From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 27 14:45:41 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C446B1065719 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from frank@esperance-linux.co.uk) Received: from mailout.zetnet.co.uk (mailout.zetnet.co.uk [194.247.47.231]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4D6188FC18 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from frank@esperance-linux.co.uk) Received: from irwell.zetnet.co.uk ([194.247.47.48] helo=zetnet.co.uk) by mailout.zetnet.co.uk with esmtp (Exim 4.63) (envelope-from ) id 1LnDJU-0004Oy-DO for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:40 +0000 Received: from melon.esperance-linux.co.uk (54-144.adsl.zetnet.co.uk [194.247.54.144]) by zetnet.co.uk (8.14.1/8.14.1/Debian-9) with ESMTP id n2REjcs8001294 for ; Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:38 GMT Received: by melon.esperance-linux.co.uk (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 89188FCA699; Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:33 +0000 (GMT) Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:33 +0000 From: Frank Shute To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20090327144533.GA89056@melon.esperance-linux.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20090325034317.160b149d.freebsd@edvax.de> <49C99E1C.9090303@gwi.net> <20090325041118.5c99710a.freebsd@edvax.de> <49C9A572.3070006@gwi.net> <20090325045911.56efaff6.freebsd@edvax.de> <49CC1230.8060005@onetel.com> <20090327115040.GA88708@melon.esperance-linux.co.uk> <20090327083131.59204048@scorpio> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20090327083131.59204048@scorpio> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i X-Face: *}~{PHnDTzvXPe'wl_-f%!@+r5; VLhb':*DsX%wEOPg\fDrXWQJf|2\,92"DdS%63t*BHDyQ|OWo@Gfjcd72eaN!4%NE{0]p)ihQ1MyFNtWL X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 6.4-RELEASE-p2 i386 X-Organisation: 'http://www.shute.org.uk/' X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.1.7 (zetnet.co.uk [194.247.46.1]); Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:39 +0000 (GMT) Subject: Re: installing freebsd on windows X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Frank Shute List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:45:43 -0000 On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 08:31:31AM -0400, Jerry wrote: > > On Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:50:40 +0000 > Frank Shute wrote: > > >On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 01:03:59AM +0100, Wojciech Puchar wrote: > >> > >> >It's certainly not slow and messy here. I installed PCBSD a couple > >> >of months ago after a few years of rolling my own desktop and I > >> >love it. On reasonable spec hardware it runs very well, the > >> >developers have done an excellent job > >> > >> of course. windows vista runs well too on overmuscled hardware. > > > >No it doesn't. It doesn't run well on any hardware because it's got > >things like a file manager that is broken for all intents and > >purposes. No virtual desktops, undocumented shell etc. > > Actually, it supports at least four that I know of. You can Google for > the information. Four of what? Why do I have to Google the info? Shouldn't there be a copy of the info locally? I can google for unbroken filemanagers, documented shells, install cygwin etc. but the software as it stands is horribly inadequate and undocumented. > MS Windows is probably the best documented piece of software around. Are you being sarcastic? Where's the Handbook like FreeBSDs? You can read the source can you? I can't. Maybe I'm just getting old but Vista documentation seems to be scattered to hell and west over the 'net - if you can find what you're looking for at all. > What is it you are looking for? Where are the documents for using their crappy filemanager? There are some with what they call, exaggeratingly, their help system but they are useless compared to any unix documentation. Probably there are a limited number of ways you can describe such an excrescance as the Vista Explorer replacement. Where are the manpages for their shell? They should at least have some documentation that comes with the OS that lists and describes the commands it supports. It doesn't. I'm looking for an OS with a sane file hierarchy and a shell I can use to manage the files therein. An editor better than Notepad would be a bonus too. Extensive documentation on the machine is a must. I've searched on google for documentation on the powershell to no avail. All the docs as such seem to be available if you are a member of MSDN - I presume so anyway, but for the general public they don't seem to be readily available. In short, I gave Vista a decent shot (I quite like XP) but it was like wading through treacle and I thought that if I am to get the best out of it, I'm probably going to have to sign up for MSDN and download vast amounts of "missing" software and spend inordinate amounts of time on google. The cost and time benefits didn't seem worth it since I'm quite happy with FreeBSD and there's only one Windows only application that I use: AutoCAD; for that I maintain an XP installation. Staying on topic, my advice to the original poster is to dump Windows and use FreeBSD - it's better documented and you can either use WINE to run your "must have" Windows programs or have a separate Windows partition. With a bit of luck your Windows "must haves" will eventually have unix replacements. > -- > Jerry > gesbbb@yahoo.com > > A bore is a man who talks so much about > himself that you can't talk about yourself. Regards, -- Frank Contact info: http://www.shute.org.uk/misc/contact.html