From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 6 18:19:01 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A930216A4DF for ; Wed, 6 Sep 2006 18:19:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freminlins@gmail.com) Received: from wr-out-0506.google.com (wr-out-0506.google.com [64.233.184.235]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 462A743D45 for ; Wed, 6 Sep 2006 18:19:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freminlins@gmail.com) Received: by wr-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id i21so961453wra for ; Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:18:59 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; b=k3PQ86BMe8+zTqZ76mVfGzVCq8m1pKD0XkT+uISFdNluPKSAHJ173BBLluUNYzGDbNBHsec3IAuowIgE5PZ1I7ug9YlOnch8UeCN0/a2YDx2tFuLZQVb4M1Gu14v+T1XDWbvvyWLjLC8YevoJZwy/KhYrTqlxohMNESDyUznPRc= Received: by 10.90.120.6 with SMTP id s6mr2390813agc; Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:18:59 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.90.93.12 with HTTP; Wed, 6 Sep 2006 11:18:58 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 19:18:58 +0100 From: Freminlins To: "White Hat" In-Reply-To: <20060906155419.95441.qmail@web34402.mail.mud.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20060906155419.95441.qmail@web34402.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: FreeBSD Users Questions Subject: Re: solaris 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: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 18:19:01 -0000 On 06/09/06, White Hat wrote: > > > Immaterial. the singularly most important feature is > suitability to task. If it is free and it does not > work, what good is it? It depends what you are using it for. You made a comment about "occaisonal word processing" (pasted below). For such use OpenOffice is perfectly good enough. > Yes, the lack of documentation is a shame. In Windows, yes. In FreeBSD I can't see a lack. > The same lack of documentation > plagues every facet of software today. No it doesn't. FreeBSD is well documented. However, you have made my point. No I haven't. I have contradicted your point. You said " A very large majority of users simply want to use their PCs for email, occasional word processing and possible game playing." I am saying that using XP as you suggested is not as easy as you suggest for a very large number of people. If a user cannot > decipher how to configure a simple thing like Outlook > Express, and there are programs available that will do > it for them, then how are they suppose to be capable > of handling a CLI OS like FreeBSD? It boggles the mind > -- at least mine. Worse, the configuration of OE is > handled by a wizard. It is truly sad when a user > cannot configure something when it is simplified down > to that level. It's not so much the wizards, but third party applications like virus scanners which change those settings which is a part of the problem. But you are not quite comparing apples with apples. Configuring Thunderbird on FreeBSD is near enough identical to doing the same on Windows. I wouldn't however expect a complete computer novice to be able to set up a FreeBSD box without some help. How? Drop in two CDs or download the programs, run > them and case closed. Neither one requires any > significant configuration. The defaults work just fine > for most users. You could eliminate the Counter Spy > since ZA has its own proprietary SpyWare program, but > I just happen to prefer Counter Spy. Your statement is simply wrong. AV and anti-spyware DO require configuration. And they do require installing, and maybe downloading, and being kept up to date. The defaults certainly don't work all the time in all cases. Have a look here: " http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/06/faulty_ca_update/". I have heard of broken installations for Norton numerous times. And trying to help these customers is time-consuming for our techies. Frem.