Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 16:17:41 -0800 From: Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.ORG> To: Bob Giesen <BobGiesen@earthlink.net> Cc: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>, "Douglas R. Spindler" <spindler@dnai.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: A question from a convert from Windows to FreeBSD Message-ID: <20020122161741.A7573@citusc17.usc.edu> In-Reply-To: <007b01c1a381$93765900$328dfea9@pegasus>; from BobGiesen@earthlink.net on Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 02:15:33PM -0600 References: <0ffe01c1a371$661d1b20$6600640a@attbi.com> <20020122104018.C21075@xor.obsecurity.org> <007b01c1a381$93765900$328dfea9@pegasus>
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--6TrnltStXW4iwmi0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, Jan 22, 2002 at 02:15:33PM -0600, Bob Giesen wrote: > > > Here's my question, why do you guys make converting so difficult? > > > > That's a very subjective question, wouldn't you say? >=20 > Not very, no. I've been a computer junkie for 20 years (well, pretty > soon -- I got my first one in Feb., 1981), have made a living at UNIX sys= tem > administration, vocally advocate FreeBSD to any who will listen -- yet it= is > obvious to me why a recent convert from the dark side (a.k.a. micro$haft) > would consider FreeBSD to be difficult to install. Objectively speaking > (and I'm sure that it could be quantified in terms of time and keystrokes= ), > there is not much of a comparison when it comes to ease of installation -- > which is a major reason that FreeBSD installations number in the thousand= s, > rather than millions. No, it is subjective, because for example when I first transferred to FreeBSD a number of years ago I found the instructions very straightforward. The fact that other people find them more confusing is what makes it subjective, by definition. If we're comparing FreeBSD installations with Windows installations, I spent the entire weekend (literally!) last week trying to install Win98 on my K6-2/550 with quite standard hardware. Win98 would boot from CD but refuse to load the ATAPI drivers to read the rest of the CD; the Promise IDE controller wasn't detected out of the box, so I had to transfer my HDs to the motherboard controllers in order to install onto them once I got the CD media to work; the motherboard needed me to download 4 drivers in order for it to work without crashing; and my graphics card (Matrox dual-head G400) didn't work out of the box, and still causes Windows 98 to BSOD at startup every 2 out of 3 startups no matter what driver magic I've tried. Then Windows Update suggested a new driver for my intel fxp ethernet card which totally bodged it up, and I had to do major system file surgery to recover a working driver and stop it from continually trying to install the broken one. I had to disable power management because the default settings cause the system to hang when it tries to suspend. Then I found last night that the FAT16 partition I created using Win98 FDISK was created right in the middle of my UFS partition which was already on the disk. If I didn't have such expertise with Windows administration there is no way in hell I'd have been able to get this thing running. I can hardly think of more things which could have gone wrong with the installation to have made it more difficult. By contrast, FreeBSD installed and runs on the same system without a single hitch. > This is why: > > Since FreeBSD is a community supported project... >=20 > If unsophisticated users could easily install FreeBSD and a free office > app (such as StarOffice or KDE) that would operate on all those m$office > files in circulation, I think you'd see a lot more home offices with Free= BSD > as the system of choice. After all, how many people wouldn't love to get > something for free that will do all they really need of the topheavy > m$office apps? > > [snip] These are all pretty good statements, but unless someone (you?) has time to sit down and make these improvements they won't happen. That's how it works around here, of course.. Kris --6TrnltStXW4iwmi0 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (FreeBSD) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE8TgElWry0BWjoQKURAv2MAKDB//g0By7iaAdyssM/a6sS73ErQgCeK7Dr eorpYkD1V4VdEC3Sfzh2QhI= =2cy6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --6TrnltStXW4iwmi0-- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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