From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 1 12:07:42 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3597A7F2; Tue, 1 Apr 2014 12:07:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mrout3.yahoo.com (mrout3.yahoo.com [216.145.54.173]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 0058D9B4; Tue, 1 Apr 2014 12:07:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [127.0.0.1] (proxy7.corp.yahoo.com [216.145.48.98]) by mrout3.yahoo.com (8.14.4/8.14.4/y.out) with ESMTP id s31BvACX080264 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO); Tue, 1 Apr 2014 04:57:10 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=yahoo-inc.com; s=cobra; t=1396353431; bh=VvBJnwGXg8AwxpSbhED9xA7cXAafgzMQ5wokxoQQvqg=; h=Subject:From:To:Cc:In-Reply-To:References:Date; b=AKIkUPYW/Gyfy7ByQuQWjtAHnjMRsML4B6cmjejsrcvCZGr2X8ybS7jon2H2vv1Jg 3cAl1XXO945TePPgwRypbGLdrD6Cq4mc2U/H0BlAfUtMmJNNqMH+xXtRA5nONLotsS yFn+uA1HjF4Fze4hmVH66ersMyIP6KSxpjTprLgs= Subject: Re: Leaving the Desktop Market From: Sean Bruno To: Eitan Adler In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 04:57:09 -0700 Message-ID: <1396353429.56465.7.camel@powernoodle.corp.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.32.1 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Milter-Version: master.31+4-gbc07cd5+ X-CLX-ID: 353430004 Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org, hackers@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 12:07:42 -0000 On Mon, 2014-03-31 at 22:46 -0700, Eitan Adler wrote: > Hi all, > > Some of you may have seen my posts entitled "Story of a Laptop User" > and "Story of a Desktop User". For those of you who did not, it can > be a worthwhile read to see what life is like when using FreeBSD as a > desktop. In short, it is an educational experience. While FreeBSD > can be coerced to do the right thing, it is rarely there by default > and often doesn't work as well as we would expect. > > The following are issues I haven't brought up in the past: > > Battery life sucks: it’s almost as if powerd wasn't running. Windows > can run for five hours on my laptop while FreeBSD can barely make it > two hours. I wonder what the key differences are? Likely it’s that > we focus so much on performance that no one considers power. ChromeOS > can run for 12 hours on some hardware; why can't we make FreeBSD run > for 16? > > Sound configuration lacks key documentation: how can I automatically > change between headphones and external speakers? You can't even do > that in middle of a song at all! Trust me that you never want to be > staring at an HDA pin configuration. I'll bet you couldn't even get > sound streaming to other machines working if you tried. > > FreeBSD lacks vendor credibility: CUDA is unsupported. Dropbox hasn't > released a client for FreeBSD. Nvidia Optimus doesn't function on > FreeBSD. Can you imagine telling someone to purchase a laptop with > the caveat: "but you won't be able to use your graphics card"? > > In any case, half of our desktop support is emulation: flash and opera > only works because of the linuxulator. There really isn't any reason > for vendors to bother supporting FreeBSD if we are just going to ape > Linux anyways. > > 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. > > 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? > Why even bother? Its over, just embrace the future and be like this happy Mac user: http://people.freebsd.org/~sbruno/happy_desktop_user.jpg sean