An operating system (OS) is an interface between hardware and user

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Can we agree it's not you, and simply move on? In different directions?
 
Oh Snap!

But seriously if you're looking for a KDE + FreeBSD experience that's centered for the desktop PC-BSD is what you're looking for.

FreeBSD is for people who want or need to be able to do anything with their system and don't mind putting in a little mental stretching to get things to work just like they like them. That being said, it's my desktop system.
 
DutchDaemon said:
Can we agree it's not you, and simply move on? In different directions?

Sorry about my last post. I thought it was in the Multimedia thread.

Yes and with my sincere apologies for posting my rant here.
 
It's not 'my forum', it belongs to and serves the FreeBSD community in a constructive way. And I echo chalbersma's words. You will have to put in some effort and climb a learning curve. If you want everything handed to you on a platter, I guess it neeeds a Kubuntu ISO burnt on it.
 
My other OS is Arch. I don't need anything handed to me. As far as a learning curve for me to climb is concerned I've been coding since 1975. "Your" forum has yet to serve me in a constructive way. In the best case, I've had the Handbook read to me. In the worst case I've told to "GF" myself .
I am now mounting optical disks without opening a terminal. When I have finished tweaking this method for automounting, I will post it in this forum as a "Howto" so it can serve the community in a constructive way.
 
Thank you for volunteering to make a HowTo.

As far as I can see you came to FreeBSD with the wrong expectations, and I can see attempts by people to rectifiy your views, e.g. about KDE being an integral part of FreeBSD (or the other way around), whereas they are totally separate things, and will always be. You will have to perform the integration.

FreeBSD is a base OS, with everything else added to it, which is where you come in. You don't come in pushing buttons and moving sliders, you actually put the buttons and sliders in yourself. And you can do that in a few dozen different ways, none of which are prescribed, holy, or 'the only way'. Some find that distressing, others enjoy the sense of total freedom this gives them. You decide. Unfortunately, that also means responsibility, as is the case with any freedom.

It requires a certain mindset to work with FreeBSD, and it requires the occasional person wandering in and complaining about everything, to totally readjust their expectations, or move on. There is no middle ground. There's no real point in making remarks about KDE or ArchLinux (FreeBSD is neither, and it does not aspire to be), and how FreeBSD 'fails'. Your expectations fail. Adjust your expectations or your choice of OS.

You will have to configure a lot yourself. You will need to use the CLI a lot. You will have to alter ports, configuration files, and options. You may use one, two, or fifteen desktop environments and window managers, all at the same time. Or not a single one. Your choice, your responsibility. The OS is there, and it works.

That's exactly why a majority of its users use it: they run the OS and everything on top of it, the OS doesn't run them, obscuring everything behind a pretty GUI that makes everyone 'an average user' in the long run.

This is not a sermon, this is how I see FreeBSD. And it is also why I think you feel you're not being helped. But you are. Tough love may be more constructive than you think. We've had quite a few people round here who needed a reality check and a major expectation readjustment. Most of them now love FreeBSD. You will too. (I won't kid you: some people left, disgusted, dismayed or disappointed; I even had to ban one for constantly demanding help with turning FreeBSD into something it is not, and never will be; those cases are rare)

Good luck.

P.S. I merged the two separate threads.
P.P.S. I don't approve of GFY-style replies, but I don't mind a healthy dose of RTFM, as documentation is one of FreeBSD's strongest points
 
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=9944

From the Arch Linux wiki:
Arch provides a minimal environment upon installation, (no GUI), compiled for i686/x86-64 architectures. Arch is lightweight, flexible, simple and aims to be very UNIX-like. Its design philosophy and implementation make it easy to extend and mold into whatever kind of system you're building- from a minimalist console machine to the most grandiose and feature rich desktop environments available. Rather than tearing out unneeded and unwanted packages, Arch offers the power user the ability to build up from a minimal foundation without any defaults chosen for them. It is the user who decides what Arch Linux will be.

Sound familiar?
 
> Who is the target demographic for this operating system?
I didn’t know it had one. I find FreeBSD easier then the first PC I built from a kit in 1978. It is not a simple as XP.

I find that FreeBSD is not a throw in a disk and boot OS. It requires planning, configuring, tuning, etc. I remember my first Linux installation and and my first kernel rebuild, I sweated bullets. I just installed FreeBSD on two computers and right after the installation completed, I changed and compiled a new kernel. I’ve spent the next couple weeks installing ports. I just found portmaster, it rocks!!!

I’ve burnt an image of the FreeBSD handbook into my monitor screen. I’ve been able to fine 90% of my solutions going through the handbook. The rest was either google or just figuring it out myself.

FreeBSD is not for everyone, it isn’t for everything. I still have a DAW based on Vista, Falcon4 runs on the same computer but under XP. I have Slackware with GSB running on my laptop for kmail. (That may become a FreeBSD computer shortly)

As far as current standards go, it kinda stands out on it own. It’s not Linux, it’s not Windows. It’s just FreeBSD with what you configure it for. In my case I will have a server with jails for setting a web site, and testing; the other computer will be a Multimedia workstation. The Multimedia stuff may, or may not, work out. If it does not, I’ll be doing something under Linux. That does not mean that BSD sucks, it just means that I found something more suited for what I need.

-JJ
 
Also from the Arch Linux wiki:
FreeBSD
Both Arch and FreeBSD offer software which can be obtained using binaries or compiled using 'ports' systems. Both share a very similar init system. FreeBSD boasts that it is more of a system designed as a whole, compared to GNU/Linux distros, with each application 'ported' over to FreeBSD and made sure to work in the process. Both use /etc/rc.conf as a main configuration file. The FreeBSD license is generally more protective of the coder, compared to the GPL, which in contrast favors protection of the code itself. Arch is released under the GPL. In FreeBSD, like Arch, decisions are delegated to you, the power user. This may be the most interesting comparison to Arch since it goes head-to-head in package modernity and has a somewhat sizable, smart, active, no-nonsense community. Both systems share many similarities and FreeBSD users will generally feel quite comfortable with most aspects of Arch.
 
However sparse, terse, spartan or old-skool Gentoo or Arch may be or try to become, they are not a unified, centrally developed and maintained operating system, they are an external kernel with GNU and other GPL tools added on in an attempt to make them into some whole. They are not FreeBSD. Every attempt at comparison or drawing parallels will stand in the way of you becoming versed in FreeBSD's unified, co-developed kernel/userland world. We can go on and on about this, but unless you embrace and learn FreeBSD as an entirely separate operating system in its own right instead of as a 'Linux-like distro which should basically do the same things in the same way', you will bump your head over and over again. The FreeBSD kernel is not (and is not like) the Linux kernel. FreeBSD's userland is not (and for the most part is not like) GNU's tools and utilities. The designs and philosophies show vast differences. There are more people who said "Yeah, but if I do <this> in Linux, it works, but not in FreeBSD .." than I care to shake a stick at. See the sticky in General, especially this link. Slightly dated, but the best rundown of the fundamental differences out there. I'll step off here; have to make these posts way too often ;)
 
topher said:
It sounds like you've had to explain this acronym before. Do you often reply to threads just to tell members to "GFY"?

Not typically, but when someone is arrogant enough to try and tell a OS forum what an OS should be, complain about stuff they dont understand, then after they start go get a handle of a little bit of it, they act like theyre going to write some superior how to, to explain it to all the simple minded people who originally didnt even know what an OS is supposed to be, I only find it fitting.

Twice now this thread has caught me when I wake up, which probably isnt the best time for me to post, as Im generally not a morning person, but its disgusting, and if you spent as much time studying, compared to complaining, referencing other OS's, or just telling everyone as you think it should be, you would probably be even further along.

I came from an all Windows background myself, and have been using FreeBSD since I joined, it works great here, and Ive been a GUI tard for many years, atleast you have some experience of Linux's behind you, though not the same, I would expect you to be more use to actually having to use a CLI.
 
Dru said:
Not typically, but when someone is arrogant enough to try and tell a OS forum what an OS should be, complain about stuff they dont understand, then after they start go get a handle of a little bit of it, they act like theyre going to write some superior how to, to explain it to all the simple minded people who originally didnt even know what an OS is supposed to be, I only find it fitting.

I think one of the purposes of this forum is to help other members. When I asked for help I was rebuked. I could have been a lot more humble about it, I admit, and I deserved a hostile reaction.
When I figured out how to fix my own problem and said that I would post it in the howto section, I was thanked by the Moderator for volunteering to do so. So I did. I hope it helps arrogant psuedo-superior people like myself who don't know how to ask for help without making everyone feel bad about it. I hope it also helps the "simple-minded" who don't know what an OS is even though they have already installed FreeBSD and configured it to use runlevel 5.
My references to my other OS, Arch were intended to show that I am on board with the whole "configure it yourself" thing, not to suggest that I know how to use FreeBSD because I already know how to use Arch.
I have to say that I'm feeling a lot of anger here, I think some of it directed at other "outsiders" from other OS's and forums and some of it, deservedly, at me. I would like to thank everyone who has responded, though, like DutchDaemon said "Tough love may be more constructive than you think"
In closing, I apologize for souring anyone's morning, wasting anyone's time, and hope remain an active member.
 
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