Date: Fri, 07 Aug 1998 12:43:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Marc Giannoni <marc@versa.eng.comsat.com> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Install *actually* friendly Message-ID: <XFMail.980807130009.marc@versa.eng.comsat.com> In-Reply-To: <xzpbtpxalfj.fsf@hrotti.ifi.uio.no>
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All: I appreciate the need to attract New Users, and I understand our concern that New Users might not feel FreeBSD very accessible. Truth is, the FreeBSD team has done wonders making BSD Unix easy to install and administer. Yea, I had the 'fear and loathing' thing back in the 386BSD days when it helped to have a calculator handy to partition the disk! But that is so long ago, and believe me, it is so much easier today. Even the Display Adapter configuration comes with a GUI setup tool! (That was really needed too!) Maybe we could introduce New Users to FreeBSD with a short description of the difference in philosiphy between Unix and Microsoft (in general). One of Microsoft's primary goals is to hide complexity from their users. This 'design approach' has drawbacks. Sure anyone can use the system, but it comes with this huge 'Man Behind the Curtain'. Think about Microsoft designing that 'Man Behind the Curtain'. Every possible combination of hardware, correct and incorrect. Every possible choice for 'this or that' needs a list box or a dialog wigit! If a choise is overlooked, or eliminated, it's no longer an option! (One of Microsoft's favorite games!) Think of the computer in a larger context - a tool that people use to do complex and repetitive tasks. With this view, the Human CPU will always be a Co-Processor. Older Operating Systems (DOS, Unix...) kept more of the system chores tied up in the Human CPU, which drove the design to reveal all details to the system's users. This is a good approach for General Purpose computing, which needs the greatest flexibility possible. Maybe New Users of FreeBSD, if they come with a Microsoft background, (most likely) would appreciate FreeBSD better if there were a few man pages in the FreeBSD system just for Windows Users. I'm thinking of a section 5 (file formats) manpage for the Windows Registry! Wouldn't that just blow the socks off the average Windows Savvy User! Set it up in the Installation Intro. Discuss briefly the difference in philosiphy between 'Open' systems and Microsoft's systems. Then show them the (man 5 windows-registry) example man page! Conclude the intro by explaining that there is one of these for every possible confiuration file in the whole FreeBSD system! (And that all of them are 'pre- configured' for most installations.) I think that may make many Windows users want to have FreeBSD. Wow!! ---------------------------------- E-Mail: Marc Giannoni <marc@versa.eng.comsat.com> Date: 07-Aug-98 Time: 12:43:28 This message was sent by XF-Mail ---------------------------------- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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