Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 09:07:46 +0530 (IST) From: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: Dru <genisis@istar.ca>, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: desktop, was linus on BSD Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.05.9905090901550.390-100000@theory6.physics.iisc.ernet.in> In-Reply-To: <3734FF6B.6A737C3A@softweyr.com>
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> I think one of the big differentiators between "desktop"
users of
> FreeBSD and Linux is that many FreeBSD users never wanted a damned PC
> in the first place. FreeBSD makes a pretty crufty PC, but a fine UNIX
> workstation. For those looking for a workstation, installing XFree86
> and {window manager of choice, WindowMaker for me} makes workstation
> enough, especially so now that one or two competent word processors
> and at least one usable spreadsheet are available for the typical
> "productivity" applications.
Who talked about a damned PC. The talk was on desktops, and a
workstation (with Windowmaker, or whatever) *is* a desktop. In
academia, at least, a lot of users like to get their work done on
workstations without wanting to learn how to install everything
themselves. They're not unix gurus but they can compile fortran/C
programs, run matlab/octave/latex, check mail, etc from the
command line and that's all they want to do. FreeBSD is fine for
them if someone else sets up the system first. It would be even
better if an easy-to-set-up desktop distro was rolled out.
Desktop != PC.
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