Re: Hate Linux?? (was Re: [Nolug] Woo hoo!!! On-line with wireless!!!)

On Fri, Jun 12, 2009 at 10:24:17AM -0500, Joey Kelly wrote:
> On Fri June 12 2009 10:04 am, James Thompson wrote:
> > I am disappointed that the "Linux Community" hasn't developed a solid
> > desktop offering.
> >
> > I actually need to try out the latest from the FreeBSD
>
> I am the first to remind people that BSD is better-designed than Linux, but
> your complaint about desktops applies to both platforms... you're still
> looking at KDE, Gnome or any of the minor desktops, and all of them run on X.

There's a lot of good work being done, and most of the time I stay
abreast via the official forum the recently set up. BSDForums.com was
the *goto* place for the community when I started on FreeBSD in 2000,
but it decayed under lack of proper administration and spambots. So,
"FreeBSD" was pressured into providing a similar, official forum.

  http://forums.freebsd.org/

I peruse it on occasion when I feel the need to reconnect with the
community :).

Regarding the "better design," I think a lot of it has to do with the
fact they they don't really do distros because all of the BSDs provide
a complete OS environment, and not just the kernel. In recent years, a
lot of focus has been on improving SMP capabilities, and there a lot
of numbers that suggest it is as good or better than Linux in this
regard. Another area of interest is the integration of ZFS, which I
believe is helped by the compatibility of the BSD license with
whatever license SUN distributes its ZFS "stuff." It's making good
progress with virtualization, and I've always been a fan of its
concept of "jails." I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I also
really like their Ports and Packages system.

There are many drawbacks, that I recognize. For example, their Ports
are often behind the latest Package releases; and this was embarrasingly
apparent in the fact that up until recently (if so), Perl 5.10 was not
even available in Ports! Most issues have to do with it being "behind,"
but I can certainly deal with this. I am not very adventurous with
bleeding edge things, which I think is apparent.

>
> The best *nix desktop is still Aqua, and it looks like you're using that
> whenever possible.

I like OSX, especially since it makes me smile seeing my wife use her
Mac; she is sick of me telling her about it being based on BSD though,
but is thankful in the fact that if she can't figure out how to do
something on the Mac (which almost never happens), I can do it for her
in a jiffy (even if I have to bust open a terminal window :)

And I think I've told this story before, but when I decided to dump
Windows in 2000, I turned to Redhat 5.2. Frustrated with the
complexities of setting it up (as a n00b), I turned to FreeBSD because
I had heard about it (and I still don't recall where), but I was up
and running (and hooked) in no time flat. So initially, FreeBSD was
just easier for me to get going, and I think this has a lot to do with
why I've stuck with it.

Brett

>
> --
> Joey Kelly
> Minister of the Gospel and Linux Consultant
> http://joeykelly.net

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Received on 06/12/09