Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 07:46:16 -0700 From: <dteske@FreeBSD.org> To: "'Eitan Adler'" <lists@eitanadler.com>, <hackers@freebsd.org>, <current@freebsd.org>, <freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org> Cc: dteske@FreeBSD.org Subject: RE: Leaving the Desktop Market Message-ID: <082a01cf4db9$240d3e90$6c27bbb0$@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <CAF6rxgkeBozvfV-L0%2BrFZ6fWRn0=Gi3BNq1kPL=-HTq0TD6MkQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAF6rxgkeBozvfV-L0%2BrFZ6fWRn0=Gi3BNq1kPL=-HTq0TD6MkQ@mail.gmail.com>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: Eitan Adler [mailto:lists@eitanadler.com] > Sent: Monday, March 31, 2014 10:47 PM > To: hackers@freebsd.org; current@freebsd.org; freebsd- > advocacy@freebsd.org > Subject: Leaving the Desktop Market >=20 > Hi all, >=20 > 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. >=20 > The following are issues I haven't brought up in the past: >=20 > Battery life sucks: it=E2=80=99s almost as if powerd wasn't running. Wi= ndows 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=E2=80=99s that we focus s= o 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? >=20 > 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 star= ing at > an HDA pin configuration. I'll bet you couldn't even get sound streaming= to > other machines working if you tried. >=20 > FreeBSD lacks vendor credibility: CUDA is unsupported. Dropbox hasn't > released a client for FreeBSD. Nvidia Optimus doesn't function on FreeBS= D. > Can you imagine telling someone to purchase a laptop with the caveat: "but > you won't be able to use your graphics card"? >=20 > In any case, half of our desktop support is emulation: flash and opera on= ly > works because of the linuxulator. There really isn't any reason for vend= ors to > bother supporting FreeBSD if we are just going to ape Linux anyways. >=20 > 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 u= se. >=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? >=20 Eitan, While I understand your frustration, VICOR is using FreeBSD as a Desktop si= nce FreeBSD 2.2. We don't use sound and we are fine relying on vesa. While I understand that the things you listed are actual short-comings for = normal Desktop users, I think it's the wrong decision to say that we should be ba= cking out *any* functionality that would make the Desktop any more difficult to produce. As it stands, it would take me weeks just to count the number of workstatio= ns that are running a GUI, rely on one of the existing video drivers (nv, rade= on, mach64, etc.) and use lots of Desktop ports. --=20 Devin _____________ The information contained in this message is proprietary and/or confidentia= l. If you are not the intended recipient, please: (i) delete the message an= d all copies; (ii) do not disclose, distribute or use the message in any ma= nner; and (iii) notify the sender immediately. In addition, please be aware= that any message addressed to our domain is subject to archiving and revie= w by persons other than the intended recipient. Thank you.
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