From owner-freebsd-current Sat Sep 14 12:32:28 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 21C0537B400 for ; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 12:32:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from beppo.feral.com (beppo.feral.com [192.67.166.79]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 463DA43E6E for ; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 12:32:25 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mjacob@feral.com) Received: from mailhost.feral.com (mjacob@mailhost.feral.com [192.67.166.1]) by beppo.feral.com (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id g8EJWOv57008 for ; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 12:32:24 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mjacob@feral.com) Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 12:32:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Jacob X-Sender: mjacob@beppo Reply-To: mjacob@feral.com To: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD 5.0 as a desktop 'failure' report In-Reply-To: <200209141903.g8EJ3Pua052916@apollo.backplane.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > :The first install failed because the BIOS and FreeBSD couldn't agree on > :disk geometry. Then I laid the disk out with inadequate space in /usr > :partition- my 'pilot' error really. > > Did you try the auto option in sysinstall to create the filesystem > layout? Are the defaults sufficient or do we need to bump them up? No, I didn't do autolayout. But the important may be that my 'experience' from RELENG_4 didn't have me make a big enough /usr. > > I think what is most telling about your experience is that "detail > matters". All it takes is one broken device driver which you happen > to need and, BOOM, that is the end of it. Perhaps. I rather suspect that any install of a 'real' 5.0 release on a system that is *just* a desktop will probably be fine. But that makes FreeBSD an also-ran comparerd to Linux && and the other *BSDs. For all of the 7000 ports and plethora of device 'support', if FreeBSD is going to get traction to get out of the "experts know how to make it a damned useful system" space, it'll have to excel in all of these wierd little edge case situations. I mean, if FreeBSD doesn't install on 10% of the machines out there w/o some serious PITA fooling around, then it's no better, and maybe a lot worse, than Linux and WinDoze. The fact that maybe 90% of the rest of FreeBSD is far superior than either Linux or WinDoze won't matter. Now *I* run it on my desk top because the VM system doesn't freeze the mouse as I switch between windows the way Linux does. But I have to say that Windows2000 with Putty is just about as useful as a desktop *plus* you don't have to bork around with Vmware (which, btw, has gone on to version 3 which isn't supported under FreeBSD) (Soffice/Koffice just don't cut it). The ability to do *BSD userland work on the same box as my desktop *plus* control 8 testbench machines makes it a winner- barely. -matt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message