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Date:      Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:44:34 +0200
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Unable to auto-mount a CD in XFCE4
Message-ID:  <20090618214434.4f18f9a8.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <20090618153022.067e8fe5@scorpio.seibercom.net>
References:  <20090618093816.6e08b3cd@scorpio.seibercom.net> <90f0a2770906181109k1b506da9k57b969a532d96c45@mail.gmail.com> <20090618153022.067e8fe5@scorpio.seibercom.net>

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On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:30:22 -0400, Jerry <gesbbb@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Thanks, that works. In retrospect, 99% of PC users insert a CD and it
> just 'works'. Why can't FreeBSD make it that simple?

Because it is already doing it simple.

Personally, I find myself often putting in a CD and NOT
wanting to do something with it right now. Then any kind
of forced interaction would be annoying.

FreeBSD keeps it right in my opinion: Keep to the OS what
is the OS's stuff, and leave everything optional to modular
parts, such als HAL or DBUS.

What should, in your opinion, happen? Mounting the disc
to a predefined directory? Which one? What if it isn't
a ISO-9660 disc, but a UFS or tar or "plain" disc? What
if the disc is empty, should a CD recording applicaion
be launched? Which one should it be? If two discs are
put into two different drives (a situation common if you
want to copy a disc 1:1), what should happen then? What
if the order of puttin in the two discs is vice versa?
If it is a rewritable disc, mount it rw? What if it gets
popped out right after that (because it was the wrong
disc), what should the OS do? When there's something
executable on the disc, should it be executed right now?
Maybe with root privileges, just to be sure? If there's
more than one executable, should all of the executables
be launched? If there are documents on it, should they
be automatically opened? By which programs? If there's
an installer for some program on the disc, should the
application be installed automatically? Should the content
of the disc be indexed right away, because this could be
needed sometimes in the future?

If you can answer these and many following questions, you
are on your way on making FreeBSD being just like everything
else that "just works" - like "Windows". :-)

FreeBSD is acting determinable: It does exactly what you
tell it to do, by commands or by preconfiguration. This
is a big strength, you always can predict what will happen.

Have you ever thought about using PC-BSD? It is very
convenient for 99% of the users you described, and still
a FreeBSD system.


-- 
Polytropon
>From Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



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