lament about freebsd sacrifices

[Andrew L. Gould]

On Wednesday 14 April 2004 01:55 pm, Dan Nelson wrote:
> In the last episode (Apr 14), Peter Leftwich said:
> > I thought I would post this as something of a warning.  Using FreeBSD
> > as a primary, non-dual-boot OS means sacrificing.  Here is a partial
> > list of sacrifices, as compared to Microsoft Windows XP:
> >
> > * webcam ball
See video camera and video chat below.

> > * flatbed scanner
>
> ports/graphics/sane-* ?
>
> > * color printer

Epson C82 using apsfilter and gnomeprint.

>
> Does it not talk postscript?  Does ghostscript have a driver for it?
>
> > * digital cameras
I use Sony Cybershot DSC-P92:
1. Plug camera into computer using usb, check dmesg for umass device and mount 
memory card file system; or....
2. plug camera (AV out) into brooktree device (AV in).

>
> The ones I have used are just umass devices, msdosfs-formatted.
>
> > * firewire devices

My Maxtor firewire harddrive works fine.

> > * several USB 1 and 2 devices

Agreed.  (sigh)

> > * IM software features such as voice and video chat

/usr/ports/net/gnomemeeting
Plug microphone into sound card.
Plug camera AV out into brooktree device.  Camera should be in movie mode.  
Any camera/camcorder with AV out should work.

(I've never tried sending a cable tv show over gnomemeeting.  hmm...)

> > * websites that use ActiveX (Windows) controls
> > * MP3 devices
>
> ports/audio/{gnupod,gtkpod,rio,rio50,rioutil,snowstar} ?

Study before you shop, then shop for hardware interface flexibility and be 
creative.  This isn't as easy as shopping for Macs or Windows; but it's part 
of the price for running a lean, mean operating system.

Let it be fun.

Andrew Gould