Ars Technica article on FreeBSD new user experience

[Dr. Nikolaus Klepp]

Anno domini 2020 Fri, 10 Apr 20:23:20 +0000
 Rick Macklem scripsit:
> Mike Remski wrote:
> >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.
> Yes. I'll admit I didn't know FuryBSD existed until now, but if the web page is
> accurate, it would be fine.

I just tried the XFCE version of it after reading about it here. It's quite nice :)

Nik

> 
> Maybe all that should be done is a reference to it on FreeBSD's web page.
> "If you are new to FreeBSD and want a desktop system, you could try..."
> FreeNAS should be mentioned as well, for people who want a NAS server, imho.
> 
> Although I said a new FreeBSD release, I don't see why it needs to be done by
> the FreeBSD project itself, just that I didn't realize others were currently doing this.
> 
> Maybe someone should ask the author of this article to try FuryBSD?
> 
> >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.
> I feel about the same w.r.t. NFS servers.
> However, I've known good technical people who just haven't used FreeBSD
> who have found FreeNAS worked just fine whereas setting up a server using
> a FreeBSD release didn't work for them.
> 
> rick
> 
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