Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 00:45:28 -0600 (MDT) From: Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com> To: "Lee Crites (AEI)" <leec@adam.adonai.net> Cc: chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Do you have some neat configuration files? Message-ID: <199709110645.AAA25036@obie.softweyr.ml.org> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970910080316.5163B-100000@adam.adonai.net> References: <199709100413.VAA09804@usr04.primenet.com> <Pine.BSF.3.95.970910080316.5163B-100000@adam.adonai.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Lee Crites writes:
> So far, from my experience only, most people just want to *use*
> the system.
You're close, but the distinction is important. *Everyone* begins to
customize their system eventually, but they want it to "just work"
straight out of the box. Microsoft has this covered fairly well; you
install Win95 and it actually can run an application. It's when you
attempt to customize it to work the way you want to that it begins to
chafe.
The important message here for those who want to make FreeBSD more
acceptable to the unwashed masses is that the optimal environment is not
a necessity "out of the box," just a reasonable working default.
XFree86 is particularly bad about this, but getting better. Requiring
people to learn what kind of graphics card they have before downloading
just won't work; you need to provide some reasonable minimum system and
then let them "upgrade" or "enhance" it. A generic SVGA server at
1024x768x8bpp would probably fit this requirement nicely these days.
I think this would have to be a centerpiece of any "commercialized" or
"productized" FreeBSD aimed at the Win95, or even WinNT, crowd.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr softweyr@xmission.com
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199709110645.AAA25036>