Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 17:29:11 -0400 From: Bob Walker <rww@safllc.com> To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Newbie Experience Message-ID: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400>
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Hi, I have always wanted to better understand Unix, and so I finally made the decision to switch some of my office PCs over to either a Unix or Linux system. With office suites like OpenOffice, I felt that I would be able to transition away from Windows with minimal disruption to my business. So, I downloaded the .iso images from FreeBSD, Suse, and Fedora. I initially favored FreeBSD, since it seemed to have the closest lineage to "pure" Unix, and that was important to me, but after many, many attempts to install both the OS and Gnome desktop environment, I threw up my hands. In brief, the installation process is just awful. After multiple attempts on an admittedly older machine (Pentium II 266Mhz, 256KB ram, 30GB hard drive, S3 Virge graphics card), I was able to get the FreeBSD OS installed, but could not configure Gnome or KDE properly. The documentation is sketchy at best. I had to learn about X11, Xorg, XFree86, and all of the gory history of X before I could even begin to use ee and know to edit the /etc/rc.conf file. The installation process did not recognize my graphics card or Ethernet connection, and all I could get was a crude 600x800 display. And DesktopBSD was even worse. I then repartitioned my drive and sequentially installed Fedora Core 5 amd then Suse 10.1. Both were EASY to install, Fedora in particular recognized all of my peripherals, and I was up and running with it in about two hours. Conversely, FreeBSD took me multiple days and has still left me bewildered. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. I feel that FreeBSD will never achieve broader acceptance (even with momentum building for alternative OS) among people with modest technical proficiency and fairly simple requirements (i.e., spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, email). FreeBSD has an awful "out of the box" experience. It's too bad, because I think FreeBSD is probably a better OS, but I'll never really know. Regards, Bob Walker Surveys & Forecasts, LLC 2323 North Street Fairfield, CT 06824-1738 T +1.203.255.0505 F +1.203.549.0635 M +1.203.685.8860 www.safllc.com .................................................................... NOTICE: The information in this message is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and contains confidential and privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you received this email in error, immediately contact the sender and destroy all copies of this email and all other documents included with it. Thank you.
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