From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Sep 2 18:04:55 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32EF216A419 for ; Sun, 2 Sep 2007 18:04:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers2.e313df@mired.org) Received: from mired.org (vpn.mired.org [66.92.153.74]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E6DAA13C461 for ; Sun, 2 Sep 2007 18:04:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mwm-keyword-freebsdhackers2.e313df@mired.org) Received: (qmail 54490 invoked by uid 1001); 2 Sep 2007 18:03:45 -0000 Received: from bhuda.mired.org (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by bhuda.mired.org (tmda-ofmipd) with ESMTP; Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:03:44 -0400 Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2007 14:03:44 -0400 To: soralx@cydem.org Message-ID: <20070902140344.263cd4e0@bhuda.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <20070902034912.4b3b7af8@soralx> References: <46D7186D.8030508@gahr.ch> <200708302124.48899.max@love2party.net> <46D71A16.6020005@gahr.ch> <20070901.214507.-345493889.imp@bsdimp.com> <20070902034912.4b3b7af8@soralx> Organization: Meyer Consulting X-Mailer: Claws Mail 2.9.1 (GTK+ 2.10.12; amd64-portbld-freebsd6.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Delivery-Agent: TMDA/1.1.11 (Ladyburn) From: Mike Meyer Cc: max@love2party.net, gahr@gahr.ch, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: what happened to make world? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:04:55 -0000 On Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:49:12 -0700 soralx@cydem.org wrote: > Not every FreeBSD user is [still] a "computer enthusiast". It just so > happens that the OS at the time is the best one for many, many different > uses, such as: server, router, research workstation, 'desktop', etc. > It is basically an excellent universal tool for many > (computer_science|IT)-unrelated tasks, e.g. machine in a physics lab. For me, FreeBSD is the best platform for developers and senior support personnel to build custom solutions to those problems on. It provides a basic platform on which you can build things with minimal effort. Developers love this. > You see, it'd make me really sad to see FBSD go in the direction of > Linux one day, and be geared towards (hackish) developers. You know, I see GNU/Linux (as RMS notes, most of the userland utilities are from GNU, and they, not Linus, deserve the credit - or in this case the blame) as being much more geared towards users than developers when compared to FreeBSD. GNU/Linux distros tend to come prebuilt to solve those problems the way the distributors think they should be solved. If that happens to work for you, great - you win. Users love this. If it doesn't work for you, you have to build your own. Of course, first you have to get the GNU/Linux distro to the point where you can build your own. The prepackaged solutions wind up getting in the way all along the path. Developers hate this. FreeBSD, on the other hand, doesn't have those solutions preinstalled - you have to at least navigate the packages or ports system. Users hate this. I won't go into the differences between the packages software for FreeBSD vs. RHE, I'll just note that software installed by RHE has a habit of not working the way I need it to, and getting it to do the right thing almost always involves something disgusting, obscene or both. http://www.mired.org/consulting.html Independent Network/Unix/Perforce consultant, email for more information.