Simplifying FreeBSD Installation

[James Gallagher]

On 8 Mar 2004, at 22:44, Jerry McAllister wrote:

> It might help to have some wizards for network setup, but in the 
> FreeBSD
> world, the network topologies are many and varied.   So, just doing a
> MS predestination trick and creating a wizard that limits you to 
> someone's
> narrow idea of a network would cause more trouble than just learning 
> how
> to do it right.   A couple of wizards to do a couple of very basic, no
> extras setups for say a dialup and a NIC hookup to an existing and
> well functioning lan might be useful, but FreeBSD goes so much beyond 
> that
> that it leaves the world of wizards far behind.
>
I like the point you make there. Wizards can't cover all the network 
configurations that some people may want. There is a simple wizard 
which will get you started, did the job for my 
workstation-cum-fileserver. But you're given the tools to do what we 
want. That's the value proposition for FreeBSD, it's meant to be 
configurable. Perhaps at the expense of 'friendliness', but it's never 
friendly at the expense of being open to configuration.

> No one is going to move to FreeBSD if all they want is someone to do
> everything for them.   That type of person will not be swayed by 
> evidence
> of a more powerful, better supported, more secure system.   They are
> only interested in not doing anything.   Most of them would prefer not
> to even have to stick in a CD or DVD if possible.   So, FreeBSD or any
> of the other real OSen will not attract them.

I thought that was a bit harsh. Different things for different people 
and I'm sure if  all people could, they would love to prevent their 
computers from doing harm.


You (Gerard) also should consider that there is a vast difference 
between the *BSD culture and the Linux culture, IMHO. There isn't the 
same desire to convert everyone, there's no jumping up and down 
screaming about the GPL etc. etc. The *BSD community wants the best OS 
not the most widely used OS. Being the best takes effort on everyone's 
part. Using a computer should be easy, but a *BSD is intended for a 
massive array of purposes. Many of which are hard, no other way of 
looking at it.

My loose change :)

James