Ars Technica article on FreeBSD new user experience

[Lars Engels]

On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 03:09:30AM -0400, 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.
> 
> 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.


There's also NomadBSD[1] which comes with a pre-configured Openbox
desktop, Firefox and other GUI programs and sensible defaults.

It's a bootable live USB system but there's also a installer included.

[1] https://NomadBSD.org/