Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 05:31:59 -0600 (CST) From: "Stephen D. Spencer" <lists3@artorius.sunflower.com> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: Huang Min <hmin@public.cq.sc.cn>, FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: So, FreeBSD can't be a very popular OS, why? Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.971028042534.16843A-100000@artorius.sunflower.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.971028142629.13288A-100000@zipper.zip.com.au>
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On Tue, 28 Oct 1997, Sue Blake wrote: > [...] > If you want to do more with your computer, or if you want to really exploit > the quality hardware you have, then you want a full, powerful and > configurable system, like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. The next thing you need is > someone to install it, set it up, and configure it to suit your needs. Then > you'll want that person to come in and maintain it occasionally. All the power and none of the responsiblity :) > [...] > Learning to do it yourself is where the fun, excitement, and tears come in. > Unix was never meant for beginners. It expects you to know what you're doing > and to take full responsibility every step of the way. So you buy books. You > go back and buy more books. > I must protest your second comment! As someone who has worked in the tech-support field (Hey, someone told me that when they made you a sysadmin that you didn't have to take phone calls anymore!) I do not believe in the operating system that was made for beginners. Well, okay, the Atari 800 was fairly simple; however, I find it much easier to walk someone through a command line configuration of a BSD system. Whereas it takes some doing to explain "dragging and dropping" even going so far as to try to illustrate it in a book (hi Dad), it is relatively straight forward to say "type this. now type this and press enter, etc..." Granted, not everyone knows how to type, but most people know their ABCs :) Your last comment is dead on. I believe that the key, in any operating system/computer scenario, that one *must* read. > The books don't help much if you're starting as a real novice. There's a > little gap between "this is how we turn it on" and "setting up <something > complex>" that is not filled. The books expect us to already know some stuff > and to have teachers or peers to turn to. When I sat down at my first *nix server (Tandy 6000 running MS Xenix), I had to RTFM (a big 3-ring FM :) On a more currently traditional system (Linux/BSD) we have the glory of the "man" and "info" commands. When I was in college, that meant sitting down and doing then: cd /usr/bin ls [a|b|c|...]* man [first command] I think the problem that beginners have with interacting with operating systems in general has to do with the frustration of not understanding everything immediately. Through personal experience, I've found it helpful to understand that exposing myself visually to the terminology gives me a point of reference for communication (or looking something up in the index of a book) > > Linux is overcoming this problem. There's a large and enthusiastic mob of > young Linux users who help each other in many ways, by email, web pages, and > writing easier books about running Linux. > [...] > Not so many home users try FreeBSD. They think it's too hard. Hmmm... well, there are several home users on the Sunflower Network who have switched to FreeBSD from Linux. The key in the above statement is "think" :) A new cohort of mine at work was quite amazed at the intuitiveness of the BSD labeling/partitioning mechanism and the out-of-the-box configurability. It gives users the ability to choose what to install (or do a web search or ask "What's samba? What's netatalk? What's natd?) rather than getting an installation that is frock with old versions of software that they know nothing about (an actual call was someone asking me what the heck INND is! (note to any RedHat Linux developers on the list: INND binaries belong on the /usr/local tree! :) I've found many users that are intersted in Unix but are not programmers. They appreciate the ports mechanism as a learning tool (let's see what sort of nastiness the porter had to inflict on *this* source tree to make it compile), and many common packages such as Sendmail and BIND are "make install" easy on the BSD platform where otherwise you have to wait for an RPM or some hideous array of patches to be released. > Lots of very wise and experienced experts run FreeBSD because they like the > way it works. They don't need much help. > A few home users like you and me try to run FreeBSD and make lots of > mistakes. There's always someone there to help us out though. It just seems > like we're the only ones because we're always too afraid to speak up, to say > I just use it at home, I don't know much, I do silly things, but I'm here > with you people. > The same sort of mistakes are made by home Win95 users. I believe that the support mechanism for this operating system is by far one of the best. Yeah, there are few printed publications that a non-tech home user can readily understand, but you don't have to pay for support, and any reference to the FM is usually followed up by a competant explanation of what can be accomplished. > Slowly, more home users are coming to FreeBSD. We are the bold ones who like > a challenge, willing to learn something new, appreciating this solid and > versatile operating system. When there are enough of us, we'll speak out > more. Then the Wise Ones will write us some more tips and instructions, then > more will join, then more will speak out, then the whole thing will become > easier to approach and more popular. But with FreeBSD, we know that our > source code is coming from people who know what they're doing. It's a solid > foundation with freedom to learn and explore in our own way, at _any_ level. > [insert applause] > I don't think my idea of this FreeBSD future is hugely popular at the > moment, but things are definitely moving in that direction. > I will also assert that with the advent of low-cost dedicated connections (cable modems and satellite connections) that the apparentness of this trend will increase. MS users are getting a nasty taste of the real-world of internetworking with the various java* and active-x exploits that seem to be popping up so frequently through a simple dial-up connection. I perceive a time when such options that are commercially available at this time are not considered road-worthy for this type of network (short of being behind the $25,000 firewall) > Some people simply want to turn on their computer, have it help them to do > some work, and turn it off again having learned nothing. Those people are > probably well served by smaller, simpler, less reliable, and more costly > operating systems that don't require anything more than the occsional > automated upgrade from CD (until something goes wrong that can't be fixed) But, let's face it: more and more users are having to learn more about the guts of their computer systems than ever before with the advent of the public internet (and the situation stated above) A big "for example" is that many of my customers have come to the startling conclusion that the more plug-in's and on-the-fly utilities they install, the slower and more unstable their system gets. They're having to learn the new mantra of the modern GUI-based commercial OS: deltree /y windows; d:; setup :) I won't discuss plug-n-play... I enjoyed your comments Sue! I raise a glass to the future of FreeBSD! Regards, Stephen ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Stephen Spencer finger gladiatr@artorius.sunflower.com for - - administrator PGP key. - - Sunflower Datavision http://www.sunflower.com - -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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