Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2014 12:11:19 +0500 From: Jordan Hubbard <jkh@mail.turbofuzz.com> To: Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org, hackers@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Leaving the Desktop Market Message-ID: <A70900DF-4BAA-427F-8731-01211FFD1887@mail.turbofuzz.com> In-Reply-To: <CAF6rxgkeBozvfV-L0%2BrFZ6fWRn0=Gi3BNq1kPL=-HTq0TD6MkQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAF6rxgkeBozvfV-L0%2BrFZ6fWRn0=Gi3BNq1kPL=-HTq0TD6MkQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On Apr 1, 2014, at 10:46 AM, Eitan Adler <lists@eitanadler.com> wrote: > That is why on this date I propose that we cease competing on the > desktop market. FreeBSD should declare 2014 to be "year of the Linux > desktop" and start to rip out the pieces of the OS not needed for > server or embedded use. >=20 > Some of you may point to PCBSD and say that we have a chance, but I > must ask you: how does one flavor stand up to the thousands in the > Linux world? The fact that this posting comes out on April 1st makes me wonder if = it=92s just an elaborate April Fool=92s joke, but then the notion of = *BSD (or Linux, for that matter) on the Desktop is just another = long-running April fool=92s joke, so I=92m willing to postulate that two = April Fools jokes would simply cancel each other out and make this = posting a serious one again. :-) I=92ll choose to be serious and say what I=92m about to say in spite of = the fact that I work for the primary sponsor of PC-BSD and actually like = the fact that it has created some interesting technologies like PBIs, = the Jail Warden, Life-preserver and a ZFS boot environment menu. There is no such thing as a desktop market for *BSD or Linux. There = never has been and there never will be. Why do you think we chose =93the= power to serve=94 as FreeBSD=92s first marketing slogan? It makes a = fine server OS and it=92s easy to defend its role in the server room. = It=92s also becoming easier to defend its role as an embedded OS, which = is another excellent niche to pursue and I am happy to see all the = recent developments there. A desktop? Unless you consider Mac OS X to be =93BSD on the desktop=94 = (and while they share some common technologies, it=92s increasingly a = stretch to say that), it=92s just never going to happen for (at least) = the following reasons: 1. Power. As you point out, being truly power efficient is a complete = top-to-bottom engineering effort and it takes a lot more than just = trying to idle the processor whenever possible to achieve that. You = need to optimize all of the hot-spot routines in the system for power = efficiency (which actually involves a fair amount of micro architecture = knowledge), you need a kernel scheduler that is power management aware, = you need a process management system that runs as few things as possible = and knows how to schedule things during package wake-up intervals, you = need timers to be coalesced at the level where applications consume = them, the list just goes on and on. It=92s a lot of engineering work, = and to drive that work you also need a lot of telemetry data and people = with big sticks running around hitting people who write = power-inefficient code. FreeBSD has neither. 2. Multimedia. A real end-user=92s desktop is basically one big UI for = watching things, listening to things, and running apps. A decent audio = / video subsystem is just one part of the picture, and one that has = always been really weak - entire engineering teams can spend years = working on codecs, performance optimizations, low and guaranteed latency = support for audio I/O, etc. What=92s worse, the bar is only being = raised. You want to be part of the next wave of folks who can author = and edit content for the new 4K video standard? Not on FreeBSD or = Linux, you=92re not. 3. Applications. A desktop without real and useful applications is not = a desktop, it=92s just an empty display surface. Sure, there are users = out there who are happy with just a mail client, a web browser and maybe = a calendaring app, but those users are also arguably even better = candidates for Chrome or other simplified environments where all of that = simply happens in a fancy web browser and you get things like =93software = updates=94 and cloud integration essentially for free since it=92s all = just one cohesive picture there. The ability to solve those user=92s = needs very simply makes them ripe targets for the web application = delivery platforms. For the other folks who want to do fancier stuff like mix audio, edit = videos or even just play mainstream 3D games that were actually = published sometime in the last year, they=92ll use a real desktop OS and = won't even bother looking at one of the free ones because guess what, = the free ones just can=92t do those things, or do them badly enough that = their users feel like they=92re perpetually living in a kind of = self-selected ghetto. Metaphorically speaking, sleeping on the floor in = a sleeping bag in your one-room apartment is fine when you=92re young, = but as you get older, you want to be more comfortable and have a real = bed in a real house! Those are just three reasons. There are lots more, not least of which = among them is the fact that it=92s damn hard even just to *create* = significant applications with the weak-ass APIs that *BSD and Linux = provide. You have to stitch together some Frankenstein collection of = libraries out of ports (or linux packages) and then hope the whole pile = of multi-=93vendor" bits will sort of work together, which of course = they rarely do because they were written by several hundred different = people with no mandate to interoperate. April fool=92s joke? Yes, the desktop has always been one in the OSS = space. It=92s a lousy OSS problem to try and solve because all the = hardest parts are things nobody wants to do for free, and there=92s no = money to be made just providing the OS (even Ubuntu, the current leader, = seems to have =93pledge drives=94 every other week). - Jordan
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