From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Sep 6 15:05:41 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4C305106567D for ; Tue, 6 Sep 2011 15:05:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from itmngr@cooperationireland.org) Received: from smtp2.irishbroadband.ie (smtp2.irishbroadband.ie [62.231.32.43]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B9938FC1E for ; Tue, 6 Sep 2011 15:05:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail.cooperationireland.org ([62.231.53.178]) by smtp2.irishbroadband.ie with esmtps (TLSv1:AES256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.69 (FreeBSD)) (envelope-from ) id 1R0wt3-000P8M-JW; Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:44:29 +0100 Received: from [199.107.2.100] ([199.107.2.100]) (authenticated bits=0) by mail.cooperationireland.org (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id p86EdV19018535; Tue, 6 Sep 2011 15:39:31 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from itmngr@cooperationireland.org) Message-Id: <077CA7AC-CEC6-4AFE-95C7-2596E2A359FD@cooperationireland.org> From: Michael Doyle To: Evan Busch In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v936) Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2011 15:44:27 +0100 References: X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.936) X-CoopIrl-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-CoopIrl-MailScanner-ID: p86EdV19018535 X-CoopIrl-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-CoopIrl-MailScanner-From: itmngr@cooperationireland.org X-Spam-Status: No X-Scan-Signature: 4b400336c46b3fafe09ad4ee87c1a7e1 Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: A quality operating system X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:05:41 -0000 Lots of other people have given good answers. I'm just chiming in on points 3 and 7 On 20 Aug 2011, at 05:47, Evan Busch wrote: > "What is a quality operating system?" I work as a database developer in an SME. I support end users on Mac OSX and Windows XP .. Windows Vista clients, and Windows 2008, FreeBSD and SuSE linux servers. Of these, the FreeBSD servers give least trouble. For non-techie users, usually but not always the OS X people have fewer problems. > In his view, and now mine, a quality operating system is reliable, > streamlined and clearly organized. That is hard to disagree with > > (3) Horrible documentation. > > This is my specialty and has been since the early 1980s. The FreeBSD > documentation is wordy, disorganized, inconsistent and highly > selective in what it mentions. It is not the product of professionals > but it also not the product of volunteers with a focus on > communication. It seems pro-forma, as in, "it's in the documentation, > so don't bother me." The web site compounds this error by pointing us > in multiple directions instead of to a singular resource. It is bad > enough that man pages are separate from your main documentation tree, > but now you have doubled or trebled the workload required of you > without any benefit to the end user. I personally find the documentation that comes as part of the install and the documentation on the FreeBSD website EASIER to use and more complete than any alternatives I use on a regular basis. > (7) Disorganized website. Again, what are you comparing it to? I can often find my way to exactly the information I am looking for on the FreeBSD site using the search tool and menu structure within that site. To search for answers about Windows server, Windows desktop or OSX problems, I tend to rely on external search engines (Bing, Google) to trawl through the sites, and it takes longer to find the answers I need Michael Doyle mdoyle@cooperationireland.org -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.