Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 03:46:04 +0200 From: "Roger 'Rocky' Vetterberg" <listsub@rambo.simx.org> To: Peter Leftwich <Hostmaster@Video2Video.Com> Cc: FreeBSD LIST <FreeBSD-Questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Peter heads back to M$FT WinBloze Message-ID: <3D41FB5C.7060204@rambo.simx.org> References: <20020726195011.N18019-100000@earl-grey.cloud9.net>
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Peter Leftwich wrote: > Dear List, I've been reading some compelling posts lately about people > giving up on FreeBSD, and may soon -- sadly -- join their ranks! > > (There was the guy who posted about FreeBSD being great for servers > (surely) but falling short in the desktop/workstation/laptop AND > ease-of-use category. Now there's the thread about Dan wanting his xp > back. I can relate!) > > I gave up on Win98 SR1 (1 38gb partition on a 40gb HD) back in Feb 2002 > when I installed a Firewire card and Windows got super flakey on me. > Didn't like me for that move. I'd often abuse IE (browser) for hours until > it brought the stupid 16bit DOS-based OS down with it. Well, after > deciding "that's it" and some PartitionMagic four-ways, I blew the dust off > my FreeBSD 4.3 CDROMs and installed them by the seat of my pants, but could > never get XFree86 3.3.6 working - blank screen! > > Well at some point recently I ran `boot0cfg /dev/ad0s2` which wiped my MBR > completely (I just wanted to boot straight into FreeBSD but still keep the > DOS slice around as mountable). So now I'm on an old 8.4gb HD that I > booted to absolutely $FREE$ :) floppies and put 4.6 onto, however, XFree86 > 4.2.0 now suddenly works as does KDE and a very "krashy" Konqueror browser (sigh). > > Realizing that plugins are impossible (Flash), and the hassle of getting > sound players working and my Canon scanner and webcam and PDF readers and > *.DOC readers, I think I may be out of the FreeBSD workstation game. > > Finally going from UNIX user (since 1992) to sysadmin was a terrific > learning experience, but a "learning XP" seems more attractive for now > especially as XP is built on (sort of) NT and is 32bit and uses protected > memory ... until FreeBSD is 34,523,455% more of an OUT-OF-THE-BOX-GUI OS. :( > > Comments? Admonitions? Saving graces? > > -- > Peter Leftwich > President & Founder > Video2Video Services > Box 13692, La Jolla, CA, 92039 USA > +1-413-403-9555 > > I have used FreeBSD since 2.2.x on all my servers, and over the years I have made several attempts to take the leap and convert my workstation to BSD. Still, as you might notice, this mail is sent from a win2k machine. I love FreeBSD. I think its one of the finest pieces of software available today, commercial or not. After more then 5 years of daily usage I still enjoy tweaking and tuning FreeBSD and watch it do what it do best; serve. As a workstation on the other hand, it doesnt quite cut it. My win2k workstation does exactly what I want it to do. I have shortcuts and hotkeys for everything, and when I use it Im fast and effecient. I dont enjoy working with it in the same way I enjoy using FreeBSD, but it gets the job done the way I want it. When using FreeBSD as a workstation, I never get that feeling that Im getting things done as fast as its possible. Few programs use hotkeys, almost none support user defined hotkeys, such as just pressing Ctrl+I to read incoming ICQ messages, Ctrl+M to compose a new email using your favourite mail client or Ctrl+W to play your favorite mp3 playlist. I rarely find GUI Unix applications that Im completely satisfied with, they often have some small issues that annoys me or doesnt work exactly the way I want. I dont know if this is just because Im too used to the windows programs that Ive used for years or if its due to lacking quality of the GUI Unix apps, but I just dont feel good about it. When using a window manager I still find that the first thing I do is open up a terminal and do all my work in a cli environment, since thats by far the fastest and most effecient way to use a FreeBSD based machine. On the other hand, when using a Windows machine I often fire up a SSH client and do most of my work logged in to one of my BSD machines, so I guess thats just the way I do things. While I dislike most Unix GUI apps, I love the cli ones. As of now, all my servers are FreeBSD, and both my workstations and my laptop dualboots win2k and FreeBSD, usually booting win2k, and it will probably stay that way for quite some time. After all, as is often pointed out on this list, use what feels right for you! -- R To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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