Future of FreeBSD: Software Store?

[Manish Jain]

On 11/19/18 23:16, MikaelNikolaev via freebsd-questions wrote:
> it seems very difficult to install new software onto it or otherwise learn the ins and outs of the OS

This is now more true of Windows ! It takes ages to figure out how to 
work with Windows 7 / 10. Ever since MS moved beyond Win 2000/XP, the OS 
interface has crapped out.

Unix'es on the other hand have become very easy to work with. Linux can 
be used with very little prior OS knowledge.

FreeBSD expects you to have the minimum knowledge. Once you know the 
minimum, working with FreeBSD is like a charm. Till you do not know the 
minimum, you have to be willing to learn - the man pages and Google are 
the standard tools.

The FreeBSD ports system for software installation is unbeatable, and 
probably just what you are looking for. To get the ports system 
(populated at /usr/ports), use the command:

portsnap fetch extract

Once you have /usr/ports, cd to any port therein you like and :

make install clean

I should probably mention a way to make life easier for newcomers to get 
started with FreeBSD. The biggest hurdle with FreeBSD has been the 
longish procedure for X/desktop installation - which is done separately 
and after the base system installation.

If you are okay with KDE, I would like to exhort you to try my own 
preparation :

pkg install mkdesktop
mkdesktop

It does not get much easier.


Regards,
Manish Jain