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Date:      Sun, 13 May 2001 05:12:18 -0700
From:      "Michael O'Henly" <michael@tenzo.com>
To:        "Doug Young" <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au>, "Kris Kennaway" <kris@obsecurity.org>, "Rahul Siddharthan" <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in>
Cc:        "Kathy Quinlan" <katinka@magestower.com>, "Sue Blake" <sue@welearn.com.au>, "N6REJ" <n6rej@tcsn.net>, <freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG>, <freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: I'm leaving
Message-ID:  <01051305121800.01335@h24-69-46-74.gv.shawcable.net>
In-Reply-To: <003101c0dba1$181a7aa0$0300a8c0@oracle>
References:  <002b01c0db54$e0febaa0$5599ca3f@disappointment> <20010513033434.A54250@xor.obsecurity.org> <003101c0dba1$181a7aa0$0300a8c0@oracle>

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I'm new to FreeBSD myself. I have some experience with Linux but I'm not very 
expert technically so I can understand N6REJ's frustration. However...

I can't think of any question I've posted on freebsd.questions that hasn't 
been answered once it was clear that I've made some initial efforts to figure 
it out myself. A lot of problems that confront newbies seem enormous and 
unmanageable because they haven't yet started the process of chunking them 
down into solveable bits. Making that effort strikes me as being "the price 
of admission".

Rather than putting valuable effort into a "default GUI install", I think 
Doug's suggestion of extending the documentation in this area makes a lot of 
sense. For instance, a gentle overview of cvsup would be really useful. I was 
able to figure it out from the Handbook but only because I'd read an article 
describing the wonder of FreeBSD makefiles. A simple conceptual overview of 
how packages are installed would have helped me a lot.

M.

On Sunday 13 May 2001 04:37, Doug Young wrote:
> I've been thinking of doing something akin to the Pedantic FreeBSD
> style HOWTO
> on X ... some sort of really explict documentation with ALL the
> information needed to get a functional GUI,  however I'd need to start
> from scratch as every FreeBSD system I've had anything to do with has
> been straight command line. From questions I've been seeing in the
> questions list, it appears that hardware support is the main issue
> that creates the bulk of the problems. Who would be the best to advise
> on some readily available & reasonably priced videocards / chipsets
> that ALWAYS work without problems ?? eg I've generally stuck with AGP
> versions of those 8Mb ATI Rage Pro things for both W2K & Solaris
> systems because I've never had a hint of trouble getting things to
> work / they give 16 bit 1024x768 easily they are affordable in OZ ....
> maybe they aren't the best for XFree but surely someone must know a
> couple of videocards that suit. (and please everyone don't say Matrox
> because the price in OZ is extortionate !!)
>
> > Would it be a good idea to have a "default GUI install" as one of
>
> the
>
> > install options, which sets up either KDE or GNOME, and a web
>
> browser,
>
> > and desktop icons for the HTML-ised version of the FreeBSD handbook?
>
> Jordan and others have tried many times to get people to submit good,
> newbie-friendly "default GUI environments", with close to zero
> community response.  Yes, it would be a good idea, SOMEONE PLEASE DO
> THE WORK! :-)
>
>
>
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-- 
Michael O'Henly

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