Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1999 22:10:17 -0400 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: David Kurtzberg <david@cql.com>, CKimmerl@SARCOM.COM, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: "easy installation"!!!!! yeah right Message-ID: <19991026221017.39497@mojave.worldwide.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <000501bf1f43$491d7380$8b2ec898@david.cql.com>; from David Kurtzberg on Mon, Oct 25, 1999 at 04:47:23PM -0700 References: <A18002DDE56DD21184050008C7B1601401CADEF4@SNOHEX16.sarcom.com> <000501bf1f43$491d7380$8b2ec898@david.cql.com>
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On Monday, 25 October 1999 at 16:47:23 -0700, David Kurtzberg wrote: > On Monday, October 25, 1999 8:31 AM, CKimmerl@SARCOM.COM wrote: >> You people are so far into this stuff that you don't know what >> "easy" means anymore. I tried to install FreeBSD 3.3 last night. >> It was the most difficult install I've ever seen. Problems? How >> would I know- I never knew what it was doing. It installed, I just >> didn't know what. It is so geared towards unix experienced geeks >> that a person unfamiliar with Unix is totally lost. Microsoftcopy >> sucks but they've got no competition from unix yet. No one can >> understand it and unix people can't make it understandable. I >> picked stuff from the menu, but the interface sucked so bad I >> wasn't sure what I had installed. I was so pissed that I erased >> it. I chose FreeBSD over Linux because it is supposed to be more >> stable, but only a hacker geek can install this OS. I'll try >> Linux, maybe it will be more easily understood. Greg Lehay's book >> was useless- it was so far up in geek land it was amazing. Of >> course, what can you expect from a guy who speaks 3 languages and >> went to school for chemistry, etc. He can't write beginner books, >> that's for sure. Throughout the entire installation I found myself >> wondering how anybody figures this shit out. I'd appreciate any >> "PRACTICAL" help as I do not want to give up on FreeBSD. > > hmmm....freebsd is the first unix type of os I've ever used, and its > much better then windows. I've gone more then an hour and a half > without performing an illegal operation(and even if I did, it > wouldn't bring the whole machine down.) My first freebsd install > was actually...well...3 installs ;). Took a day, then a second day > to make the x server actually start, but it's worth it. Oh, I read > a nice book called Modern Operating Systems, by Andrew Tanenbaum, > and the stuff it taught me is very helpful when running freebsd. By > the way, I'm 16 years old, if I can understand it, so can you, just > be patient(I horribly misspelled that) I see no misspellings. FWIW, my first UNIX installation (about 9 years ago) took a week. The release was Interactive UNIX/386 version 2.2, a port of System V.3.2. I only had the manufacturer's documentation to help me, and it was painful. I wasn't exactly an inexperienced newbie at the time, but somehow I wasn't surprised. Times have changed; CKimmerl was obviously out for instant gratification, and when he didn't get it, it was obviously our fault. But maybe it *is* our fault to a certain extent. Just like I blame Microsoft for building a crappy "operating system" which crashes all the time and drags a Pentium III/450 down to the performance levels FreeBSD gets out of a 486/66, we should look at the ease of installation we offer. Sure, it's much better than 10 years ago, but Microsoft is also better than it was 10 years ago. None of this alters the fact that if you want help with any problems, you need to give as much information about the problems as possible. In a commercial environment, the support people will coax you through it, at $50 an hour or more. In the free software environment, I was going to say you have the choice: supply the information or get ignored. But CKimmerl has shown a third way: flame and get attention. But not, as far as I can see, the answer to his still undescribed problems. Greg -- Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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