Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:55:37 -0700 From: Ralph Ellis <ralphellis@netscape.ca> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Newbie Experience Message-ID: <200609111755.38153.ralphellis@netscape.ca> In-Reply-To: <20060911211241.GA2211@mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk> References: <000001c6d520$292f6700$0c01a8c0@DELL8400> <a25afc300609111014g767be5e7s37eaf2be923d64d6@mail.gmail.com> <20060911211241.GA2211@mech-aslap33.men.bris.ac.uk>
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On Monday 11 September 2006 2:12 pm, Anton Shterenlikht wrote: > > >Needless to say, I was very disappointed. I feel that FreeBSD will never > > >achieve broader acceptance (even with momentum building for alternative > > >OS) > > >among people with modest technical proficiency and fairly simple > > >requirements (i.e., spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, > > > email). FreeBSD has an awful "out of the box" experience. It's too bad, > > > because I think FreeBSD is probably a better OS, but I'll never really > > > know. Regards, > > > > too bad, you experienced that, the FreeBSD sysinstall is not that really > > hard, it may seem daunting at first because of its text mode but it is > > very straight forward, i guess you have to read the handbook over and > > over again to fully comprehend the things you missed why things like X is > > not working, it will also help if you will include the error messages as > > to why you can't run/install gnome or kde. imo you missed some > > dependencies that's why you're having a hard time. > > When I first installed FreeBSD, circa 2003, version 4.9, the two reasons I > chose it over Redhat and Debian were the simplicity of the installation and > good manual. The install process on REdhat and Debian was awkward, at least > for me, and I could not make them work on my old compaq armada laptop. In > contrast just following the manual and choosing default install parameters > I got Freebsd working fast. > > During the installation I actually learned a lot about unix and Freebsd, > the sort of details which are important to know anyway. > > It is hard to find the right balance between simplicity and functionality. > It seems the balance in the Freebsd install is about right. > > anton > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" I think that for people who have never seen FreeBSD before, PC-BSD or DesktopBSD are good choices for starting points. Most of the install choices are made for you. Later if someone wants to do a custom install, they will have more familiarity with the choices or have a good FreeBSD book like FreeBSD 6 Unleashed which can help sort out the problems. Ralph Ellis
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