Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 08:49:15 +0100 From: "Anthony Atkielski" <anthony@freebie.atkielski.com> To: "Christopher Farley" <chris@northernbrewer.com> Cc: "Mark Yeck" <y3k@gti.net>, <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Feeding the Troll (Was: freebsd as a desktop ?) Message-ID: <022401c178aa$594349c0$0a00000a@atkielski.com> References: <15365.11290.211107.464324@guru.mired.org> <3438.208.216.122.52.1007006101.squirrel@y3k.shacknet.nu> <018601c1788d$09eb4520$0a00000a@atkielski.com> <20011129012934.A10805@northernbrewer.com>
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Christopher writes: > 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. I agree, although FreeBSD is not much better in this regard. I console myself with the fact that FreeBSD is a much simpler OS, and I have the source, so in theory it should fail less often, and if worse comes to worst, I could theoretically find problems myself (that's quite a stretch of theory, however). > And Microsoft's Knowledge Base is almost always > a waste of time. True, but many vendors have nothing at all. > To me, and to many others, that's what you do > with a computer: you program it. A good definition of a computer geek. Geeks are not the majority. > Microsoft has *completely* stripped that aspect > of computing from Windows. That's what users want. > As such, the default install of Windows (any > flavor) is a terrible desktop environment for > someone who still wants to do some programming. The default install is not intended for developers, and developers know how to fix things themselves. > 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. Most of the options for Windows cost money. > FreeBSD, because of its academic/UNIX heritage, > makes an absolutely wonderful desktop for programmers. No doubt about that. But most people don't use computers for the sake of using computers, so this doesn't help the OS in larger terms. Perhaps Microsoft has raised a generation of people to think that Visual Studio is a necessity, but universities have raised a generation of CS majors to believe that the only OS in the world is UNIX. > And yes, I want all this on my desktop machine, and > wouldn't feel right without it. So what do you write, with all this programming activity? > The mere existence and popularity of Cygwin > demonstrates that many people prefer a Unix architecture > to a Windows one. The market numbers seem to indicate that the overwhelming majority of computer users prefer a GUI. The situation may be different for the geeks, however. > When you also consider that FreeBSD has an excellent > web browser ... Which browser is that? Lynx is very nice, but unfortunately it cannot handle graphics. Is there a graphic browser that does _not_ require X? To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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