What are the main problems a new freeBSD user would have?

yellow-voice · Jul 22, 2011

I am interested in using freeBSD for the freedom (libre) it seems to affords users.

I am concerned about my ability to do the work I need to do once make the switch.

I wanted to consult you and ask what problems I may have with switching to freeBSD.

I am forced to

work with nonfree formats (eg .docx)
access websites aimed at microsoft internet explorer users (web access for exchange mail)
work in a graphical environment (I have little skill with terminals)

I appreciate this is probably all very possible. I would like to do it following the Stallman philosophies.

Any thoughts would be appreciated - where does the average user fall down when installing or using freeBSD?

UNIXgod · Jul 22, 2011

You have some embedded questions. I'll attempt to help you where I can.

yellow-voice said:
work with nonfree formats (eg .docx)

access websites aimed at microsoft internet explorer users (web access for exchange mail)

work in a graphical environment (I have little skill with terminals)

1. There are converters and readers for your file format. LibreOffice will read this format AFAIK
2. Google "microsoft halloween documents" and see why this the way it is. You will need to run ie in either an emulator or wine.
3. We have many graphical environments to choose from that should fit within every type of users needs.

yellow-voice said:
Any thoughts would be appreciated - where does the average user fall down when installing or using freeBSD?

yellow-voice I personally find that people who are new to any OS have an adjustment period. Don't expect a fluid transition with minimal effort on your part. The OS is not difficult but it is different enough that you will have a learning curve. Most people here are active readers of the documentation to fulfill their computing needs. I expect you are of the same caliber.

FreeBSD is a stable and secure operating system. If your looking to transition from windows your in the right place.

It's generally accepted to let new users know about a project called PC-BSD which will facilitate a FreeBSD install with X windows and KDE desktop. If you have issues installing FreeBSD I suggest interacting with this forum first. Most certainly we all learn from each other. The ##freebsd channel @ irc.freenode.net is also a excellent real time chat for community support. If for some reason you are still having issues I would recommend PC-BSD.

Here are some links for you:
http://www.freebsd.org/projects/newbies.html
http://www.freebsd.org/handbook
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/

tingo · Jul 23, 2011

As for OWA (Outlook Web Access) it works good enough in both Firefox and Opera under FreeBSD, in my experience.

fonz · Jul 23, 2011

yellow-voice said:
work with nonfree formats (eg .docx)

OpenOffice supports this to a large extent. There may occasionally be some compatibility issues but generally speaking it works.

yellow-voice said:
access websites aimed at microsoft internet explorer users (web access for exchange mail)

My experience is that web access to Exchange mail works with most modern browsers, such as Firefox and Opera. I happen to run my own mailserver for my own domain and use mail/fetchmail to periodically pull mail from my university account (which is MS Exchange Bullcrap based) to my own server but if I wanted to I could just use Firefox or Opera to directly access my MS Exchange mail account. It "just works". Also keep in mind that at least Opera (and probably Firefox as well) can be configured to say it's Internet Explorer instead if you want to.

yellow-voice said:
work in a graphical environment (I have little skill with terminals)

With pretty much any UNIX-like environment you'll need the terminal sooner or later, but there are several graphical environments available, including KDE/Gnome. These are not my personal preference but at least they are available and well-supported.

Hope this helps,

Fonz

yellow-voice · Jul 23, 2011

fonz said:
I happen to run my own mailserver for my own domain and use mail/fetchmail to periodically pull mail from my university account (which is MS Exchange Bullcrap based) to my own server

Can mail/fetchmail pull mail from an ms exchange server where pop3/imap is disabled?

I would love to read my college email in thunderbird for example. I have contacted the IT department about this and they provide support only for MAPI clients. So while many can access their mail they way they want (on BlackBerry and the like), I cannot use a simple free mail client.

nakal · Jul 23, 2011

You can fall down, because you bought hardware without considering the system compatibility. When I buy new hardware, I always make sure (or at least try to) that the hardware will be recognized by the system. Many people who want to start using FreeBSD ignore this and are frustrated. I always tell them that they would not buy an XBox-Controller for a PS3 system and then complain that it does not work.

You'll be also disappointed that without command line knowledge, you won't be able to install a graphical desktop environment. You don't want FreeBSD if you don't want to use the command line interface. Many people using FreeBSD prefer to use the CLI because of its simplicity and the possibilities. Many tasks that you cannot solve within a desktop environment force you to fall back to the CLI. And these are almost all administrative tasks.

I would not recommend FreeBSD to anyone who has your attitude, really. Maybe something like PCBSD or any Linux that that concentrates on the desktop environment would be more appropriate for you.

Fact is, we can do all work that you mentioned in your post, but it is not easy to get FreeBSD to a such a usable state that you expect.

yellow-voice · Jul 23, 2011

I appreciate your candid response. I can promise you I am an eager student and it is not that I am unwilling to learn the CLI but that I am not well trained using it.

As for my hardware I was initially under the impression I would not have too many problems as I have successfully run simple linux distributions in the past (ubuntu). I will indeed be disappointed as you say if the proprietary blobs included in these distributions are required to make my hardware work. I will look to the supported hardware list before I continue.

graudeejs · Jul 23, 2011

The biggest problem newbies face is, that they have to read The Handbook

MS file formats (*.docx and such) can sometimes suck with {open|libre}office
If you install bare FreeBSD you will get bare FreeBSD, it's not Linux, you will need to install GUI your-self if you haven't. But don't worry It's real easy

drhowarddrfine · Jul 23, 2011

killasmurf86 said:
The biggest problem newbies face is, that they have to read The Handbook

This is exactly what I was going to say. Newbies can find the answer to most questions there.

UNIXgod · Jul 23, 2011

yellow-voice said:
I appreciate your candid response. I can promise you I am an eager student and it is not that I am unwilling to learn the CLI but that I am not well trained using it.

We all had to start from the same place you are now. In effort to save yourself some headaches utilize this forum and irc. Command line skills come within time. It wont happen over night. FreeBSD is a bit more organized than GNU/Linux. Though it may be early to mention it I would suggest you remember a couple things as you begin to tackle it. "Everything is a file" and "Automate Everything!". I know it may mean nothing to you now but will eventually be part of the paradigm shift as you begin to do less with the gui and more inside a console.

I generally recommend The UNIX Programming Environment(Kernighan/Pike) to people who want to learn the shell from tutorial. The book is a bit dated but still the best on that subject.

As others have mentioned the handbook covers everything you need about the system from upgrading to web servers.

Bellum · Jul 28, 2011

yellow-voice said:
I appreciate your candid response. I can promise you I am an eager student and it is not that I am unwilling to learn the CLI but that I am not well trained using it.

It isn't difficult at all to get a window manager/desktop environment up and running from scratch (I use Fluxbox). You'll do fine if you are at all computer literate and you read up a bit. What I did, and what I'd recommend, is to setup FreeBSD on a virtual machine first so you can get a handle on it.

fonz · Jul 28, 2011

Sorry for the late reply, somehow I overlooked this post.

yellow-voice said:
Can mail/fetchmail pull mail from an ms exchange server where pop3/imap is disabled?

I would love to read my college email in thunderbird for example. I have contacted the IT department about this and they provide support only for MAPI clients.

Fetchmail supports a few other protocols besides POP(S)/IMAP(S), but MAPI isn't one of them. In fact, it's a Microsoft thing and very few open source projects support it.

And for what it's worth: your college's IT people are idiots. Sounds harsh, but I really have no other words for it. Those people shouldn't be messing with e-mail.

Fonz