Sadly, my tinker-time has run out....

[Mike Jeays]

On Sunday 02 September 2007 02:22, Michael Hauber wrote:
> Hey, all...
>
> I've been a user of FreeBSD and OpenBSD for quite a while now. 
> Unfortunatly, I haven't had much time to tinker lately, and that's unlikely
> to change in the near future.  Sadly, I need to get an OS that my wife
> would be more comfortable using and that wouldn't be as time-comsuming to
> make it more comfortable for her.
>
> I downloaded the uberyl live CD and found that ubuntu seems to pick up on
> everything I have on the laptop (as well as all the attachments), so I'm
> downloading it now.
>
> Because I've put so much time into getting this FreeBSD install where it is
> now (and because I favor the BSDs), I'm still a bit hesitant...  Has anyone
> here had much experience with ubunu as a desktop?  Negatives/positives?
>
> Kind of OT, I guess...  I'd just rather hear it from someone in this group
> rather than the inevitable, "Oh yeah.  You won't be sorry." from the ubuntu
> folk (salespitches == fingernails on a chalkboard :) ).
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
>
> PS.  Yes, I've played with PC-BSD.  Unfortunately, that's still more work
> than I have time for.

I am one of those sad cases who used FreeBSD for many years as my primary 
desktop at home, and then switched to Ubuntu about 6 months ago.  I still run 
FreeBSD on an older server, that runs round the clock and is 100% reliable.

I was only slightly frustrated by FreeBSD, mainly because of my inability to 
get a Hauuppage TV card to work, even after a few queries on this list.  I 
also found that other multimedia software seemed more available and easier to 
set up - I not saying they were impossible, just that I seemed to be spending 
more time trying to get them to work than I wanted.

Ubuntu works very well 'out of the box', and their Synaptic tool for finding 
and installing software is excellent. I am now running VirtualBox under 
Ubuntu, and it works extremely well; I can run W2K and XP for occasional use 
as guests, and what seems like full speed. (Much faster than QEMU, which I 
used before.)  Both KDE and GNOME work fine, and for basic work with Firefox, 
Thunderbird, OpenOffice and Postgresql, there is nothing much to choose 
between FreeBSD and Ubuntu from an office user's point of view.  Both work 
great.  Both seem rock solid, and recover well from the occasional power 
outages I get at my new home.  (Ought to get a battery backup before disaster 
hits one day, I suppose).  All the development tools are a few mouse-clicks 
away.

I may switch back one day, as I like FreeBSD very much for its sound design 
and underlying philosophy.  I feel 'guilty' about having changed!

-- 
Mike Jeays
http://www.jeays.ca