From owner-freebsd-stable Wed Jul 25 20:44:45 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from guru.mired.org (okc-27-141-144.mmcable.com [24.27.141.144]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E6CF937B401 for ; Wed, 25 Jul 2001 20:44:41 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mwm@mired.org) Received: (qmail 88661 invoked by uid 100); 26 Jul 2001 03:44:40 -0000 From: Mike Meyer MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <15199.37416.171318.69242@guru.mired.org> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 22:44:40 -0500 To: j mckitrick Cc: Lamont Granquist , Mit Rowe , Sung Nae Cho , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD needs to awake and come out of SERVER only market! In-Reply-To: <20010726014626.A5169@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> References: <20010725144457.T59081-100000@coredump.scriptkiddie.org> <20010726014626.A5169@dogma.freebsd-uk.eu.org> X-Mailer: VM 6.90 under 21.1 (patch 14) "Cuyahoga Valley" XEmacs Lucid X-face: "5Mnwy%?j>IIV\)A=):rjWL~NB2aH[}Yq8Z=u~vJ`"(,&SiLvbbz2W`;h9L,Yg`+vb1>RG% *h+%X^n0EZd>TM8_IB;a8F?(Fb"lw'IgCoyM.[Lg#r\ Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG j mckitrick types: > On Wed, Jul 25, 2001 at 02:48:15PM -0700, Lamont Granquist wrote: > | On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Mit Rowe wrote: > | > I wouldn't use FreeBSD for a desktop if my life depended on it. > | I've been using FreeBSD as desktops, both at home and on my work laptop, > I've been running it on my laptop since 3.2. I started with Linux and > Win95, then dropped Linux for 3.2, then dropped Windows. No complaints, no > regrets. My first FreeBSD desktop system was 3.0, installed on the day it was released. I've had fewer problems with it than I do with either Windows or the Mac, which some of my clients have insisted I use. > | (Of course, I don't make heavy use of office apps -- I tend to use irc, > | mozilla and vi+gcc mostly) > I use Applix Office, ghostview, Licq, Xemacs, Netscrape, and others.... I don't use icq, and replaced Netscape with Mozilla and shortly after replaced that with Skipstone, all of which are in the ports. Applix Office is almost always running, and you can read my review of it at . Xemacs and jpilot are the other tools in the "constant use" category. The next tier down includes ghostview, acroread, the gimp and xsane. Photopc has been dropped since I picked up a USB smartmedia reader. The bottom line is that -stable makes a very usable desktop if you aren't a nerd about it. You don't get access to the latest and greatest desktop hardware, because the manufacturers release it with Windows drivers instead of FreeBSD drivers. On the other hand, you get a system that can be changed to behave the way you want it to, and isn't limited to the fixed set from the platform vendors. In my mind, that makes it a far friendlier desktop than the commercial versions. http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message