Ars Technica article on FreeBSD new user experience

[Mike Remski]

On Thursday, April 9, 2020 5:39:45 PM EDT, Rick Macklem wrote:
> 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 ...
> Since this is a public mailing list, I'll repost here...
>
> One thought here that I'll throw out (I have no idea if others 
> have suggested
> this before)…
> What about creating a separate release for desktops/laptops that installs
> X Windows etc from a simple installer "out of the box"?
> --> To keep it simple, don't try to support all hardware, just 
> stuff that is widely
>       available and already well supported by the drivers in FreeBSD.
>       Obviously amd64 only plus a few widely available display 
> chip sets that work
>       well, etc and so on...
>
> If it doesn't support the hardware someone has, then they can go the regular
> release/install route. (It would be nice to maintain an up to 
> date list of what
> hardware it supports, but it might be easier to just have it 
> start up live CD
> style and then see if the hardware it needs is there.
> --> Sorry, can't do this display chipset to that sound chip or...
>
> Just an idea, rick
> ps: I am not volunteering to help do this. I run FreeBSD on laptop/desktop
>       systems, but bare bones. No X Windows...

Something like what old PCBSD did?  How about FuryBSD as a starting point?  
Joe Maloney is layering either XFCE or KDE (2 different ISO/install media) 
on top of a FreeBSD install, so out of the box, the install gives you 
FreeBSD with either XFCE or KDE.

Disclaimer:  I've been using FreeBSD with X as a daily driver for a long 
time and honestly never found it that difficult to set up.  Hardest was 
when everything started to need the drm-kmod bits, but once I understood 
what I needed to do, it's not been an issue.