Re: Convince me, please!
- From: David Southwell <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:17:19 -0700
On Wednesday 15 August 2007 03:14:09 David Southwell wrote:
On Wednesday 08 August 2007 23:20:28 Goltsios Theodore wrote:I mean here in the MS windows operating system!
Well sorry if I'm getting annoying but I think you face the Unix
world in the wrong manner. Well you expect to find something you are
used to, or something like MS Win you only know. I advise that you
should be more open minded, willing to read and spare time to get
familiar to the Unix OSes that are around. But the advantages are and
the power that these kind of systems offer, which is probably unlimited
compared with the Windowz strict and limited way of operating. If you
really don't want that kind of power (thus doing what you must faster,
better and in a more efficient way) then you are in the wrong place. A
good way to start solving all questions concerning the FreeBSD is its
handbook or the perhaps the FAQ.
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/
PS Try some googling or the freebsd official site for more resources.
I'm sure all your questions will be satisfied.
Theodoros Goltsios
Kinetix Tele.com Support Center
email: tgol@xxxxxxxxxx, support@xxxxxxxxxx
Tel. & Fax: +30 2310556134
WWW: http://www.kinetix.gr/
Latitude wrote:
I'm interested in changing over to FreeBSD from Windows, but I'll have
to say, you guys don't really present a forceful argument to Windows
users of how easy the switch may be. I get knee-deep in FreeBSD jargon
the second I get to your webpage. I need to see an overwhelming
argument that FreeBSD is a perfectly acceptable alternative for home
desktop users who have previously known only Windows.
For instance, if I download and install FreeBSD, will I instantly have
a desktop windowing environment that I can navigate in while I figure
out what's going on? Will I have a browser and way to setup an
internet connection right off the bat? How will I migrate files from
other operating systems?
I understand you guys have been around for a while, but you don't seem
to understand the monumental "fear" involved in switching operating
systems. You need to address those concerns head on from the start. I
need to see several screenshots of apps that I can use as alternatives
to what I have.
Help me (and yourselves) out.
I see where both sides in this argument are coming from.. basically a lack
of understanding of the others point of view. As a user of multiple
operating systems..Freebsd, Windows 98, 2000, XP and XP 64, Linux and apple
I thought i might throw in a remark or two which is intended to help a
newcomer to a freebsd world.
First lets think of the MS windows user. As a newcomer to a unix OS, such
as freebsd, you are faced with two very large sets of challenges or, as I
would like you to think of it, educational opportunities.
Because the vendor of the operating system
is also the vendor of major
applications, including its most commonly used browser, office
applicatiions and compiler systems non-technically minded users do not
easily have a clear grasp of the distinction between the roles of an OS
and the role of applications. To use any Unix system effectively a clear
and reasonably detailed understanding of the way applications interact with
the operating system is essential.
For its own commercial reasons Microssssoft are keen to blur that
distinction in the minds of its users to maintain a false notion that only
MS windows can fulfill its user's needs.
Secondly because MS windows operates in a commercial environment it
fosters a dependency culture in which you pay for your OS, you pay for your
applications and in return you EXPECT a level of support and therefore
users are not encouraged to extend their capabilities beyond understanding
the applications they use.
In the freebsd world most applications and utilities are there for
installing without charge. The users include people who develop and
everyone partakes in a foem of voluntary mutual support. It is a world in
which expectation of support is anathema and in which a combination of
striving for greater personal comeptency and voluntary sharing of knowledge
and responsibility is the dominant ethos.
So if you plan a move to the unix be ready to learn to build a greater
understanding of how the operating system works, how applications are
installed and maintained and above all to realize your basic needs will not
be fulfilled in the same way as they are fulfilled in MS windows and that
that you will need to put in a lot of effort to understand how to benefit
from the much greater opportunities provided by OS's such as Freebsd.
So your first first set of educational opportunities are to learn how
reconstruct your expectations and to construct a set of relationships that
will work for you in a unix world.
The second set of educational opportunities are to study the
practicalities. You need to decide the basic things you need to get on
board freebsd. You need a browser.. that is no problem there are many to
choose from .. you need office tools well there is a complete office suite.
Whatever you need there will be a tool for you and the choices are a rich
but usually free!!. The draw back is being faced with the challenge of
learning how to choose.
That is daunting challenge and those of us who are familiar with unix
system, and accustomed to communicating with other freebsd users, are often
guilty of failing to understand that people who come from an MS Windows
find the terse ways in which we tend to communicate to be abrasive.
My suggestion to you would be to proceed without risk. Dabble with freebsd
alongside your MSWindows system until you reach the point at which you are
ready or not (as the case may be) to change over completely. You do not
need the latest hardware to get started. Freebsd is much less bloated and,
in that respect, more efficient than MS windows. Follow the instructions
and play with the system and see where you want to go with it. Like
countries all IT systems and applications have their own language. MS
windows has its own language !! Every territory has a language needed to
discuss its inhabitants understandings. If you use the pejorative term
jargon to describe a language you will need to learn you will never learn
to adjust. I recomend you treat this adjustment process is an educational
opportunity.
If you are not willing to learn the words that describe how a world that is
new to you functions then, like a immigrant in a foreign land, you will not
feel you understand either the practical systems or the cultiure of your
environment.
You will not find anyone here wanting to sell you the system!! The unix
world does not work like that. Those of us who have used unix since before
MSDos was developed do not easily realize just how difficult the adjustment
can be for those whose experience is limited to MS windows. Forgive us if
we seem terse or harsh at times. Our tendency is to indicate resources and
trust that others will put in the effort to use those resources to solve
their problems. That is because we have learned that way ourselves and
trust the process. The adjustment to this way of thinking is not an easy
path for newcomers.
Good luck
David
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- References:
- Convince me, please!
- From: Latitude
- Re: Convince me, please!
- From: Goltsios Theodore
- Re: Convince me, please!
- From: David Southwell
- Convince me, please!
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