From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 19 09:19:43 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2E0BC106566B for ; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:19:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jherman@dichotomia.fr) Received: from mail.dichotomia.fr (hydrogen.dichotomia.net [91.121.82.228]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BAF918FC13 for ; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:19:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.18] (unknown [178.33.164.134]) (Authenticated sender: kha@dichotomia.fr) by sslmail.dichotomia.fr (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id ABF8D3DD06F; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:16:36 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <4E254C5D.3030501@dichotomia.fr> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:20:29 +0200 From: Jerome Herman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:5.0) Gecko/20110624 Thunderbird/5.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Polytropon References: <20110717071059.25971662@scorpio> <4E22DFE9.7050007@pathscale.com> <201107172016.30727.lobo@bsd.com.br> <4E23989F.7010701@gmail.com> <4e242fab.s4vpgxxZEUq0LFDq%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <1311017168.44397.YahooMailRC@web36508.mail.mud.yahoo.com> <23159_1311031267_4E24BFE3_23159_38_1_D9B37353831173459FDAA836D3B43499C5218659@WADPMBXV0.waddell.com> <4E24C416.9020207@dichotomia.fr> <20110719081116.3fdf3ef1.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20110719081116.3fdf3ef1.freebsd@edvax.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.7 (sslmail.dichotomia.fr); Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:16:37 +0200 (CEST) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Lennart Poettering: BSD Isn't Relevant Anymore X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:19:43 -0000 On 19/07/2011 08:11, Polytropon wrote: > On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:39:02 +0200, Jerome Herman wrote: >> On 19/07/2011 01:21, Gary Gatten wrote: >>> >>> >>> This may get me flamed (probably will) but I'm wondering what >>> the relationship is between FreeBSD and PC-BSD? PERHAPS if >>> they were to somehow join forces, share development load, etc. >>> and "unify" the FreeBSD offerings under one roof; ie: PC-BSD and SERVER-BSD. >> Basically, PC-BSD is just a layer of candy over an almost untouched >> FreeBSD, so it is not the same at all than what you can see with Linux >> distros. > PC-BSD offers a new interactive installer, and comes with KDE > preinstalled and preconfigured. There's also some autodetect > magic under the hood. On sufficiently recent hardware, it works > very well. However, its hardware requirements are _high_ above > those of a "normal" FreeBSD system. > > > >> PC-BSD offers a graphical and simple installer, and an arguably easier >> package system. > As far as I know, the downside of the forced interactivity > is now gone, as there's also a command line tool for using > PBI packages. > > Arguing... what is easier at manually locating software using > a web browser, manually downloading it and interactively > holding the installer's hand while installing software? :-) Well, of course installing is easier. But package management is not just about installing. General management tends to be a little harder, for example if you need a specific version of PHP-LDAP, that matches your server LDAP and your server SASL. Rigid packages won't allow fine grained tweaking that you might need. > > > >> Also it installs KDE and automatically makes a few decisions. >> You can actually just use the graphical installer in order to install a >> standard FreeBSD, even if some tricky options won't be available from >> the installer (but you can still run sysinstall later to activate them) > The default installation works quite well, there's only few > things you need to configure (especially if you're not > comfortable with the default settings). I have some friends > being long-term PC-BSD users, it's just no _my_ cup of tea > as I don't like KDE much. > > > >> I personnally use it as an easy installer for Crypto-ZFS servers. > The installer can even be used to install configurations that > sysinstall can't. > > > >>> I believe several flavors of Linux have successfully done >>> this. Perhaps for licensing reasons more than technical, >>> but nonetheless there were two offerings each focused on >>> either a desktop or server deployment strategy. > But there are "mixed forms" of systems. Precisely differentiating > between "a server" and "a PC" isn't always possible. For > example, if you have a workstation that is used by more than > one user, is this a PC, a _personal_ computer anymore? Or > what if you use a laptop computer (maybe due to energy > consumption) to act as a server, and once a week you use > it as a desktop? > > > >>> Just a thought. I'm not married to any particular OS - >>> it's a tool and I use what suites my needs best. I >>> enjoy FreeBSD and like what it stands for - I would >>> like to see it grow; both technically and in popularity. >> Well the PC-BSD layer gives a great installer, now the only thing needed >> would be a great server/daemons management layer. > And better german language support in KDE. :-) > > > >> A FreeBSD distro with LDAP, ACL and MAC management would be nice though. > You could create a port that brings all this functionality > in one rush. Remember that the ports collection is more than > just about installing software - it can be used to even > bring such features to the system and configure them. A port that would reboot in single user, use tunefs to activate ACL here and there, activate MAC and move most users to an LDAP auth ? I don't think so. Actually I would be scared if such a port was accepted in the port tree. > > > > >