Explaining FreeBSD features

[Warren Smith]

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.

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.

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.

> With FreeBSD, the only way that a newbie can break the Catch-22 is
> old-fashioned mental elbow grease.  In short, by learning a bit
> at a time, expanding on that, and repeating the process.  It is a
> long slow way to get to know anything, but once you get there, you
> really do know everything in intimate detail.
>
> This isn't a popular thing to tell newbies.
>

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.

-- 
Warren Smith
warren at wandrsmith.net