Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:15:59 +0100 From: "Jeff Rollin" <jeff.rollin@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie Experience Message-ID: <8a0028260609111215y6c3cdd82tda51f1e1d333ddd3@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <a25afc300609111014g767be5e7s37eaf2be923d64d6@mail.gmail.com> References: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400> <a25afc300609111014g767be5e7s37eaf2be923d64d6@mail.gmail.com>
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On 11/09/06, jan gestre <freebsd.ph@gmail.com> wrote: > > On 9/11/06, Bob Walker <rww@safllc.com> wrote: > > > > 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, > > > > > too bad, you experienced that, the FreeBSD sysinstall is not that really > hard, it may seem daunting at first because of its text mode but it is > very > straight forward, i guess you have to read the handbook over and over > again > to fully comprehend the things you missed why things like X is not > working, > it will also help if you will include the error messages as to why you > can't > run/install gnome or kde. imo you missed some dependencies that's why > you're > having a hard time. Discussions like these leave me lost for words... The last time I had trouble with a FreeBSD install, it was because sysinstall neglected to install a kernel! (I remember the days when people used to complain about (n)curses-based Linux installs... Fire up Windows XP's setup.exe, and what do you get?!) Which is to say, apart from the occasional bug I really don't see what the problem is with sysinstall. To me it's the best thing this side of YaST for getting (certain areas of) system administration done. (Yeah, I know a lot of you probably hate YaST in particular or Linux in general... whilst I like FreeBSD, I have to say that it really suffers in comparison to Linux in the area of driver support. I know that's not all the FBSD developers' fault, but when you're sat there fighting with a piece of recalcitrant hardware, surprisingly enough assigning blame to where it belongs is often the last thing on your mind!) It's really hard to make a cock-up with FreeBSD installation - apart from not knowing how much space to set aside! There really ought to be something about that in the manual.... This is going off-topic quite a bit, but the same could be said for NetBSD (not, in my experience, with OpenBSD.) They're really hard to cock-up if you just *follow* *the darned* *instructions*. After coming away from Windows, it's actually nice to have some decent documentation! Jeff Rollin
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