FreeBSD on the Desktop (Was iBook THIS THREAD MUST DIE NOW)

[Gerald Davies]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2005 14:52:41 +0000, Frank Shute
<frank at esperance-linux.co.uk> wrote:

> The thing is, those Linux distributions aren't just "glorified
> typewriters", they're everything plus kitchen sink.

not neccessarily, depends what distro and what you install.  its about
choice more than anything.  i do agree with you though that some of
the distros seem bloaty now.

out of interest - have any of you tried gentoo?

> My notion is that most people don't need and shouldn't be given
> general purpose computers. They're outrageously complicated and
> difficult to maintain.

your avg person isn't going to like fbsd IMHO.  

do you mean that they should adopt an 'appliance nature' in that tools
are made for their job?

i reckon thats where apple have it right - narrow hardware platform &
an OS that works.  it doesn't suprise me that people are moving
towards OSX as a desktop and still using the other bsd/linux distros
in a server capacitiy.

> My proposal is to start people off with an extremely small tool set,
> allow them to familiarise and become proficient with that toolset and
> *then* expand it. To begin with they shouldn't have to concern
> themselves with any sort of system administration (they'll be able to
> do some things with sudo), except copying the odd file.
> 
> ATM, the Linux desktop offerings presents the user with an enormous
> assortment of software and an arcane and complicated desktop
> environment - people are overwhelmed.

actually, having a distro with tons of apps does have its benefits
(even if you don't install them all) - if you don't have access to
broadband then its actually rather useful to have 5 or 6 ISOs with a
fair selection of apps.

these threads didn't die then ;-)

cheers,

g