5.1 - should I?

[Michael Collette]

Jesse Guardiani wrote:
> Michael Collette wrote:
>> I'm a little leary about putting 5 on there, as it'll be my first install
>> of
>> this version.  I wouldn't mind so much playing around with it on a box
>> that I would have in front of me, but this is going to a user that has no
>> intention
>> of learning Unix.
> 
> Whoa. Hold up!
> 
> For users who want to learn as little about *nix as possible, I'd
> recommend Red Hat Linux. Full GUI driven configuration. FreeBSD will
> likely only frustrate such a user.

Oh no, not going down that road again.  I bought into that "myth" on this 
user's last laptop.  I tried both Mandrake and Suse for him.  Sure, both had 
really perty installers and even some nifty GUI configs.

What eventually killed this was what keeps me with FreeBSD to this day.  The 
Linux distros were just about impossible to upgrade the applications!  Remote 
administration, which is how I assist this user usually, was an order of 
magnitude more complex due to config files all over the place with weird 
interdependant relationships.

At this time the user in question has been running FreeBSD as a desktop OS for 
over a year on an aging Sony Vaio laptop.  When properly configured a user 
should rarely have to deal with the underlying system.  FreeBSD simply does a 
better job of making it possible to set this up in my opinion.
 
> I _still_ haven't gotten ACPI or APM suspend successfully working under
> 4.x or 5.x on my IBM A30p. And I'm not a dummy. The code just isn't
> interfacing properly with my hardware. I can get standby to work under 5.x
> with APM, but nothing more. (And standby barely helps at all on this
> laptop)
> 
> I did, however, get APM working fully under Debian Linux. And I've since
> had some time to fiddle with Red Hat Linux. (I like it much better than
> debian.)

I've got APM working just fine with my Thinkpad T23, which isn't THAT much 
older.  Looks like a very similar bios, if not the same darn thing.
 
> Red Hat is a good choice for a user who doesn't want to learn *nix, but
> even Red Hat is a long shot IMHO with such a user. Usually users like that
> need to get either a windows box or a Mac. (Preferably a Mac)

Mac is not an option.  I don't want to support it, and the user has already 
purchased a Thinkpad.  I'm personally more impressed with the features versus 
price of the IBM box compared to the G4 laptops anyway.
 
> As for me, I'm sticking with FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE, but I've got a different
> set of needs than a normal GUI-familiar user.

Just to be clear on this point, the user in question will continue to rely on 
my configuring his setup.  This was even the case when he ran Windows, only 
now it's easier to ssh in and tweak things.  No more virus problems either!

Later on,
-- 
"Always listen to experts.  They'll tell you what can't be done, and why.  
Then do it."
- Robert A. Heinlein