From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 1 22:40:25 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2D250813 for ; Tue, 1 Apr 2014 22:40:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hergotha.csail.mit.edu (wollman-1-pt.tunnel.tserv4.nyc4.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f06:ccb::2]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C2ED4696 for ; Tue, 1 Apr 2014 22:40:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: from hergotha.csail.mit.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by hergotha.csail.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id s31MeIPm073268; Tue, 1 Apr 2014 18:40:18 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu) Received: (from wollman@localhost) by hergotha.csail.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.14.4/Submit) id s31MeIe4073267; Tue, 1 Apr 2014 18:40:18 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from wollman) Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 18:40:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Garrett Wollman Message-Id: <201404012240.s31MeIe4073267@hergotha.csail.mit.edu> To: michael@rancid.berkeley.edu Subject: Re: Leaving the Desktop Market X-Newsgroups: mit.lcs.mail.freebsd-current In-Reply-To: <533B3903.7030307@rancid.berkeley.edu> References: <082a01cf4db9$240d3e90$6c27bbb0$@FreeBSD.org> Organization: none X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (hergotha.csail.mit.edu [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 01 Apr 2014 18:40:19 -0400 (EDT) X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED autolearn=disabled version=3.3.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on hergotha.csail.mit.edu X-Mailman-Approved-At: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:34:10 +0000 Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 22:40:25 -0000 In article <533B3903.7030307@rancid.berkeley.edu>, michael@rancid.berkeley.edu writes: >I have been using FreeBSD on the desktop since 1997, Hmmm. I'm a bit biased here, but I've been using FreeBSD on the desktop since, well, before it was called FreeBSD. It's still my primary platform for nearly everything (except photo management, which drove me to a Mac laptop so I could run Lightroom, and those few remaining Web sites that still bury all their content inside Flash). But let's be clear that different people have different requirements for a "desktop". My requirements are relatively simple: twm, xterm, XEmacs, vlc, LaTeX, xpdf, a Jabber client (psi), $VCS_OF_CHOICE, gnucash, and at least two Web browsers (I use Opera for most stuff and Firefox for "promiscuous-mode browsing"). Once in a while, I even need to run a remote X application over an SSH tunnel. A Web server (Apache) and a mail server with local delivery and spam filtering (sendmail+spamass-milter+crm114) round out the requirements. I do not ever need or even want translucent windows, Zeroconf, 3-D games, or nonlinear video editing. Audio playback only matters to the extent that it's smooth and the settings stick. I write documents and code; my desktop is a productivity tool, not a gaming platform, and it performs that function quite well, thank you very much. Other people have rather different requirements, and that's OK. But let's please not break the applications for which FreeBSD is very good now (and has actually gotten substantially better). -GAWollman