Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2011 01:32:23 -0400 From: Jason Hsu <jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Best way to switch from Linux to BSD Message-ID: <20110329013223.ddca7453.jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I've been trying to switch from Linux to BSD for my everyday computing (email, word processing, spreadsheets, etc.), but I couldn't get things to work properly. I've been so spoiled by the quickness and user-friendliness of antiX/Swift Linux and Puppy Linux for so long. I have a backlog of stuff to do, so I'm sticking to Linux for now as my main OS. However, I might try BSD in VirtualBox and on my laptop. Are there any good tutorials for using BSD on the desktop? I'm having much more difficulty finding good information on BSD than was the case for Linux. In retrospect, this shouldn't be a surprise given that Linux is relatively mainstream while BSD is very obscure. Some questions: 1. Is it possible to install KDE, GNOME, or other DE from the FreeBSD CD in a reasonable amount of time? KDE and GNOME are huge programs, and having to download them would take too long. 2. What's lighter than PCBSD and GhostBSD? I tried the live DVDs on my laptop (1.4 GHz processor, 1.25 GB of RAM) and found both BSD distros to be very sluggish. Ubuntu and Mint were faster and fit on a CD, and these two distros have been criticized as bloatware. Also, the keyboard didn't work in GhostBSD. 3. How do I triple-boot Puppy Linux, antiX/Swift Linux, and DragonflyBSD? I already use a Puppy Linux/Swift Linux dual boot. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what to put in the menu.lst file to allow DragonflyBSD to boot. (By contrast, antiX Linux and Swift Linux automatically add the appropriate entries in menu.lst.) 4. What are the Linux Mint and Puppy Linux of the BSD universe? I consider these two distros to set the standard in the Linux universe, because they're so user-friendly. These are the distros I've set out to compete against in developing Swift Linux. -- Jason Hsu <jhsu802701@jasonhsu.com>
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20110329013223.ddca7453.jhsu802701>