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Date:      Tue, 1 Apr 2014 12:11:19 +0500
From:      Jordan Hubbard <jkh@mail.turbofuzz.com>
To:        Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com>
Cc:        freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org, hackers@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Leaving the Desktop Market
Message-ID:  <A70900DF-4BAA-427F-8731-01211FFD1887@mail.turbofuzz.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAF6rxgkeBozvfV-L0%2BrFZ6fWRn0=Gi3BNq1kPL=-HTq0TD6MkQ@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <CAF6rxgkeBozvfV-L0%2BrFZ6fWRn0=Gi3BNq1kPL=-HTq0TD6MkQ@mail.gmail.com>

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On Apr 1, 2014, at 10:46 AM, Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> wrote:

> That is why on this date I propose that we cease competing on the
> desktop market.  FreeBSD should declare 2014 to be "year of the Linux
> desktop" and start to rip out the pieces of the OS not needed for
> server or embedded use.
>=20
> Some of you may point to PCBSD and say that we have a chance, but I
> must ask you: how does one flavor stand up to the thousands in the
> Linux world?

The fact that this posting comes out on April 1st makes me wonder if =
it=92s just an elaborate April Fool=92s joke, but then the notion of =
*BSD (or Linux, for that matter) on the Desktop is just another =
long-running April fool=92s joke, so I=92m willing to postulate that two =
April Fools jokes would simply cancel each other out and make this =
posting a serious one again. :-)

I=92ll choose to be serious and say what I=92m about to say in spite of =
the fact that I work for the primary sponsor of PC-BSD and actually like =
the fact that it has created some interesting technologies like PBIs, =
the Jail Warden, Life-preserver and a ZFS boot environment menu.

There is no such thing as a desktop market for *BSD or Linux.  There =
never has been and there never will be.   Why do you think we chose =93the=
 power to serve=94 as FreeBSD=92s first marketing slogan?  It makes a =
fine server OS and it=92s easy to defend its role in the server room.  =
It=92s also becoming easier to defend its role as an embedded OS, which =
is another excellent niche to pursue and I am happy to see all the =
recent developments there.

A desktop?  Unless you consider Mac OS X to be =93BSD on the desktop=94 =
(and while they share some common technologies, it=92s increasingly a =
stretch to say that), it=92s just never going to happen for (at least) =
the following reasons:

1. Power.  As you point out, being truly power efficient is a complete =
top-to-bottom engineering effort and it takes a lot more than just =
trying to idle the processor whenever possible to achieve that.  You =
need to optimize all of the hot-spot routines in the system for power =
efficiency (which actually involves a fair amount of micro architecture =
knowledge), you need a kernel scheduler that is power management aware, =
you need a process management system that runs as few things as possible =
and knows how to schedule things during package wake-up intervals, you =
need timers to be coalesced at the level where applications consume =
them, the list just goes on and on.  It=92s a lot of engineering work, =
and to drive that work you also need a lot of telemetry data and people =
with big sticks running around hitting people who write =
power-inefficient code.  FreeBSD has neither.

2. Multimedia.  A real end-user=92s desktop is basically one big UI for =
watching things, listening to things, and running apps.  A decent audio =
/ video subsystem is just one part of the picture, and one that has =
always been really weak - entire engineering teams can spend years =
working on codecs, performance optimizations, low and guaranteed latency =
support for audio I/O, etc.  What=92s worse, the bar is only being =
raised.  You want to be part of the next wave of folks who can author =
and edit content for the new 4K video standard?  Not on FreeBSD or =
Linux, you=92re not.

3. Applications.  A desktop without real and useful applications is not =
a desktop, it=92s just an empty display surface.  Sure, there are users =
out there who are happy with just a mail client, a web browser and maybe =
a calendaring app, but those users are also arguably even better =
candidates for Chrome or other simplified environments where all of that =
simply happens in a fancy web browser and you get things like =93software =
updates=94 and cloud integration essentially for free since it=92s all =
just one cohesive picture there.  The ability to solve those user=92s =
needs very simply makes them ripe targets for the web application =
delivery platforms.

For the other folks who want to do fancier stuff like mix audio, edit =
videos or even just play mainstream 3D games that were actually =
published sometime in the last year, they=92ll use a real desktop OS and =
won't even bother looking at one of the free ones because guess what, =
the free ones just can=92t do those things, or do them badly enough that =
their users feel like they=92re perpetually living in a kind of =
self-selected ghetto.  Metaphorically speaking, sleeping on the floor in =
a sleeping bag in your one-room apartment is fine when you=92re young, =
but as you get older, you want to be more comfortable and have a real =
bed in a real house!

Those are just three reasons.  There are lots more, not least of which =
among them is the fact that it=92s damn hard even just to *create* =
significant applications with the weak-ass APIs that *BSD and Linux =
provide.  You have to stitch together some Frankenstein collection of =
libraries out of ports (or linux packages) and then hope the whole pile =
of multi-=93vendor" bits will sort of work together, which of course =
they rarely do because they were written by several hundred different =
people with no mandate to interoperate.

April fool=92s joke?  Yes, the desktop has always been one in the OSS =
space.  It=92s a lousy OSS problem to try and solve because all the =
hardest parts are things nobody wants to do for free, and there=92s no =
money to be made just providing the OS (even Ubuntu, the current leader, =
seems to have =93pledge drives=94 every other week).

- Jordan




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