From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 6 19:18:36 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 737681065673 for ; Wed, 6 Oct 2010 19:18:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from corky1951@comcast.net) Received: from qmta12.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net (qmta12.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net [76.96.59.227]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F8F78FC1A for ; Wed, 6 Oct 2010 19:18:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from omta06.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.62.51]) by qmta12.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast id FNdy1f00416LCl05CXJch1; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:18:36 +0000 Received: from comcast.net ([98.203.142.76]) by omta06.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast id FXJa1f00M1f6R9u3SXJbYF; Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:18:36 +0000 Received: by comcast.net (sSMTP sendmail emulation); Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:18:32 -0700 Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 12:18:32 -0700 From: Charlie Kester To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20101006191832.GA1130@comcast.net> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <4CAB25B1.6050906@radel.com> <4CAB2731.9090502@exonetric.com> <20101006062629.GA6187@comcast.net> <4CAC885E.8090103@exonetric.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4CAC885E.8090103@exonetric.com> X-Mailer: Mutt 1.5.20 X-Composer: Vim 7.2 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.20 (2009-06-14) Subject: Re: Which OS for notebook 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: Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:18:36 -0000 On Wed 06 Oct 2010 at 07:31:58 PDT Mark Blackman wrote: >Charlie Kester wrote: >>On Tue 05 Oct 2010 at 06:25:05 PDT Mark Blackman wrote: >>> >>>There's also the whole train of thought that says FreeBSD isn't really >>>aimed at the desktop/laptop/notebook use model and any benefit in that >>>arena is entirely coincidental. >> >>I've often seen that opinion expressed, but never on the FreeBSD website >>or in any of its "official" materials. >> >>On the contrary, most of the official literature presents it as an OS >>for general-purpose computing, and not only for servers. >> >>If I'm wrong about and there is an official statement somewhere that the >>main intention is to provide an OS for servers, it would be good to >>know. > >It's derived from a server/workstation OS and I assume the number of >FreeBSD deployed servers wildly outnumbers the desktop/notebook >installations and the tag line is "The power to serve", so there's a >strong server bias. Yet if you go to http://www.freebsd.org the first thing you will read is that "FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for modern server, desktop, and embedded computer platforms." Nothing about a bias toward servers or that it "isn't really aimed at the desktop/laptop/notebook use model." If FreeBSD is really aimed primarily at servers, I would expect to see something about this in the goals statement found in the FAQ and Handbook. But there's no such indication there. So I can see why some people might be frustrated by the lack of attention to some important issues for desktop/laptop/notebook hardware support. Nothing in the project literature tells them it's not a priority.