I'm sorry to keep beating a dead horse, but I really, really prefer the BSD way of doing things vice Linux. I want nothing but success for this project. I therefore have the unfortunate duty of offering criticism (in a respectful manner [but with some humor], of course):
Having installed and used many operating systems (and perhaps more distributions of Linux than all other operating systems combined), I have to say: You guys MUST do something about your installer. Not only was it easier to install Solaris, OpenBSD, Symbian, ReactOS, and Slackware AND build a working Hackintosh, but if I tried to imagine a lay-person doing it... well I couldn't imagine that. It would not be possible.
After getting FreeBSD installed, I decided that I wanted a GUI (shouldn't a "User" install (which is what I chose) include a GUI by default?). Ports is still compiling GNOME2 and its dependencies. Meanwhile, I've already had to answer questions like, "Do I want extra debugging for Perl?"; "Do I want Python to be multi-threaded?"; "Do I want 64 bit integers on i386?"; "Do I want SSL support?"... You may as well ask the lay-person: "Do you want fries with that?"
Please. I beg you. In addition to "User", "Developer", "Kernel Developer", and the other install profiles, add an "I just wanna look at the Internet and work on spreadsheets" profile. It should include kports or something similar. When I install a port, there should be an "I don't know if I want a patch to fix a microcode flaw, so just make those choices for me" option.
Having installed and used many operating systems (and perhaps more distributions of Linux than all other operating systems combined), I have to say: You guys MUST do something about your installer. Not only was it easier to install Solaris, OpenBSD, Symbian, ReactOS, and Slackware AND build a working Hackintosh, but if I tried to imagine a lay-person doing it... well I couldn't imagine that. It would not be possible.
After getting FreeBSD installed, I decided that I wanted a GUI (shouldn't a "User" install (which is what I chose) include a GUI by default?). Ports is still compiling GNOME2 and its dependencies. Meanwhile, I've already had to answer questions like, "Do I want extra debugging for Perl?"; "Do I want Python to be multi-threaded?"; "Do I want 64 bit integers on i386?"; "Do I want SSL support?"... You may as well ask the lay-person: "Do you want fries with that?"
Please. I beg you. In addition to "User", "Developer", "Kernel Developer", and the other install profiles, add an "I just wanna look at the Internet and work on spreadsheets" profile. It should include kports or something similar. When I install a port, there should be an "I don't know if I want a patch to fix a microcode flaw, so just make those choices for me" option.