Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 22:27:33 -0400 From: "J.R. Oldroyd" <fbsd@opal.com> To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: boot banner project Message-ID: <20050506022732.GJ51983@linwhf.opal.com> In-Reply-To: <d904a5e705042912513785d2b6@mail.gmail.com> References: <6.1.0.6.2.20050426233321.084e9210@cobalt.antimatter.net> <51899.216.177.243.42.1114584317.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <6.1.0.6.2.20050427001118.0327cd50@cobalt.antimatter.net> <52515.216.177.243.42.1114586501.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <d904a5e7050428062443496e3@mail.gmail.com> <61359.216.177.243.35.1114722481.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <20050429105416.GA94049@wedge.madpilot.net> <d904a5e705042912342621236b@mail.gmail.com> <42728DF1.9040908@makeworld.com> <d904a5e705042912513785d2b6@mail.gmail.com>
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On Apr 29, 14:51, John Sconiers wrote: > Do you want to get / keep new users, compete wth other operating > systems, etc.... > This question touches on why this discussion is so important. Let's not forget that FreeBSD tends to be used by folk who are more computer literate and for serious computing purposes. These folk want the detail and completeness of what we currently have. Let's also not forget that this discussion is taking place in freebsd-current, so the folk here are the most dedicated of these serious computer people. It's to be expected that many folk here don't want a graphical boot banner, and they view it as bloat. But when we talk of attracting new users, and especically new desktop users, we need to consider the not-so-savvy computer user who is probably better off not seeing things like boot messages at all. Consider the millions of M$ users who are happy when the boot sequence is just a graphic screen. For them, the hood is closed and they don't see what goes on inside. If the FreeBSD community is interested in making the fruits of all its great development work available to the wider world, we need to be able to close the hood, too. But, as was stated long ago in this thread, that's what splash(4) does. For non-computer-savvy end-users, a system configured with splash(4) and a cool image is all that's needed. At the same time, for the more advanced user, things can stay as they are now. And, yes there are side benefits to a cool image display. It's not seen only once. It's seen every time the system is booted. How often have you been in a meeting or sat on a 'plane and seen the Windows screen on the next passenger's laptop? Putting a cool FreeBSD logo there for a minute or so during the boot would be a great way of advertizing FreeBSD. I.e., read this comment to suggest that we need an installation option for end-users that enables splash(4) with a cool FreeBSD logo -- this installation would be separate, of course, from the standard installation for computer-savvy folk. Personally, I am not sure there's a whole lot of benefit to an in-between option of semi-verbose or tidier messages. But if there's demand for this and you want to do it, go for it. There are, however, some additional gaps in FreeBSD that frustrate potential new end-users. We need to address these in order to offer a more complete system that competes with other desktop systems. Some things that come to mind: - graphical installer (with partitioner, dual boot stuff, and ports installation ability) - GUI-based package manager, with support for vendor-provided packages - decent Java installation (sorry, but what we have now is a joke) - up-to-date Flash support - video/webcam support - improvements to the plug-and-play support for printers, scanners and a few other common devices This list of gaps is not a long list. While some of these issues might need real work to address, we are in sight of a much more complete system. Discussions have taken place on this and other freebsd lists about some of these, but it's not clear if work is progressing. We should discuss packaging a distribution of FreeBSD aimed at attracting more new users. We'll need to add these (and other) missing features and we may need to close the hood over things like boot messages. Yes, it's time that we do compete with those other operating systems and we should attract more of their users. -jr
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