Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 04:57:04 +0200 (EET) From: Narvi <narvi@haldjas.folklore.ee> To: "Scott I. Remick" <scott@sremick.net> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Daemon's Advocate article Message-ID: <20040303042324.P79809@haldjas.folklore.ee> In-Reply-To: <20040301194121.97837.qmail@web41108.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20040301194121.97837.qmail@web41108.mail.yahoo.com>
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On Mon, 1 Mar 2004, Scott I. Remick wrote: > --- Johnson David <DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> wrote: > > I'm a desktop user. I have noticed more than once some active disdain > > towards the desktop by FreeBSD developers. Why is this? Did I miss the > > sign out front saying "servers only"? You don't have to be a > > dumb-downed system like Lindows to be suitable for the desktop. > > I have to concur. For some reason, there seems to be a common attitude that > if you use FreeBSD to any extent, you must be a C++ programmer with the > ability to write drivers and patch applications. While I fully respect the > fact that this is a volunteer effort, the above can come off as rather harsh > and deterring for a new user. We FreeBSD users often scold the Linux > community for their attitude problems... why must we replace one bad > attitude with another in our own community? > The attitude towards "FreeBSD on desktop" used to be *REALLY* bad. Up to and including core(*1) members saying that FreeBSD on desktop was pointless and servers are the only direction. Its reasonable now even if not exactly embracing. Which is a pity - peopel don't seem to draw a connection between developers choice of desktops to servers getting installed. > The people who volunteer their free time for the good of the FreeBSD > community can do a lot of things in their sleep which are beyond the > abilities of the common desktop user. Perhaps some have some free time, yes, but... I'd rather not be at a sever disadvantage because I use freebsd on desktop instead of using linux. > perhaps others find a request simple enough that they can balance their time > to handle something that would help someone else. But to make a polite > request and get back "Why don't you port it yourself if you want it?" or > "patch/driver submissions welcome" conveys an impression that FreeBSD is for > developers only... if you can't code, your input isn't desired. > > I know it's all volunteer, and I volunteer my time and efforts in the ways I > can despite not being a C++ coder. Nor have I graduated to the point where I > can port applications (although I will be willing to attempt it once I can > have an additional test PC environment where I can risk experimenting with > apps not in the ports tree). But I field a lot of new-user questions, have > gotten several people up and going who turn to me first with questions, I > run an advocacy/news/help site, and so on. We all help as we can. > > I'm sorry to see Greg leave. I own his book and found it very useful. > Definitely - I have seen him do tons of very important stuff, I hope he does stay around. (*1) This is the old-old, unlected core i'm talking about
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