Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 11:36:42 -0500 From: "Scott I. Remick" <scott@sremick.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: NEWBIE QUESTION Message-ID: <16p0yvvlg72zd$.e6d4q13wmxay.dlg@40tude.net> References: <BAY7-F97TkbdWufckXc00025955@hotmail.com>
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On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 15:47:08 +0000, Donald Turnbull wrote: > I'm a newbie to your OS, Does Free BSD have the KDE and Gnome GUI already > installed? "Already" installed? No. A large number people want to run FreeBSD on their servers, and having a GUI on a server isn't usually a good or desired thing. Another large number of people want a GUI but don't want KDE or Gnome, so forcing this onto them would also be a disservice. FreeBSD is partially about choice. The same as it promotes OS choice in a world dominated by Windows, it also allows and encourages choice in its components, notably the "window manager" or (in the case of Gnome and KDE) the "desktop environment". Or the use of one altogether, as in the case for servers. HOWEVER... it is insanely easy to install, with one command, via ports. The ports tree is your friend, and perhaps one of FreeBSD's most notable advantages over all other OSes. There are over 10,000 items in the ports tree that are no more than a "make clean install" away. You can take a vanilla FreeBSD install, install Gnome and have it install all it's bazillion dependencies (and XFree86 and all ITS dependencies) all in one swoop with a single command. > Do you have plans in making the installation more user friendly > in the future? It really isn't all that bad now. I'm guessing you'd prefer a GUI installer, but there are a number of reasons this would Bad Idea and make more people unhappy than the current system (again, take the case of servers, or the ability of the current installer to work on pretty much anything). The biggest problem people have with the FreeBSD installer is that it is different than what they're used to. Don't condemn it because you haven't learned the (valid) reasons for its differences, and how to make use of it. I've spent most my computing life with Windows, but I can blow through a FreeBSD install within 3-5 mins. Do THAT with Windows. ;-) Welcome to FreeBSD... hope your stay is a long one!
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