Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 01:49:11 -0700 From: Joshua Tinnin <krinklyfig@spymac.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Our package system: "Fundamentally Flawed" - A Linux User. Message-ID: <200407190149.11625.krinklyfig@spymac.com> In-Reply-To: <20040719002221.21b6b9a3@maya.liquidx.org> References: <20040719002221.21b6b9a3@maya.liquidx.org>
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On Sunday 18 July 2004 11:22 pm, Travis Poppe <tlp@LiquidX.org> wrote: The other posts have already addressed some of your concerns, but ... > Many would also agree that building massive amounts of software from source > is NOT efficient for a desktop user and binary packages are a more suitable > alternative. Well, FWIU, building from source is also the preferred method, as it creates a much better system overall, rather than just installing binaries which have been built on someone else's system. This allows every install to be specifically built for the system on which it's installed. Not only that, but the code in STABLE changes regularly, so it's better to build from the version of the kernel you have and with your own make options. Also, FreeBSD isn't really a desktop OS. I'm not sure if you're being precise with that word, but, although it works very well as a workstation, it's not designed for what many home users do with their desktop systems. You can use big window managers like KDE and Gnome, but it's not necessarily designed for entertainment. There isn't a lot of concentration on multimedia. There is much concentration on stability and making everything work together, including what's in the ports. The idea is that it's a complete package, not a kernel in various distributions which add whatever they want (although anyone is free to make their own version, as in Linux, but the licensing is less restrictive). As you probably know, it's mainly considered a server OS, but it's become popular as a workstation for many people as well, myself included. I have FreeBSD, Slackware and Win2k on this machine so I can use the same computer for different purposes, but when I finally get around to starting up my own mailserver and webserver, I'll put them on FreeBSD boxes, and I'll add a box with OpenBSD to be used as a dedicated firewall. However, I'd never consider using OpenBSD as a desktop OS, and it isn't suitable for my workstation purposes due to its lag in hardware support. Each tool has its purpose, and the right tool for the right purpose works better than trying to use the same tool for everything. - jt
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