Isn't time to build a serious graphical package manager for FreeBSD?

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Considering in this section and in the whole FreeBSD forum the top post for view (5,901, ten times over the second in the chart) and surely the top for this section of the forum, is the one related with finding a valid graphical and automated package manager for FreeBSD isn't time for guys at FreeBSD foundation to build something user friendly, maybe together with an update binary server, for updating and upgrading purposes?

All this reads just means MANY people in the FreeBSD user base or people that want to become FreeBSD users will like a tool like this, considering Portmaster and Portupgrade are devoloping things unfriendly and slow for someone that just want an updated (i wont say "rolling", for now) release for getting the best from this wonderful OS with a great engine and a poor, quietly not user friendly, "body". FreeBSD, for me, is like a car with a Ferrari engine and a Fiat 500 body :-(

Such a tool, it will surely increase the use and the interest of this solid effort OS called FreeBSD and it will be something totally different from various "distros" around.

Nothing to do with PC-BSD with his .PBI package manager (honestly not always up to date and often buggy), but something official for improve the user base experience.

Considering even Solaris do have such a thing, FreeBSD should consider this very seriously if it want to grow the user base.
 
How do you build an "official" graphical package manager, when there is no "official" graphical environment on FreeBSD? ;) Which GUI toolkit would you use? GTK+, QT, KDE libs, TCL/TK, etc? Which DE would you integrate it with?
 
piggy said:
FreeBSD should consider this very seriously if it want to grow the user base.
We are not Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Linus Torvalds (Linux) or the Borg. FreeBSD does not aspire world domination. To dispel a common misconception: FreeBSD is not for everybody, nor does it aspire to be so. Most users who use FreeBSD for its intended purposes do not need such a tool. Anyone is free (and welcome) to develop such a tool and there are several in existence already. There is no need for the FreeBSD Foundation to formally push for the development of such a tool or to include existing such tools in the base system.

PC-BSD (to name but one prominent example) is built on FreeBSD but it is not FreeBSD. It has different goals than FreeBSD.

Feel free to read any of the other 1024 threads on this subject.

Fonz
 
The last months I see a lot of people to start posts like Make it easier, Make it for noobs, we want GUI installer, we want GUI package manager etc. Let's clear something. FreeBSD is SERVER OS. If you want, you can do it as desktop. If you don't want to spend your time to learn how to do it, PCBSD exist for this reason! If you are coming from ubuntu then FreeBSD is not the problem. The problem is that you learned to have everything automated. FreeBSD don't want to be desktop and user friendly OS. Is not designed for this reason.I spend 2 years in my computer and some things even now not working and I don't know how to fix them. But this is not FreeBSD's fault. Just I have not the experience. So stop demand and start reading the Handbook (Don't take this post personally)
 
sk8harddiefast said:
The last months I see a lot of people to start posts like Make it easier, Make it for noobs, we want GUI installer, we want GUI package manager etc. Let's clear something. FreeBSD is SERVER OS.

As has been pointed out before, the FreeBSD homepage says (in it's first sentence):

FreeBSD® is an advanced operating system for modern server, desktop, and embedded computer platforms.

There is nothing wrong with folks making suggestions (here or on the mailing lists) to improve it's capabilities as a desktop operating system if the project itself wants to make those claims.
 
I dindn't say that FreeBSD can not be a desktop system. But don't make (general) like my grand parents that they have no idea about computers and believe that everything on computers must works by own! Come on! If FreeBSD was coming with default GUI, GUI installer and GUI package manager then his name should be PCBSD that already exist for this reason! And probably I was never used it! I like that FreeBSD comes pure. No packages, no GUI and lets you handle it as you want
 
In the old days of Windows glory, linux was new, exciting, fresh, unconquered. People migrated there because it was different.
Now, linux is boring, mission accomplished, with the exception of several big distributions, the rest looks same.
Now, the herd wave is coming to FreeBSD. It appears to be "new" linux.
We must make sure nobody goes through the barricades.
 
adamk said:
There is nothing wrong with folks making suggestions (here or on the mailing lists) to improve it's capabilities as a desktop operating system if the project itself wants to make those claims.
I think you're misreading that claim. FreeBSD is a perfectly fine desktop OS. However, that very same website does not say: "FreeBSD: the ultimate desktop experience that even your mother-in-law can install and use!"

Of course, everybody is welcome to make suggestions and there's nothing wrong with that per se! But first of all, we have been getting lots of similar shopping list threads here lately and I think that some people are getting a bit tired of them (I know I am), which probably explains why the responses are gradually getting harsher. I'm not attempting to justify that, it's merely an observation. And second: FreeBSD has been around for years. If the focus of FreeBSD were to be a highly accessible, easy-for-the-novice operating system, it probably would have been so already and forks such as PC-BSD and GhostBSD possibly wouldn't have existed.

Fonz
 
phoenix said:
How do you build an "official" graphical package manager, when there is no "official" graphical environment on FreeBSD? ;) Which GUI toolkit would you use? GTK+, QT, KDE libs, TCL/TK, etc? Which DE would you integrate it with?
Up to theme to choose which one.
 
fonz said:
We are not Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple), Linus Torvalds (Linux) or the Borg. FreeBSD does not aspire world domination.
Do you officially speak in the name of FreeBSD foundation? Becouse if you don't you should be more carefull related with the opions of such a foundation.
 
sk8harddiefast said:
I dindn't say that FreeBSD can not be a desktop system. But don't make like my grand parents that they have no idea about computers and believe that everything on computers must works by own! Come on! If FreeBSD was coming with default GUI, GUI installer and GUI package manager then his name should be PCBSD that already exist for this reason! And probably I was never used it! I like that FreeBSD comes pure. No packages, no GUI and lets you handle it as you want
So you want a stable and advanced OS like FreeBSD in a ghetto just to please your needs to feel yourself like a geeks. Great. I hope guys in the foundation didn't build this OS for guys like you, and I'm sure they didn't.
 
sk8harddiefast said:
I dindn't say that FreeBSD can not be a desktop system. But don't make like my grand parents that they have no idea about computers and believe that everything on computers must works by own! Come on! If FreeBSD was coming with default GUI, GUI installer and GUI package manager then his name should be PCBSD that already exist for this reason! And probably I was never used it! I like that FreeBSD comes pure. No packages, no GUI and lets you handle it as you want

And how would having a "serious graphical package manager" remove your ability to "handle it as you want"? No one here has suggested removing the currently available ports/packages tools.

Adam
 
Hi, there is a ports-mgmt/bpm package which is a graphical ports collection manager for FreeBSD. It has a GTK+ 2.0 interface and allows you to add, remove, or upgrade software packages on your system without requiring you to use a command-line. It appears that there is no official website or does not work (see statement; This topic does not exist yet). There is also the ports-mgmt/kports (some screenshots). Version available in the FreeBSD ports system is 0.6.1_9 but note that 0.8.2 version was released on 2009-12-13!

Unfortunately I never used these tools, because I had no such need so I can not say anything more.

Best regards!
 
adamk said:
And how would having a "serious graphical package manager" remove your ability to "handle it as you want"? No one here has suggested removing the currently available ports/packages tools.

Adam
Thankx Adam! This was EXACTLY the sense of my original first post in the thread.
 
piggy said:
with a Ferrari engine and a Fiat 500 body

ahahah, are you italian? I know another saying that sound the same with opposite meaning.

I'm sorry for the OT, however this topic has same implications of this one. When I started using FreeBSD I too asked to me all that 'why' but now it's more clear.

Only the braves.
 
fonz said:
I think you're misreading that claim. FreeBSD is a perfectly fine desktop OS. However, that very same website does not say: "FreeBSD: the ultimate desktop experience that even your mother-in-law can install and use!"

I think you're misreading my claim. I never said that the website made that claim, did I?

Of course, everybody is welcome to make suggestions and there's nothing wrong with that per se! But first of all, we have been getting lots of similar shopping list threads here lately and I think that some people are getting a bit tired of them (I know I am), which probably explains why the responses are gradually getting harsher.

If you (or others) just getting more and more frustrated reading these threads, then don't read them. You can clearly tell what this thread is about from the subject.

I'm not attempting to justify that, it's merely an observation. And second: FreeBSD has been around for years. If the focus of FreeBSD were to be a highly accessible, easy-for-the-novice operating system, it probably would have been so already and forks such as PC-BSD and GhostBSD possibly wouldn't have existed.

Unless a product (any product, not just FreeBSD) is perfect, there are still changes that can be made to improve it. If someone thinks they have a valid opinion, there's nothing wrong with them voicing it.
 
freethread said:
ahahah, are you italian? I know another saying that sound the same with opposite meaning.

I'm sorry for the OT, however this topic has same implications of this one. When I started using FreeBSD I too asked to me all that 'why' but now it's more clear.

Only the braves.
I've been with FreeBSD on and off starting in 1994 if memory serve me well (it was FreeBSD 4). I did it becouse I liked the project and I still like it. I'm just disappointed it is pretty much the same related with usability, and it is too bad. This OS deserve more and IMHO little steps are needed to make it more appealing for the general use. That's all. And, yes, I want that tool for me too, I always used FreeBSD FOR MY CONVENIENCE, not to feel myself part of something so special. And I still did. I'm too old to feel myself cool just becouse I run five or six FreeBSD box, I do it for my pretty convenience and I want it to be even more convenient for me and for others. And I'm also happy if FreeBSD become more popular, why not? And it makes more money. I will even donate to the foundation if they do a decent Package Manager.
 
adamk said:
If you (or others) just getting more and more frustrated reading these threads, then don't read them.
Congratulations, you may have made the most sensible remark in this entire thread (I honestly mean that, no sarcasm).

adamk said:
fonz said:
Of course, everybody is welcome to make suggestions and there's nothing wrong with that per se!
If someone thinks they have a valid opinion, there's nothing wrong with them voicing it.
Thanks for repeating what I just said.

adamk said:
Unless a product (any product, not just FreeBSD) is perfect, there are still changes that can be made to improve it.
Certainly. But changes along the lines that are currently being suggested have resulted in ports and complete spin-offs, not in changes to FreeBSD's base system. Methinks there are reasons for that.

Fonz
 
piggy said:
I don't read anything similar to your post on that web site.
Exactly. If the goal of the FreeBSD Foundation were to push FreeBSD to world domination, they probably would have said so.

Fonz
 
fonz said:
Exactly. If the goal of the FreeBSD Foundation were to push FreeBSD to world domination, they probably would have said so.

Fonz
Who said "push the world"? Do a decent Package Manager and maybe even a "decent" build system is "push the world"?
 
fonz said:
Exactly. If the goal of the FreeBSD Foundation were to push FreeBSD to world domination, they probably would have said so.

Fonz
Again: speak for yourself considering you, just like me, you are not related in any way with The FreeBSD Foundation.
 
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