From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 11 17:14:17 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3AC0816A407 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:14:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd.ph@gmail.com) Received: from nz-out-0102.google.com (nz-out-0102.google.com [64.233.162.205]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF86843D73 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:14:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd.ph@gmail.com) Received: by nz-out-0102.google.com with SMTP id 13so536838nzn for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:14:07 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; b=Skjt7L7gV7pEzp8hDtKE9mLSdVohVFcTEQQbQZH15732MNqUE4k004+A/C4OY2o+DyADNbhjaoeIfxPHRjrePlKs5wV4oiGVUwOsNJyPkdczpkBwBqLZWYafeOa6XaEtMeEEdmqxB2mwW2Et09s/0Lq5+G67tMFt1KL95QNsd4w= Received: by 10.65.112.5 with SMTP id p5mr5441144qbm; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:14:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.65.103.15 with HTTP; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:14:06 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:14:06 +0800 From: "jan gestre" To: "Bob Walker" In-Reply-To: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400> MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie Experience X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:14:17 -0000 On 9/11/06, Bob Walker 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.