One reason I don't think I would try Ubuntu

[meeb]

assuming i understood what Oliver said: If you are forced to enable sound, usermount... you'll earn knowledge which will help in further. Thats not bad.

 

[rliegh]

assuming i understood what Oliver said: If you are forced to enable sound, usermount... you'll earn knowledge which will help in further. Thats not bad.

It's good to know how to do these things, yes. But just because someone doesn't want to worry about taking those steps doesn't mean that they don't know how.

 

[oliverh]

>But just because someone doesn't want to worry about taking those steps

I don't have to do any trivia while installing FreeBSD. There is a handbook and manual pages, I do my installation in almost no time. So what? You have your very own personal experience and I have a different one. FreeBSD is K.I.S.S. and it has got a excellent documentation, I have to build by very own environment and guess what? I like it Maybe you should try PC-BSD or DesktopBSD. Guess why there are Linux distros like Slackware, ArchLinux or Gentoo? Because there is demand for it, demand for customization, demand for an operating system with a small footprint after the installation, to build the environment you want afterwards. Many people don't want a full blown environment, just to cut out unnecessary or wrongly configured parts afterwards.

>doesn't mean that they don't know how

Experience shows most people don't have a clue and they will not do any better with Ubuntu, OpenSuse, Fedora etc. pp. if something fails - exception proves the rule.

 

[hitest]

Guess why there are Linux distros like Slackware, ArchLinux or Gentoo? Because there is demand for it, demand for customization, demand for an operating system with a small footprint after the installation, to build the environment you want afterwards. Many people don't want a full blown environment, just to cut out unnecessary or wrongly configured parts afterwards.

QFT! I prefer to use an OS that is fast, stable, secure, without a lot of overhead. That's why I use FreeBSD and Slackware.

 

[fonz]

Not everyone who uses Ubuntu is new to computers -or even Unix, and a lot of us just simply want to get crap done -"end of" as the kids say.

Right said. For instance: during the process of switching from Slackware to FreeBSD on my laptop, I needed a PC to fall back onto (i.e. keep some backups and do some basic stuff) while I was installing and still am tinkering with my new FreeBSD box. That's why I slapped Ubuntu on there. I instantly had a machine that can do everything I need it to do at the moment without having to spend time getting it to work. Time that instead could be (and has indeed been) spent configuring FreeBSD on the laptop. I'm still ticking things off my TODO/TOFIX list as we speak :beergrin but I am where I am now because I didn't have to first spend time getting that PC going.

Once I'm finished configuring the laptop I'll probably install FreeBSD on the PC as well and set it up as a server, but that's something for later and in the meantime it just does what I want it to do, thanks to Ubuntu.

I wouldn't want to have to use Ubuntu for everyday work and/or getting serious shit done, but imho there's definately a place for it.

Just a thought,

Alphons

 

[oliverh]

>I instantly had a machine that can do everything I need it to do at the moment without having to spend time getting it to work.

I have a working machine with Slackware in 5-10 minutes, even faster if I use backups of my configuration. People used to the configuration (aka learning) are able to this in the same time without any backups - especially in Slack there is almost no need to compile anything. When do people realize that Ubuntu will not fit everyone in the universe? Vice versa this is true for every distro/operating system available.

Apart from that, I'm using FreeBSD on one machine since several releases without reinstalling it. How many times did you install your "easy" distro? I don't deny the need of systems like Ubuntu for _some_ people, but many people are able to use different systems effectively too without lengthy installations and configurations. A good administrator knows how to avoid circular tasks (therefore we're using computers), this is a technique you can learn.

 

[jannehh]

Don't know if this is the smartest way to post my first message on this forum but here we go...

I'm going to repeat a lot of things said already here. I have two old laptops and a desktop. One of the laptops is running Xubuntu and it just works. I can let my wife and kids have their way with it and they're happy. I did have some trouble with Xubuntu on another machine and finding help was pain: read literally ten answers to the question I had saying no it can't be done, then few saying yes you can but giving instructions that didn't work in my case untill finally managed to find the one correct answer. There was also another time when the first forum search gave ten correct answers.

I was very glad to notice that two (out of four at the moment) of my kids go to a school with only one Windows workstation, rest is all Ubuntu.

The other laptop is running FreeBSD and it is for my personal growth. I hope it will make me a good person one day. Before that day, I think I will learn a lot. I already have learned a lot but so far it's been from the documentation and other people's forum questions, which is why haven't posted here before.

Oh and this here old desktop runs OS X. Been brainwashed to this OS in my work with print media.