From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 11 19:39:23 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D408116A403 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:39:23 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (smtpout.mac.com [17.250.248.176]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0E25243D55 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:39:23 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from mac.com (smtpin02-en2 [10.13.10.147]) by smtpout.mac.com (Xserve/8.12.11/smtpout06/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id k8BJdM4A013457; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:39:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [17.214.13.96] (a17-214-13-96.apple.com [17.214.13.96]) (authenticated bits=0) by mac.com (Xserve/smtpin02/MantshX 4.0) with ESMTP id k8BJdKNO000228; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:39:21 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <8a0028260609111215y6c3cdd82tda51f1e1d333ddd3@mail.gmail.com> References: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400> <8a0028260609111215y6c3cdd82tda51f1e1d333ddd3@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v752.2) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: <9B73D1B3-5D50-4E56-A62B-70A3A07E6B34@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: Chuck Swiger Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:39:19 -0700 To: Jeff Rollin X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.752.2) X-Brightmail-Tracker: AAAAAQAAA+k= X-Language-Identified: TRUE Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie Experience X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:39:23 -0000 On Sep 11, 2006, at 12:15 PM, Jeff Rollin wrote: > Discussions like these leave me lost for words... Perhaps, although it seems you recovered quickly. :-) > Which is to say, apart from the occasional bug I really don't see > what the > problem is with sysinstall. Credits: It's highly functional. It can configure a lot of things about a FreeBSD system, either during or after the installation of the system. It's CLI/remote-serial-console friendly. Debits: It's oriented towards technical people. People who don't understand computers well in general, and the details of disk layouts in particular, tend to get hopelessly confused. Not only do they usually not know how to access the help inside sysinstall, many times the help text is not available, or is not comprehensible unless you have the already-mentioned technical background. Fortunately, the outstanding docs available for FreeBSD do a lot to walk people through the process, even novices. Unfortunately, people want to use computers without having to read the docs. Just ask your mom/grandparents/etc. :-) > To me it's the best thing this side of YaST for > getting (certain areas of) system administration done. (Yeah, I > know a lot > of you probably hate YaST in particular or Linux in general... Why would you think that? I'd imagine that most of the people using FreeBSD end up having a Linux box or two around for one reason or another. As for YaST, well, whatever gets the job done. It reminds me a bit too much of SMIT from AIX, or perhaps cPanel or Webmin, but other people seem to prefer such interfaces to a CLI prompt. -- -Chuck