Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 01:29:38 -0600 From: Christopher Farley <chris@northernbrewer.com> To: Anthony Atkielski <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> Cc: Mark Yeck <y3k@gti.net>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Feeding the Troll (Was: freebsd as a desktop ?) Message-ID: <20011129012934.A10805@northernbrewer.com> In-Reply-To: <018601c1788d$09eb4520$0a00000a@atkielski.com>; from anthony@freebie.atkielski.com on Thu, Nov 29, 2001 at 05:19:28AM %2B0100 References: <15365.11290.211107.464324@guru.mired.org> <3438.208.216.122.52.1007006101.squirrel@y3k.shacknet.nu> <018601c1788d$09eb4520$0a00000a@atkielski.com>
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Anthony Atkielski (anthony@freebie.atkielski.com) wrote: > > My mother, for example, may be better off using > > Windows on her desktop, not for any technical > > reason, because if she has a problem she can ask > > almost anyone who uses computers about it. > > That's one argument in favor of Windows. The flip side of this is that if you have a *real* problem with Windows, it is often impossible to cut through the noise when doing a Google search for help. There's a tremendous amount of bad advice out there. And Microsoft's Knowledge Base is almost always a waste of time. Solving problems on a FreeBSD box is comparatively easy. I do a Google search on this list and I almost never have to ask a question here. Minimal noise. Personally, I would never argue that FreeBSD should be installed on everyone's desktop. But I'm pretty sure it belongs on mine. I began buying personal computers back when the owner's manuals contained instructions for programming your computer. To me, and to many others, that's what you do with a computer: you program it. Microsoft has *completely* stripped that aspect of computing from Windows. As such, the default install of Windows (any flavor) is a terrible desktop environment for someone who still wants to do some programming. Microsoft has raised a whole generation of people who believe that in order to program a computer, you've got to purchase a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio for $950. Sure you could use gcc, but Windows doesn't even provide a text editor with line numbers. I got one off of TuCows, but it *expired* after 30 days and I didn't really think it was worth $30. By the time I realized I could have been running Emacs, I had already wiped WinNT from my desktop for good. FreeBSD, because of its academic/UNIX heritage, makes an absolutely wonderful desktop for programmers. The default install contains one of the greatest programming editors of all time (vi), compilers for C and C++, a Perl interpreter, and one of the greatest version control systems ever made (CVS). And yes, I want all this on my desktop machine, and wouldn't feel right without it. Plus, FreeBSD has a shell you can use productively, which is important for those of us who believe that one can be far more productive in a shell than in a GUI. (Try globbing filenames in a GUI, buster!) The "Command Prompt/MS-DOS Prompt" is a very sorry excuse for a shell, and it obviously hasn't been taken seriously since MS-DOS 6. I think I could be more productive talking my mother through a /bin/sh session than using the Command Prompt directly. The situation is so dire I've installed Cygwin on *every* Windows computer I need to use, if for no other reason than filename completion. The mere existence and popularity of Cygwin demonstrates that many people prefer a Unix architecture to a Windows one. For many, this preference is a general preference, whether you are in a server environment or a desktop environment. When you also consider that FreeBSD has an excellent web browser, many superior email/news clients, nice CD ripping/burning software, PDF viewers, xv and the GIMP, what more do you really need a computer for? Strike that. What else do *I* need a computer for? -- Christopher Farley www.northernbrewer.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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