Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 09:32:46 -0600 From: Doug Poland <doug@polands.org> To: Bara Zani <bara_zani@yahoo.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: freebsd as a desktop ? Message-ID: <20011128093245.A28505@polands.org> In-Reply-To: <006201c17815$d8960040$fd6e34c6@mlevy>; from bara_zani@yahoo.com on Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 09:06:15AM -0500 References: <006201c17815$d8960040$fd6e34c6@mlevy>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 09:06:15AM -0500, Bara Zani wrote: > > so I decided to install freebsd and use it as my desktop client > I've been using FreeBSD for about a year in a Windows shop and you can co-exist. I use windowmaker. > I use my desktop for - email , web , mp3 and downloads ... > as for email - I figured I can use fetchmail for multiple accounts and pine > to read/sort in folders - but what happens with attachments ? > I use fetchmail to get email from my personal ISP and mutt to speak to our exchange server configured to do IMAP. Mutt (v 1.3.20i) works fine with IMAP. Mutt handles attachments and if you fill your .mailcap with useful entries, then you can view word docs, HTML formatted email, images, etc. > as for web - I have tried in vain to enable the Java plugin on mozilla can > someone help with that ? > I too, am waiting for latest Mozilla to handle Java applets. Until that time, I keep an old copy of Netscape 4.76 installed. > as for mp3 - what do I use ? I know xmms for Linux but for fbsd ? > as for other stuff - > I'm a console guy that uses a GUI so I can have many rxvt terms going at once. Anyway, I use mpg123 for mp3. Many of your X mp3 players are simply front ends to mpg123. > image viewers ( xv ? ) video files ( mpg, divx , avi ) > xv is a good viewer, use gimp for editing. I use linux RealPlayer 8 for streaming audio/video > also can I use star office with freebsd ? > Can't help with this but I'm *really* looking forward to openoffice. Other tips: Mounting MS filesystems: Install the smbfs-1.4.1 port. If you need files that are being held hostage on an MS file systems you'll need an SMB client. Note, needs kernel config and re-build. I've heard you can do the same thing with some samba client utility but never tried. Printing: I'm not a printing guru so I installed the apsfilter-6.1.1 port. All our network printers speak lpr and have IP addresses so printing (black and white) works. I don't know how to print to MS shared printers. I recommend Ted's book to cover that. Document sharing: Anytime someone sends me a proprietary MS document (.doc, .xls for the most part) I tell them I don't have MS Office and could they please send it as a text file. This works with most people. If I have to run MS Office, I have VNC server running on an old MS box and VNC client running on FreeBSD. I take over the MS box and do my stuff and get out. I own vmware 2 but have not had success getting the guest OS networking to work (because of my own inability, not vmware/FreeBSD). Programming in Visual Basic: See above paragraph on vmware. Now I dual boot to Win2k. Corporate address books and shared exchange folders: Haven't solved this but we run Outlook Web on our exchange/IIS box so I can view these with web browser (needs java). Group calendar: see above (clunky, but it works) Other thoughts: we're a very email/web-centric company so I simply need an OS that can do these things. The single biggest irritation is dealing with MS Office files. If your company revolves around it's MS Office documents, your challenges will be much greater. HTH, -- Regards, Doug To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20011128093245.A28505>