From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 1 04:53:24 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C0B616A400 for ; Thu, 1 Mar 2007 04:53:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jeffrey@goldmark.org) Received: from out5.smtp.messagingengine.com (out5.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.29]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C436413C461 for ; Thu, 1 Mar 2007 04:53:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jeffrey@goldmark.org) Received: from out1.internal (unknown [10.202.2.149]) by out1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C6F6D1F20C4; Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:53:23 -0500 (EST) Received: from heartbeat1.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.160]) by out1.internal (MEProxy); Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:53:23 -0500 X-Sasl-enc: 3ufiT3OXhQ7vBB+2c5YbQfUUAtO/+g4NEUFFghcqPK6x 1172724803 Received: from [10.1.10.136] (n114.ewd.goldmark.org [72.64.118.114]) by mail.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 50AEB23680; Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:53:23 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: References: Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <0FA190A2-CEF7-4BD1-9E09-239B398363BA@goldmark.org> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Jeffrey Goldberg Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 22:52:31 -0600 To: Dwight Smith X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Future of FreeBSD 7.0 and up X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 04:53:24 -0000 On Feb 28, 2007, at 1:26 PM, Dwight Smith wrote: > I guess my question is that will the ease of building or installing > software for FreeBSD ever streamline to where you do not have to do > as many steps and text config file entries? I've recently moved back to BSD from more than a decade of linux. What I found most frustrating about the Linux distributions I've used is the multiple layers of configuration tools. There never seemed to be a single layer at which I could do everything, and these layers of admin tools would step on other layers. So for me, editing text config files is a great relief. But tastes differ. While it took me a few days to get my head round the system, I find software installation though ports more pleasant on FreeBSD then I ever did with Linux RPMs. So, I can only speak for myself and without much new experience with FreeBSD (I had used NetBSD back in 1996), but I find the software installation and configuration steps easier under FreeBSD. But maybe I and most other FreeBSD users are unusual. I've used apache from back when it was NCSA; so for me the apache configuration file is something I'm comfortable with (though it has changed a great deal over the years). Likewise for a large number of other things I may wish to run. Maybe today's sysadms aren't familiar with all of these sorts of configuration files, and so being presented with configuring them directly is daunting. And so maybe for them higher level administration tools are useful. So these people should start off with cd /usr/ports/sysutils/webmin make install It really isn't hard. > I only ask this question as I would like to see FreeBSD get the > same recognition as Linux as FreeBSD is a powerful OS that should > not be overshadowed. Well, you could talk to some venture capitalists and create a Red Hat equivalent for FreeBSD. I guess it should be called "Red Devil" if that doesn't step on too many trademarks. I don't think that FreeBSD people should be too upset that Linux happens to be the free Unix-like system that is in the limelight. It's just the way things turned out. Cheers, -j