From owner-freebsd-advocacy Sat May 8 20:22:34 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from obie.softweyr.com (unknown [204.68.178.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BF2114FAB for ; Sat, 8 May 1999 20:22:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from softweyr.com (homer.softweyr.com [204.68.178.39]) by obie.softweyr.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA17966; Sat, 8 May 1999 21:22:20 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Message-ID: <3734FF6B.6A737C3A@softweyr.com> Date: Sat, 08 May 1999 21:22:19 -0600 From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr LLC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; U; FreeBSD 3.1-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Dru Cc: "Jordan K. Hubbard" , advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: desktop, was linus on BSD References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Dru wrote: > > On Thu, 6 May 1999, Jordan K. Hubbard wrote: > > > > > Do I see people out there who are finally willing to *do the work* of > > making FreeBSD a credible desktop solution or do I simply see the > > usual array of faces wondering when it's going to happen by sheer > > magic? :-) > > Please don't shoot me for my newbie enthusiasm, but I've personally never > encountered negativity regarding FreeBSD's desktop. I've found at the > grassroots level, preferably with those who've never even heard of BSD, if > you show them how to install and configure their systems, Windows and > Linux soon go out the Window (excuse the pun). Windows because BSD does > not crash, need to be rebooted every 15 minutes, and does not eat up > valuable resources to accomplish a simple task. Linux because it is so > hard to secure (nmap is always an eye opener) and the fact that Freebsd > ports are so disgustingly easy to install; no RPMs (I think that's the 3 > letter acronym that causes Linuxites to rip out their hair in handfuls) to > coax into working. > > People who have never had an intimate relationship with an OS soon fall in > love with and speak glowingly about FreeBSD. Once their desktops are > happy, show them the advocacy sites and the bigwigs running FreeBSD, and > they're hooked for life. I think one of the big differentiators between "desktop" users of FreeBSD and Linux is that many FreeBSD users never wanted a damned PC in the first place. FreeBSD makes a pretty crufty PC, but a fine UNIX workstation. For those looking for a workstation, installing XFree86 and {window manager of choice, WindowMaker for me} makes workstation enough, especially so now that one or two competent word processors and at least one usable spreadsheet are available for the typical "productivity" applications. -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message