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:
I'm sure you put on your flame-retardant PJ's before you posted, right? So, shall we proceed?
* webcam ball
Heard of webcams, haven't had "ball" (s?) <??> to try one; nobody wants to see me before noon, anyway, and most people probably not after noon, either ... ;-)
My experience with them on Windows: most people who have them don't know how to use them ... I realize that probably you don't fit that profile ... a quick Googling shows that some people have the ability to use some webcams on FreeBSD; can't help you any farther than that ....
* flatbed scanner
Surely you jest? A particular model, perhaps ... which one(s)?
* color printer"Liar, liar, pants on fire"??? :-D
HP 6110xi "All in One" prints beautifully and in color here via apsfilter and hpijs driver.
* digital cameras
Intend to try soon; doubt it's an issue, based on other responses to this thread ...
* firewire devices
All of 'em? There is certainly firewire support in the GENERIC kernel. Whether any extant devices work with it, I can't say. I'm not sure that FireWire really did (is going to?) catch on anyway ... what devices have you tried?
* several USB 1 and 2 devices
I don't doubt that, but "which devices", and then, "are they that important?" might be good questions.
Supporting the Open Source community is a good way to see that such devices *are* added to the code.
In stark contrast to that point of view ;-) , we'll continue with your e-mail:
* websites that use ActiveX (Windows) controls
Groggy L. mentioned that these sites are "non-standard". That's a matter well worth mentioning, and we could sustain
discussion on the need for standards and Microsoft's general
disinclination to follow some of them for quite some time.
It is not likely, no matter Sir Bill's vision for the future, that
the entire world will be running some version of Microsoft's
OSes any time in the future...so it's pretty important to have
standards.
The fact that anything in BSD that would be equivalent to an "ActiveX control" is considered an encroachment upon system security also bears mentioning. It's one thing to have a company like Macromedia or Sun develop software that works with a web server/browser combination to enhance the "surfing" experience, and probably quite another to have sites with embedded software that actually controls your OS....
It's likely that *not* having the ability to have your computer manipulated by the rest of the world at large while browsing isn't a sacrifice at all ...
* MP3 devices
My computer *is* my mp3 device. IIRC, that's what mp3's were created for --- downloads via the Internet ...
Any major sacrifices I've forgotten? ":-\
Yeah, I sacrificed the following to run FreeBSD:
*[High] license fees
*one GUI at a time ("User Bob is currently
logged onto //machine, in order to access //machine's
desktop remotely Bob must log off blah blah, blah"),*limit on maximum filesharing connections (unless you buy another license [and hardware!] to run a PDC)
*100 day (plus!) waits for security fixes
*CLI environment that doesn't have half of what a 'Nix environment does (My brother, NT sysadmin, starts a GUI tool for "traceroute", now what the heck is up with that???)
*corrupt "registry hives"
*"activation"
*registration
*adware, viruses, etc.
*software for removing the above (and associated license fees)
*a user community that doesn't use the above, resulting in a less than satisfying Internet for all of us :-(
*the "enforced option" of sending (y/n?) error reports on core dumps
*no choice of wm's
*increased frequency of reboots
*the necessity of having "Messenger" installed so that my mail client will start in less than 30 seconds....
*"IRQ_LESS_THAN_NOT_EQUAL"
*any white letters on a blue screen (for me, anyway)
*an operating system that can shut my machine down
*without my consent* if it thinks it appropriate to do so
*a few "sacrifices I've forgotten" about by choice
*and, in another couple of years:
*another license fee* and reinstall, followed by the S.O.S.
of how vendors aren't going to release "Longhorn" drivers for
'legacy' peripherals....Hey, we all get tired of machines occasionally. There's one in a shop
near here, neither Windows nor BSD, that I've wanted to fling into
the Marianas Trench for about a month now. And, over the years,
there's a lot of Winboxen that I've wanted to chainsaw or use for
automatic weapon target practice (heh, heh...)
Use whatever OS you want, whichever does what you need or want it to do. However, most of the claims you made are over-generalized and several seem to be untruths, (maybe because you generalized so much?) perhaps born of frustration or what-not, but that doesn't make them _right_ ....
It's quite possible that you've not found FreeBSD completely suitable for your business, which appears to be video. I've found it works well for most of my business; of course, I've also found that I've invested a good deal of time learning how to do things in FreeBSD. I guess maybe that's a trade for the price and aggravations I've listed above. I attempt to leverage my learning in what I do. You may not have that option, so I might understand, a bit, where you're coming from; but I see no reason to malign the Project in this way, as your claims are, as I said, at least half (perhaps more than that?) wrong ....
Peter Leftwich, President & Founder
Video2Video Services
Box 13692, La Jolla, CA, 92039, USA
http://Www.Video2Video.Com
Kevin Kinsey DaleCo, S.P. _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
