Re: Easiest desktop BSD distro

[four.harris...@googlemail.com]

Sorry for top posting - my phone makes it awkward.

I take your point about wireless config. Perhaps that was a poor example.

To take Windows out of the equation (I've nothing against it per se) how about 
compiling the kernel? I left Linux a while ago, but at that time compiling and 
installing a new kernel on Red Hat or Slackware (to stick within my experience) 
was significantly harder to do than make buildkernel; make installkernel, 
once you had it figured. I'd suggest that part of the reason for that is the 
effort in Linux to make it 'easy to learn' and therefore hide the guts of stuff 
like this away.

--

Peter Harrison
www.4harrisons.blogspot.com

-original message-
Subject: Re: Easiest desktop BSD distro
From: Jerry freebsd.u...@seibercom.net
Date: 30/03/2011 18:12

On Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:32:29 -0700 (PDT)
four.harris...@googlemail.com four.harris...@googlemail.com
articulated:

 Once you've scaled the learning curve, you will appreciate how easy
 it is to achieve things with FreeBSD compared to other OS which
 attempt to make things 'easy' for you (wireless networking springs to
 mind - in my experience if Windows can't do it 'automagically' then
 you haven't a hope in hell of finding out what's wrong and fixing it).

You have conveniently left out the part that if the OS does not have
a driver for the wireless card, specifically N protocol cards, then
you haven't any hope of getting it to work, period.

In any case, the easiest way to get any wireless card to work in
Windows, at least up to Win-7, was to deactivate the Windows wireless
utility and use the one that accompanies the device, assuming that it
does come with a configuration utility. I have not seen any of the top
rated ones that did not. If for some reason that did not work, you
could still manually enter any of the specific information manually,
assuming that you actually took the time to learn (where did I here
that term before) how to accomplish it.

-- 
Jerry ✌
freebsd.u...@seibercom.net

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RE: Easiest desktop BSD distro

[four.harris...@googlemail.com]

When I find things in FreeBSD difficult to accomplish (eg. first time upgrading 
world  kernel from source) I reflect on something I read I think in the 
introduction to 'Learning Perl' which applies equally to FreeBSD.

If there is a choice between making things easy to learn and easy to use, the 
design principle is to make it easy to use - even if that comes at the cost of 
a steeper learning curve.

Once you've scaled the learning curve, you will appreciate how easy it is to 
achieve things with FreeBSD compared to other OS which attempt to make things 
'easy' for you (wireless networking springs to mind - in my experience if 
Windows can't do it 'automagically' then you haven't a hope in hell of finding 
out what's wrong and fixing it).

So the easiest BSD? Any of them, if you're prepared to invest the time learning 
it.

--

Peter Harrison
www.4harrisons.blogspot.com

-original message-
Subject: Easiest desktop BSD distro
From: Jason Hsu jhsu802...@jasonhsu.com
Date: 29/03/2011 21:14

I want to learn BSD.  I find that the best way to familiarize myself with a 
distro is to adopt it as my main distro (for web browsing, email, word 
processing, etc.).  

But the challenge of BSD have so far proven too much for me.  It would take too 
long to configure FreeBSD to my liking.  I couldn't figure out what to enter in 
GRUB to multi-boot Linux and BSD.  I tried PC-BSD, GhostBSD, and DragonflyBSD 
in VirtualBox.  I've found PC-BSD agonizingly slow to install and operate, and 
KDE didn't even boot up when I logged in.  GhostBSD has too many things that 
don't work, such as the keyboard on my laptop and my Internet connection on my 
desktop.  DragonflyBSD didn't boot up in Virtualbox.

I recommend Linux Mint as a first Linux distro.  It's user-friendly, 
well-established, widely used, includes codecs/drivers that Ubuntu doesn't, and 
has a Windows-like user interface.  For those with older computers, I recommend 
Puppy Linux or antiX Linux as a first distro.  I'm looking for the analogous 
choice in the BSD world.

So what do you recommend as my first desktop BSD distro?  What desktop BSD 
distro is so easy to use that even Paris Hilton or Jessica Chicken of the Sea 
Simpson can handle it?

Please keep in mind that I have a slow Internet connection, and these BSD 
distros are ENORMOUS.  It took some 12-14 hours to download PC-BSD.

-- 
Jason Hsu jhsu802...@jasonhsu.com
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