Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 00:22:55 -0400 From: "Donald J. Maddox" <root@cola77.scsn.net> To: Snob Art Genre <ben@narcissus.ml.org> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD 2.1.7 and COMPAT_43 -Reply Message-ID: <19970515002255.62491@cola77.scsn.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.NEB.3.96.970514201620.5370A-100000@narcissus.ml.org>; from Snob Art Genre on Wed, May 14, 1997 at 08:19:36PM -0700 References: <19970514162302.54539@cola77.scsn.net> <Pine.NEB.3.96.970514201620.5370A-100000@narcissus.ml.org>
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On Wed, May 14, 1997 at 08:19:36PM -0700, Snob Art Genre wrote:
> Do you really attribute NT's success to its lack of confusing kernel
> options and the like? Come on . . . if NT really tended to DTRT where
> FreeBSD didn't you'd be using NT instead.
>
> On Wed, 14 May 1997, Donald J. Maddox wrote:
>
> > I can see that this is about to turn into one of those 'BSD-tradition vs.
> > common sense' debates, and I have no desire to participate in that; common
> > sense cannot win because the traditionalists never relent, and without
> > consensus, the status quo remains just that.
> >
> > Meanwhile, WindowsNT's market share continues to climb, supplanting what
> > *might* have been FreeBSD market share... Too bad for us that they aren't
> > saddled with a 'traditional' steep learning curve...
No, that's not what I meant. I'm not qualified to do an in-depth anaylsis of
NT's success; however, I _know_ that an appreciable number of people who might
have chosen a UNIX-like OS end up giving up in frustration... Just _installing_
most UNIX-alikes is a daunting task for the average user, and once they _do_
manage to get to their first login: prompt, they find themselves in a foreign
place where the signposts are not all that obvious. If they ask for help, they
are likely to be greeted by RTFM and UTSL, and they often don't know what
FM to R.
Most of the 'traditionalists' would probably say that we are better off keeping
the clueless out of the club, and maybe that's a valid point of view. But some
of us would like to see more commercial support for FreeBSD, and the way to get
that is obviously to increase the user base, even if it means inviting in the
unwashed masses.
In short, I think that anything that can be done to flatten the learning
curve, to make the install easier, to make customizing the environment easier,
especially when it comes at no real cost (like friendlier kernel config
files, for example) is a Good Thing, and will help us, at least a little,
to minimize the advantage that NT has with it's familiar Windows interface,
etc.
--
Donald J. Maddox
(dmaddox@scsn.net)
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