From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 29 19:54:53 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx2.freebsd.org (mx2.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::35]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE5581065677 for ; Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:54:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dougb@FreeBSD.org) Received: from 65-241-43-5.globalsuite.net (hub.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::36]) by mx2.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E281158CC3; Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:54:53 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <4D92390C.4080609@FreeBSD.org> Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:54:52 -0700 From: Doug Barton Organization: http://SupersetSolutions.com/ User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD amd64; en-US; rv:1.9.2.15) Gecko/20110319 Thunderbird/3.1.9 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Paul Schmehl References: <20110329013223.ddca7453.jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com> <1301419646.71335.123.camel@xenon> <1301422804.71335.143.camel@xenon> <55976D748BCC94E34839C2A6@utd71538.local> In-Reply-To: <55976D748BCC94E34839C2A6@utd71538.local> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.1.2 OpenPGP: id=1A1ABC84 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Jason Hsu , Matthew Fleming , Michal Varga Subject: Re: Best way to switch from Linux to BSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:54:53 -0000 On 03/29/2011 12:32, Paul Schmehl wrote: > That's how silly your argument is. You can't do it, because FreeBSD > does not have a system-installed desktop. Even Xorg is a port. It is in linux too, it's just that the various distros who focus on the desktop have bundled it into the default installation so when you install $distro you get a complete desktop environment from the beginning. If you look under the hood, you can see the individual packages that make up the "desktop." For those arguing that FreeBSD is a great desktop OS, I would encourage you to spend some time using some of the linux versions mentioned in this thread. Or if you want to be really blown away just start with Ubuntu. For some of you, the first reaction will be "this is not what I'm used to!" but I encourage you to try and get past that, and look at things from the "average user's" point of view. Most computer users don't want to spend time fiddling with their OS, the just want to do their thing (web, mail, documents and spreadsheets being the vast majority of "things" they want to do). For those purposes a distro like Ubuntu completely blows FreeBSD out of the water in terms of coming out of the box in a fully functional state, and in terms of ease of use for maintenance, updates, etc. there is no comparison. All that said, I personally have been using a FreeBSD desktop in a multi-boot environment for over 15 years, the last 10 have been primarily on -current. But I *like* to fiddle with stuff, fix/report bugs, etc. If you want to learn the OS, it's a great way to go. But that's why I asked Jason what his goals were in my first message. If your goal is simply to have a desktop environment that's easy to use, FreeBSD is not it. We need to be honest with ourselves about that if we're ever going to make progress on it. Doug PS, it would be really helpful if people could tone down the language a bit, and the vitriol a lot. Thanks. -- Nothin' ever doesn't change, but nothin' changes much. -- OK Go Breadth of IT experience, and depth of knowledge in the DNS. Yours for the right price. :) http://SupersetSolutions.com/