Best way to switch from Linux to BSD

[Adam Vande More]

On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 2:57 PM, Paul Schmehl <pschmehl_lists at tx.rr.com>wrote:

> Or just follow the instructions.  If people really find that difficult
>> I'm not sure any OS is going to be the answer long term.  If you do
>> enough computer use you'll have to follow instructions at some point.
>>
>> http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/desktop-browser
>> s.html
>>
>>  Imagine that.  And yet you can find numerous posts in questions from
> people who struggle with it.  Must be stupid people then, huh?


I'll let you answer that.


>
>  Java is a different matter.  Handbook should be updated to use the iced
>> tea plugin since the other java plugin doesn't work on new FF plus it's
>> other deficiencies.
>>
>>
> At least you're willing to admit there have been some deficiencies....


And yet I was already proven wrong on that point.

> Comparing Ubuntu and FreeBSD is a false choice and if you want a rough
> equivalent of ubuntu, use PCBSD.  I don't agree with what you say is so
> hard, but there are options to take most of that overhead away.
>

Can we at least agree that the OP found it hard?  Could we further agree
> that he's not the first one to encounter problems?
>

What's so hard about PCBSD?


>
> Sure FreeBSD isn't hard for those of us who have used it for years, but
> seriously, to expect a newbie to just roll the OS out, get a desktop up and
> running, install a functional flash and java without encountering any
> difficult issues is a bit unrealistic, don't you think?
>

Depends on what you mean by newbie.  Someone who's an experienced *nix
person it shouldn't be that hard at all.  Coming from a Windows background
or someone that thinks gnome is ubuntu yeah it probably a real shock to the
system.  However the fact that they are here means they are willing to
learn.  If you aren't, it's not the thing for you.

That's why my desktop OS is now a Mac.  Because when I have to attend a
> meeting using Adobe Connect (which I will doing next week), I can't do that
> in a FreeBSD desktop without a *lot* of work and tweaking, if at all.  When
> I need to do a remote session with a vendor to fix yet-another-problem on a
> stupid Windows server, I need Java to work flawlessly with Go To My PC.  It
> may or may not do that on FreeBSD.  No, it's not FreeBSD's "fault", but who
> really gives a damn when it needs to work.


All those are your problems, not FreeBSD ones because I can assure they
work.  For example, promox uses a web java applet to control it's VNC
connections.  I use it without issue all the time.  Not including compile
time, it took like 6 minutes to install and test.

And in response to Doug: Once again, comparing Ubuntu to FreeBSD is a false
choice.  Use Debian <==> FreeBSD, Ubuntu <==> PCBSD and you'll see the
overhead of running such a system swings the other way.  Getting a current
version of KDE running properly on Debian is no small feat, whereas
typically on FreeBSD it's just a compile away.

-- 
Adam Vande More