Wireless interface

[Valeri Galtsev]

On 1/26/19 12:50 PM, Carmel NY wrote:
> On Sat, 26 Jan 2019 09:54:05 -0600, Rob Belics stated:
> 
>>> It is situations like this that make me love
>>> Microsoft. Connecting a wireless network should not require user
>>> intervention other than choosing the network and entering the
>>> password.
>>
>> FreeBSD is not a consumer operating system. It's not designed to hand
>> hold anyone. That is why Windows is such a huge monstrosity of an
>> install.
> 
> I just finished a fresh install of Windows 10. If you take the time
> involved in installing a basic MS Windows system vs. a basic FreeBSD
> system, Windows will usually win. A big plus is that Windows actually
> can get a wireless system up and running by itself, sans perhaps
> supplying the password. Does FreeBSD even support using the WPS Button
> on the Wi-Fi Router? Plus, you then have to install a GUI. Now, if you
> want to compare a FreeBSD system sans GUI, you have to compare it
> against a MS Server, not the regular Windows version design for home or
> office users.
> 
> This is not about "hand-holding"; it is about bring the OS into the
> modern age. My machine is supposed to be my slave, not the other way
> around.

Just a small comment on neither side, hopefully.

As one clever man said, you will pay, one way or another. With MS 
Windows system you will pay money for using it. You will also pay money 
for using 3rd party software - antivirus. MS is the only system vendor I 
know of who explicitly tells you it is not safe to use their system 
without 3rd party software (antivirus).

With FreeBSD you will pay with your time. You will need some effort 
requiring some learning to install system, software, and make all work. 
You will need some effort to plan ahead before purchasing your machine 
to avid really ugly hardware (Broadcom BCM43xx is example of really ugly 
one, search about its design; something like 32 bit chip on 64 bit bus 
may ring the bell; - to the contrary to their great ethernet chips). But 
once you have everything working, FreeBSD is great, not bloated as 
majority Linuxes became recently.

One more alternative: Linux, and if you have chunks of hardware that 
need proprietary (binary only, etc) drives ("microcode", "firmware"), 
great choice would be Ubuntu, which is clone of Debian (the last is 
great Linux distro staying away from proprietary stuff). With Linux 
(read: Ubunty), you virtually don't need to invest your time, all will 
work pretty much out of the box, and you will have less bloated, and 
definitely more secure system than MS Windows, ("fatter" than FreeBSD 
would be though).

So, one can find what fits one's needs; and each of us can pay credit to 
one's own choice of system vendor, without ranting about other people 
system choices ;-)

Just my $0.02

Valeri

> 
> Thanks for your comment anyway.
> 

-- 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
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