Date: Sun, 2 Sep 2001 15:17:51 -0600 From: "Stephen Hurd" <deuce@lordlegacy.org> To: "Fabio Miranda" <fmirand@yahoo.com>, <freebsd-chat@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: offtopic Message-ID: <NFBBJPHLGLNJEEECOCHAIEHACBAA.deuce@lordlegacy.org> In-Reply-To: <20010901000358.45923.qmail@web11508.mail.yahoo.com>
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> hi, I'm curious is freebsd is doing something special > for its 4.4 release, like BSD4.4 software, i mean, > maybe there is a conmemoration or something like that. > let's do a conmemoration in which users talk about > theirs experience with freebsd. > we are a free comunity... I don't know exactly what you have in mind, but it sounds like a good idea... but shouldn't something like this been done in Reno for 4.3BSD? :-) But anyways, my experience with FreeBSD is pretty good on the whole with a few "dark spots". I'll try and kick it off... I first started using FreeBSD when I left university... we had used VAX/VMS almost exclusively all through school, and I needed SOMETHING that was at least slightly familiar to me - and within my budget - for at home. I fiddled with most personal OSs that were available at the time, and after a breif love affair with OS/2, settled comfortably into FreeBSD. I used it for a couple of years, then all of my computer geek friends started asking me things like "How would I do X in Linux" and after hearing some of the stuff they were doing, figured it was a more flexible system and decended into the "Dark Years of Confusion" with Linux. I installed and fiddled with almost every distro that was out there and became frustrated with the fragmentation that existed. I'd just get a handle on something and start feeling confident about being able to do it, then someone else would have a different distro installed, and I would have to have a seperate tty just for the man pages. The final straw was when Linux decided it wanted to be on everyones desktop, and it started a subtle lean towards that... most of the newer Linux development was pushing towards a user-friendly, newbie user base, and - although the functionality was still there - It became harder and harder to figure out just what I was looking at with a new Linux install. Instead of one system coming out ahead (which is what I expected) they all seperated more, and the distro wars were getting to me. So I switched back to FreeBSD. It was like slipping back into an old pair of shoes. Everything was just where I expected it to be, I could install any FreeBSD binary package, and if I wanted to FIND software, it was all there... at my fingertips... in ports or packages. Ever since, I've used FreeBSD wherever it was applicable... but still steering many of my friends to Linux... the standard conversation went something like this: Him: "I want to install FreeBSD... how should I set it up" Me: "What do you want to use it for?" Him: "I just want to learn how to use UNIX" Me: "But what do you want to *do* with it?" Him: "I don't know... just learn... use it for my main OS... I hate windows" Me: "So you don't really have a reason to use it?" Him: "Well, you know, to learn it... and not use that MicroSlugde crap" Me: "You know, I use windows for my main desktop system at home. The games are better, and new software is MUCH easier to install and learn." Him: "Yeah, I know... I don't understand why you do that." Me: "You know, you'd probobly be better off using Linux." Him: "Why do you say that?" Me: "Most of the home user software being developed for nix systems is being done on Linux, and it has more help available... look at all the HOW-TOs that exist. The window managers are easier to learn, and more intuitive." Him: "So you say to use Linux rather than FreeBSD?" Me: "Yeah, it would suit your needs better." Him: "Ok, can you help me?" Me: "Nope, but there's a bunch of help all over the place..." It's not that I'm pro-Linux, or anti-FreeBSD, but I just don't feel that FreeBSD should be a home desktop OS. At the office, it makes a nice desktop OS, but there are different needs... different requirements. I don't like the idea of my fiance not being able to read the shopping list I wrote up because I was in a hurry and didn't set the permissions right. However, when one of my friends has an actually USE for FreeBSD, I'll spend hours on the phone and at their place teaching them how to make it "be a firewall" or "A personal web server" or whatever... I just hate to see people install it to be cool... Linux is "cooler" anyways. :-) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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