Explaining FreeBSD features

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Warren Smith [mailto:warren at wandrsmith.net]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 10:17 AM
>To: Ted Mittelstaedt
>Cc: Fafa Hafiz Krantz; advocacy at freebsd.org
>Subject: RE: Explaining FreeBSD features
>
>
>Ted Mittelstaedt said:
>> FreeBSD is targeted at 2 main groups of people:
>>
>> 1) Very knowledgeable people who are using it for personal, or
>> in-house corporate projects.
>>
>> 2) Very knowledgeable people who are using it to construct
>> turnkey systems for customers who couldn't care less what is
>> under the hood.
>>
>> By contrast, Windows and Linux are in fact, general computer
>> operating system products.  They are targeted at groups #1 and
>> #2, but they are also targeted at group #3 which are:
>>
>> 3) People who barely know how to push a button who have a problem
>> they need to fix with a computer operating system, and they
>> really don't care if they understand how the fix works as long
>> as it works.
>>
>>
>> This gives rise to a rather serious Catch-22 with FreeBSD:
>>
>> You need to really understand intimately how FreeBSD works
>> and how computer software that runs on it works in order to
>> get it to work well enough for you to learn intimately how it
>> works.
>>
>> Windows and Linux solved this Catch-22 by dumbing-down the
>> interface to their operating systems.  Thus, an ignoramus
>> can get up and running with both of these systems, and that
>> person can remain fat, dumb, and happy, completely ignorant
>> of what he is doing, and those systems will still work enough
>> to get the job done.  It may be a half-assed fix, but it is
>> better than nothing.
>>
>> FreeBSD by contrast, long ago decided not to do this.  For
>> starters, if you dumbed-down the FreeBSD interface, then to
>> most people FreeBSD wouldn't be any different than Linux
>> or Windows, so why mess with it?  But, most importantly, a
>> dumbed-down interface gets in the way of a knowledgeable person,
>> and over time becomes a tremendous liability.
>>
>
>I agree that these 3 groups exist and that FreeBSD is probably not
>appropriate for those in group #3.  However, I think there is another
>group that is not represented here.  That would be those that are not in
>group #3 because they DO care about understanding how things
>work, but are
>also not in groups #1 or #2 because, although they may be relatively
>knowledgeable about computers when compared to group #3, they have never
>used a non-Microsoft OS.  Lets call these people group #4.
>

That group isn't targeted by FreeBSD or Linux which is why I didn't
include it.  In fact there are several other groupings of non-Windows
operating system consumers that you could make.

For the sake of discussion, your group #4 is too broad.  Rather, group 4
is divided into the knowledgeable non-UNIX users (4a) and the wannabe
non-UNIX
users (4b).

>I think that, although Linux aspires to group #3, it is actually from
>group #4 which they gain most of their "converts".  The efforts
>that Linux
>has made to "dumb down" their interface make it easier for
>those in group
>#4 to understand because it is closer to what they already know.
>

The Windows users that Linux 'converts' are pretty much 4b users.  These
are people who consider themselves power users, and know just enough
to be dissatisfied with Windows.  But, they will not make the effort
needed
to really understand how something works.  Linux allows them to use a
non-Windows OS without really understanding it, which is what they want.

The 4a users, by contrast, may be attracted to Linux initially due to the
ease-of-entry issue your bringing up.  But they try it and find out that
it's
dumbed-down interface gets in the way just as much as the Windows
dumbed-down
interface.  That's where I think the majority of new FreeBSD converts
come from
- people that started with Windows, outgrew it, tried Linux for a while
and
got disgusted with the hand-holding, then went to FreeBSD and never
looked back.

>I think that projects like PCBSD are also targeting group #4 by lowering
>the bar for entry into the "enlightened" world of BSD.  Having installed
>PCBSD a while back, I was impressed with the easy installation.
> Although
>I, being a somewhat experienced FreeBSD user, would prefer more control
>over the installation process, I feel confident in recommending PCBSD to
>friends in group #4.  This is something I had stopped doing with FreeBSD
>because of the hand-holding necessary just to get it installed and
>configured enough to be even remotely usable by someone with their
>experience.
>

The question you have to ask is: are your Group 4b friends who end up
liking PCBSD eventually graduating to the full FreeBSD system?  If they
aren't, then PCBSD isn't meeting a goal of acting as a transition from
Windows to FreeBSD.

Now maybe PCBSD is going to have an independent future in it's own right,
if so more power to it.  But how will that help FreeBSD?

>
>I agree that there is no substitute for this learning process.  Perhaps
>the generally high level of technical knowledge of those in the FreeBSD
>community can be attributed more to the weeding-out process of having to
>break this Catch-22 than to anything else.
>
>However, I can see benefits of lowering the "cost-of-admission" a little
>by making the installation easier, as PCBSD has done.  Making it easier
>for newbies to get started with this learning process will increase the
>number who find they have what it takes to see it through and become
>valuable members of the FreeBSD community.
>

The problem isn't 'having what it takes'  Most computer users who have
any
sophistication 'have what it takes'  The problem is WANTING to use what
you
have.

It takes a certain kind of person to be able to look at a big mountain in
front of him or her that is in between him or her and something he or she
wants,
and not be daunted by it, and to just do it.  The majority of people are
inherently lazy, and partway up that mountain will start making
compromises
and end up never climbing it.  They have the ability to climb it, but
their
own laziness hamstrings their ability.

Remember Aesop's fable about the Fox and the Grapes.  Most people on the
mountain when their own laziness gets in the way of what they want, will
start spurning the goal.  That is why there's so much hostility in some
of
the Linux community against BSD.  They of course claim it's because BSD
ignores GPL as much as possible, but secretly it's because they know they
are too lazy to put the effort into becoming well versed in BSD, and
FreeBSD's
existence is a constant reminder of this.

Ted