqua, Windows) are inherently unsafe (security wise) for a desktop | I do software development on. One glance at my X-mailer should tell many | people where I'm at. ;) You don't have to use anything of Gnome or KDE in order to use the technologies mentioned in my S1 and S2 -- I use TWM, for example. | Thus, in many ways I feel it's a *feature* of FreeBSD that the desktop | software lags behind everyone else. I don't want flash in my Firefox. I | don't want hal, bonjour, or dbus as an extra attack surface. I don't | want gnome to auto discover all the fileshares on my network(s). I don't run 'hal'; 'dbus' may be harder to avoid. It would be really nice to be able to talk to Apple and BB mobile devices from FreeBSD -- and that is my only current grievance about FreeBSD as a desktop environment. Everything else is shining brilliant for me. Thanks all who made it so! -- Alex -- alex-goncharov@comcast.net --
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