Ars Technica article on FreeBSD new user experience

[Chris]

On Thu, 9 Apr 2020 14:34:20 -0500 Kyle Evans kevans at freebsd.org said

> On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 2:05 PM Ed Maste <emaste at freebsd.org> wrote:
> >
> > Jim Salter has an article in Ars Technica discussing his experience
> > with FreeBSD 12.1 as a desktop:
> >
> > https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/not-actually-linux-distro-review-freebsd-12-1-release/
> >
> > There are some points in there that might involve misunderstanding,
> > but there are also a number of real issues raised about the experience
> > a new (or newish) desktop FreeBSD user will have. It will be a good
> > idea for us to examine these, and offer advice or corrections if
> > appropriate, and otherwise look how we can improve the FreeBSD
> > experience for new users.
> 
> Random small collection of thoughts I had after reading this:
> 
> 1. re: LiveCD/Amnesiac prompt, we really should indicate the expected
> credentials... we already do special stuff in release/ for install
> media, my initial impression is that this shouldn't be all too hard.
> 
> 2. re: default shell and niceties: complete agreement, IMO we should
> at least have basically usable history at a minimum
> 
> 3. re: `pkg search xorg` -- that makes sense, given "pkg search xorg
> returns too many hits to fit on a single page of a text-mode console".
> Looking at sample output for that specific inquiry:
> 
> linux-c7-xorg-libs-7.7_8       Xorg libraries (Linux CentOS 7.7.1908)
> xorg-7.7_3                     X.Org complete distribution metaport
> xorg-apps-7.7_4                X.org apps meta-port
> xorg-cf-files-1.0.6            X.org cf files for use with imake builds
> xorg-dmx-1.20.8,1              Distributed Multihead X from X.Org
> xorg-docs-1.7.1,1              X.org documentation files
> 
> I wonder if we shouldn't push the version numbers into a second column
> so it's easier to glean.
IMHO that's a really good idea.

On a similar note; may I humbly suggest that the current motd(5), while
informative, is a bit overwhelming to new users. Perhaps replace some
of it's current contents with a: To bootstrap a desktop on your new install
enter "pkg install xorg"... or something along those lines. Maybe just a
reference to a text document in examples that provides some suggestions/
solutions.

> The initial column with full pkgname is a bit
> too noisy for my eyes. Further, and this only really applies probably
> in conjunction with other potential problems and may be completely
> incorrect, but I think we should be giving our users something that
> they can just quickly slap onto a `pkg install ` line and have the
> greatest chance of doing the right thing. AFAICT pkg-search won't
> trigger a `pkg update` before the search, so by the time you actually
> pkg update+install the remote repo may not have that specific package
> (w/ version) anymore:
> 
> 4. re: /proc, we should hold a separate discussion on this list about
> whether we can mount /proc by default with debugging facilities
> eradicated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Kyle Evans

--Chris