Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 14:15:33 -0600 From: "Bob Giesen" <BobGiesen@earthlink.net> To: "Kris Kennaway" <kris@obsecurity.org>, "Douglas R. Spindler" <spindler@dnai.com> Cc: <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: A question from a convert from Windows to FreeBSD Message-ID: <007b01c1a381$93765900$328dfea9@pegasus> References: <0ffe01c1a371$661d1b20$6600640a@attbi.com> <20020122104018.C21075@xor.obsecurity.org>
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> On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 10:19:58AM -0800, Douglas R. Spindler wrote: > > I've been in the industry for 10 years now and have seen the light > > of FreeBSD. I know a few Unix commands and know DOS very well. > > > > Here's my question, why do you guys make converting so difficult? > > That's a very subjective question, wouldn't you say? Not very, no. I've been a computer junkie for 20 years (well, pretty soon -- I got my first one in Feb., 1981), have made a living at UNIX system administration, vocally advocate FreeBSD to any who will listen -- yet it is obvious to me why a recent convert from the dark side (a.k.a. micro$haft) would consider FreeBSD to be difficult to install. Objectively speaking (and I'm sure that it could be quantified in terms of time and keystrokes), there is not much of a comparison when it comes to ease of installation -- which is a major reason that FreeBSD installations number in the thousands, rather than millions. This is why: > Since FreeBSD is a community supported project... If unsophisticated users could easily install FreeBSD and a free office app (such as StarOffice or KDE) that would operate on all those m$office files in circulation, I think you'd see a lot more home offices with FreeBSD as the system of choice. After all, how many people wouldn't love to get something for free that will do all they really need of the topheavy m$office apps? m$ OSes installed seemingly are approaching McD's number of burgers served. (Okay, a slight exaggeration...) m$ throws a lot of money at compatibility and ease of installation, knowing that their livelihoods depend on successful installations being performed by millions of users who don't know the difference between a bit and a byte. Of course, with their large, installed base, they've also managed to convince hardware manufacturers that it's in their best interest to provide winblows-compatible drivers. Having the necessary drivers hit the street at the same time as the hardware also helps a great deal. Here, most of us (FreeBSD) users are a little more savvy and demanding of other features in our O.S. We don't want to be hand-held to the point that the OS author makes all of our decisions for us during the installation (one of my many peaves w/ m$) -- but I think a certain amount of it could be automated better. Of course, besides being such a solid, flexible product, FreeBSD's also FREE, which is why I'd never complain about the difficulty of installation. Everything on which FreeBSD depends comes to us by the grace of people who are willing to share their work with the world at no cost. That doesn't usually lead to the sense of urgency instilled in the m$ mill, so a certain amount of "do-it-yourself" is to be expected. In terms of installation and configuration time, FreeBSD is really more costly to set up than my w98 setup was -- but m$ gets you in the end with the ongoing instability issues. In the final analysis, if you place a lot of demands on your computer, you'll have to get to know a lot about it in order to keep it working to your satisfaction, no matter what the OS. With m$, you'll probably get a very simple installation, but you'll end up putting out perennial fires. With FreeBSD, you'll have to learn more about it to configure it properly at first, but then you'll get rewarded with a system that does just what you expect it to (when it's not doing more than you expect it to) and you can use your knowledge to tweak it to do things you'd never consider trying on that other o$. > > Sorry to be so stupid, but I can't follow the easy directions. I > > can't even find what files I need to FTP. I also am finding the > > floppy disk installation incomplete. I heartily recomment the FreeBSD Power Pack. Mine came with 10 CD-ROM's of software -- and Grreg Lehey's "The Complete FreeBSD" -- which will walk you through the installation. CompUSA has it (w/ v4.4 software) for about $70; I got v3.2 a couple of years ago, on sale there for about $45. You might want to check around. Whatever your route, good luck and don't let the initial commitment of time discourage you. It will reward you, in the end. - Bob > Following through the instructions, one of the steps is the following: > > ---- > In general, to create boot floppy images, follow these steps: > > 1. Acquire the Boot Floppy Images > > The boot discs are available on your installation media in the floppies directory, and can also be > downloaded from the <floppies directory>. > ---- > > The last two words are a link which take you to the download site for > the boot floppies for the latest release. That's all you need. > > If you have more specific questions please ask them here, and if you > can come up with concrete suggestions about how the documentation > could be improved then please send them to doc@FreeBSD.org. Your > feedback on how the installation guide can be improved would be > appreciated. > > Kris To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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