Gnome & FreeBSD

[Predrag Punosevac]

Michael S wrote:
> Good day all,
>
> I decided to add GUI to my GUI-less FreeBSD machine. I
> am  considering installing Gnome, which I haven't used
> for long while and the last time was on Linux anyway.
> The reason is that most of my favorite applications
> use gtk libraries, like Firefox, GAIM (can't get used
> to the new name),wxPython and others. In short I
> wanted to avoid 2 huge sets of libraries (gtk and qt)
> by not installing KDE.
> I wanted to know how Gnome feels on FreeBSD, is it
> polished enough? Are there crashes? Any caveats at
> all?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Michael
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>   
I run Gnome 2.18 full version compiled from ports + fifth toe + gnome 
office +etc in another words everything.
Computer is home made Intel Core 2 Duo E 4300 2x512 Kb RAM dual channel 
memory DDR2 667. The machine is our main home computer used by my wife 
and my mother in law (people with some Windows experience and no real 
knowledge to speak of). They find it easier to use than Windows machines 
they have at work.

So far stability of Gnome is extraordinary. I have not observed any 
applications hanging except usual problems with licking of sound card.
With little bit of configuration rc.conf, devfs.conf and fstab which I 
am more than happy to provide to you everything works out of box. All 
multimedia, printing, scanning, cameras, webcam, xchat, vnc works 
flawlessly with exception of sound recording (Skype) due to the fact 
that I am using OSS compiled from ports for my audio card and I am 
reading documentation how to set up mixer and recorder.
I might also get another audio card because VoIP is very important to me.

Computer fells faster then working on KDE (Original installation was 
PC-BSD) Also it feels significantly faster then my Ubuntu desktop at the 
University. I have to admit though that my machine at home has slightly 
better hardware.


On another look, I do use OpenBox 3 with the help of  pypanel  and 
Rox-filler manager on one older machine. It feels faster than  any 
desktop I use at the University or at home so it is your choice. I 
really think that Gnome BSD team did grate job to bring FreeBSD to level
grand ma users. On another hand for pure productivity I have to say that 
good WM is still probably better choice.