[Micheal Patterson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "wendy" <uberdoift at sympatico.ca>
To: <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 10:52 AM


> Easy to install
> FreeBSD can be installed from a variety of media including CD-ROM,
DVD-ROM,
> floppy disk, magnetic tape, an MS-DOS® partition, or if you have a network
> connection, you can install it directly over anonymous FTP or NFS. All you
> need is a couple of formatted 1.44MB floppies and these directions.
>
>
>
> THIS IS NOT TRUE! - the installation actually is very difficult and so
this
> "Superior" OS is not for 99.9% computer users - I'll probably kill my time
> only if I lost my job and stay home having nothing to do to configure how
to
> install it.
>
> Comparing to Windows, this BSD is very dumb- want to me to tell it
> everything. No wonder it's Free.

This "BSD" is as smart or as dumb as the end user wants it to be.

- Plug and Play has come a long way since it's inception years ago. However,
when your windows system decides that your Nvidia 5900 is actually a Trident
8900D, or your SoundBlaster is actually an Adlib card, or your MS Mouse is a
Logitech, no matter what drivers you as an admin, reading the manual that
came with the component, and scratching your head in wonder, then you'll
understand why they really call it Plug and Pray and you'd be forever
grateful if only Windows would ask you more than it does.

- Windows is much less intelligent than it believes itself to be and will
run headlong into a self cratering spiral trying to convince itself that
it's doing the right thing. It's the OS, so it must know more than the
Administrator! It will do so without so much as an error notice in the event
log. It will lock up the desktop with 100% cpu so you can't stop it while
it's on it's merry little way until it either blue screens or locks up hard.

- BSD is as smart, or as dumb, as you want it to be. BSD will also run
headlong into a self cratering spiral, but, it will do so screaming and
complaining every bloody step of the way. It will also offer you the ability
to thwart the disaster because it believes that you, as root, know what
you're doing and trusts you to know. It will diligently do as you request
until it can scream at you no more and the kernel reboots in panic.

Create a file called com1, then try to delete it on a Windows box and see
how smart it really is. You know com1 can be deleted, but Windows will throw
a fit, it believes that the OS is smarter than the user and knows what's
best. In some cases, it's right, others, it's not. If this is a virus file,
you're screwed because the OS won't allow anything to destroy the file. Ever
tried to kill a specific process in Windows and got the Access Denied error
when you know full well it can be killed?

My Freebsd will allow me to rm -rf / and will continue to try to delete
everything on the system because it trusts me to know that's a bad thing. It
will inform me that it's dieing through it's various avenues, yet it will
continue to destroy itself simply because I told it to do so. It will
continue to eat itself alive until it can no longer perform the operation.
Why does it do that you wonder? It's really very simple. It's because system
admins prefer to be in control over their systems and not have their systems
in control of them.

--

Micheal Patterson
TSG Network Administration
405-917-0600

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