From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 11 21:55:56 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 0450E16A403 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:55:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ralphellis@netscape.ca) Received: from smtp-1.vancouver.ipapp.com (smtp-1.vancouver.ipapp.com [216.152.192.190]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9441643D45 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:55:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ralphellis@netscape.ca) Received: from [192.168.123.100] ([172.163.153.7]) by smtp-1.vancouver.ipapp.com ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:55:50 -0700 From: Ralph Ellis To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:55:37 -0700 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.3 References: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400> <20060911211241.GA2211@mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk> In-Reply-To: <20060911211241.GA2211@mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200609111755.38153.ralphellis@netscape.ca> X-Rcpt-To: X-Country: US 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 21:55:56 -0000 On Monday 11 September 2006 2:12 pm, Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > > >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. > > When I first installed FreeBSD, circa 2003, version 4.9, the two reasons I > chose it over Redhat and Debian were the simplicity of the installation and > good manual. The install process on REdhat and Debian was awkward, at least > for me, and I could not make them work on my old compaq armada laptop. In > contrast just following the manual and choosing default install parameters > I got Freebsd working fast. > > During the installation I actually learned a lot about unix and Freebsd, > the sort of details which are important to know anyway. > > It is hard to find the right balance between simplicity and functionality. > It seems the balance in the Freebsd install is about right. > > anton > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" I think that for people who have never seen FreeBSD before, PC-BSD or DesktopBSD are good choices for starting points. Most of the install choices are made for you. Later if someone wants to do a custom install, they will have more familiarity with the choices or have a good FreeBSD book like FreeBSD 6 Unleashed which can help sort out the problems. Ralph Ellis