Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 23:23:16 -0800 From: Tim Uckun <tim@diligence.com> To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: First impressions of freebsd 4.5 Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.20020213225337.00a4b150@mail.diligence.com> In-Reply-To: <20020213155828.0c3d87d2.chip@wiegand.org> References: <20020213145939.GG19456@roman.mobil.cz> <F25FKtkdGp4boA6Q5eh000050c5@hotmail.com> <20020213063120.2809c007.chip@wiegand.org> <20020213145939.GG19456@roman.mobil.cz>
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Hello all. I just installed freebsd 4.5. I am migrating from debian. I just wanted to share my experience. None of this is meant as a question just some ranting. The install went pretty smooth. It glitched on the X setup but I reset the system and did a /stand/sysinstall and finished it OK. The KDE seemed to install with the minimum items. No cool transparent effects, no neat sysadmin tools. Just a gui and nothing else. I was a bit disapointed but no biggie I don't use X all that much anyway. I tried to install cvsd but it failed. Somehow some dependency is screwed up. The start script it installed calls start-stop-daemon but no such file exists. I could not find it in the ports anywhere. Now I guess I have to track it down someplace. The apache port and the php port did not go so smoothly either. The php make install did not modify the httpd.conf. That's as far as I got. It's been pretty frustrating I'd say especially compared to debian. I really miss apt-cache search. There ought to be a way to search the ports collection for what you want. Apt can search through the descriptions of all available packages and this is of immense help when you are not sure what you want. If you do apt-cache search pop3 you will not only get a list of all pop servers but also web interfaces, clients, enhancements etc. I will really miss that a lot. Also I find the file hierarchy very frustrating. Debian seemed logical to me. Things like databases, ldap files etc all went into the /var hierarchy which I always thought was reserved for "variable" meaning data that changes a lot. Freebsd wants to put them in /usr/local/someplace Where I used to back up /var and /etc I need to back up all kinds of places I guess. /usr/libexec is not in the path (why not is this some security thing?). I think /usr/local/etc/rc.d is a bit silly. What is wrong with /etc/init.d at least it's less typing. I also don't like the fact that some config files are in /etc some are in /usr/local/etc. I used to import the /etc directory into cvs now I need to do it for two directories. Also there seems to be some inconsistency with the way ports install. PHP wants to put the ini file in /etc (or was it /usr/local/etc) and Apache wants to put it in /usr/local/apache. In debian it was so nice every package had it's own directory in /etc you always knew where to look for config files instead of constantly searching for them. You know it's awfully convenient to type grep -r "something" /etc/* I find it annoying that the ports try to compile everything. I have two machines and one of them is pretty old it takes forever to install anything. If I try to pkg_add I need to know exactly where the package is. I tried doing pkg_add ftp://yada.yada/somepath/cvsup.x.x.tgz and it did not ask me questions or say anything I wonder if it went OK. In debian if you know the name of the package you can install it. If you want to install postfix just type apt-get install postfix. That will not only install postfix but will also uninstall sendmail. It knows which packages are equivalents of each other. That is pretty cool I wonder if ports know that too. Where is the equivalent of apt-get update && apt-get upgrade? How do I keep my system up to date and hack free. getting ls colors on putty was a bitch. I am sure there is a method to this madness. I am sure I will have to get used to the freebsd way of doing things. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Take it as a rant or constructive criticism On a positive note the default install was very secure (except I immediately killed sendmail of course). ---------------------------------------------- Tim Uckun Mobile Intelligence Unit. ---------------------------------------------- "There are some who call me TIM?" ---------------------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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