Date: Tue, 28 Mar 1995 10:05:26 +0200 From: "Christoph P. Kukulies" <kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de> To: freebsd-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com Subject: I lost a customer Message-ID: <199503280805.KAA02773@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
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Recently I helped a - at that time gonna be - FreeBSD 'customer'. I compiled a kernel for him supporting psm0 (PS/2) mouse, helped him with XF86Config and such. When I asked him after a while - since I didn't hear of any success - how it was going, I got the following answer - I checked with him to publish it here: (He also welcomes receiving direct mail if anyone wants to comment) > Christoph, > Well... first off, I am running a machine that is substandard (ie... video > board is soddered onto the motherboard and the cdrom is attatched via a > non-standard soundcard) and secondly, at the time I started with FreeBSD > I knew virtually nothing about Un*x style operating systems. So, to make > a long story short, I switched over to Linux simply because it was a bit > more user-friendly and had slightly better support for my hardware. > > I do want to thank you immensely for your help... in fact, I probably > wouldn't have been able to set up my Linux system completely if you had > not helped me with FreeBSD! I especially want to thank you for creating > a rebuilt kernel for me (I recently rebuilt my own Linux kernel by > hacking some code to support my CDROM!). > > Sincerely, > Glen L. Starchman I wrote back, asking for the reasons he converted to Linux and I got this answer: > > Christoph... > > For your information (so that possibly the FreeBSD project won't lose any > more users!) here is a list of things that I found to be unsatisfactory > with FreeBSD... please bear in mind that I am somewhat of a novice Unix > user :) > > 1) the distribution is HUGE! alot of people out there don't have the > roughly 300MB on their hard drive to install both binaries and source... > by comparison, with the slackware release of linux I installed the > complete system (base distribution, X windows and various other packages) > as well as the source (kernel only) in less than 100MB... i realize that > my point is nearly moot, with the prices of hard drives plummeting but I > beleive there will always be a group out there who would look at the > space requirements of FreeBSD and sadly shake their heads...:) > > 2) FreeBSD is very memory intensive... granted, I am only running on 4 > (!) MB at the moment... and doesn't seem to utilize swap memory very > effeciently. Once again I guess my point is moot as RAM prices drop.... > > 3) FreeBSD, in my opinion, is not set up very well for a single-user > environment... I have used machines where FreeBSD is used on a multi-user > basis and had no problem with it (in fact it is comparable to SunOS or > any of the other "big boys"). however, in a single-user environment the > system is just too large and cumbersome to make it worth it. > > I will say that FreeBSD operates faster than Linux and that there is much > more functionality in FreeBSD. Basically, my complaint is the lack of > what i call "user-friendly-catches" ... if there is something that needs > to be set up on the system for it to work properly, why not announce that > at the very beginning and help the user through it (via dialog > boxes or menu systems) instead of waiting until the user actually tries > to use that function as his/her system just crashes? > > I am _not_ saying that FreeBSD should become as trite and "user-friendly" > as Windows (heaven forbid!!!) only that a little user-friendliness goes a > long way! > > I am sure that after I actually get my direct connection to the Net I > will use FreeBSD for the administration machine in my network simply > because that is what it handles best... > > Sincerely, > > Glen L. Starchman > > > ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: > : : > Village Idiot Ink. > - the unexamined life is not worth living - > > Publisher of The Abraxus Reader: > (http://www.cyberspace.com/~vidiot) > > Submissions: > vidiot@cyberspace.com > > : : > ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: > --Chris Christoph P. U. Kukulies kuku@gil.physik.rwth-aachen.de FreeBSD blues 2.1.0-Development FreeBSD 2.1.0-Development #0: Wed Mar 22 04:54:59 1995 root@blues:/usr/src/sys/compile/BLUESGUS i386
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