Re: Is FreeBSD ready for desktop (Mozilla Flash)

From: Steve Ackman (steve_at_SNIP-THIS.twoloonscoffee.com)
Date: 09/09/05 

Date: Thu, 08 Sep 2005 23:21:58 GMT

In <pan.2005.09.08.12.02.23.144714@nowhere.com>, Conrad wrote:

> OK, here's a simple run-through of doing somthing totally weird,
> something totally outrageous, something so far out there that
> only maybe 2 or 3 really superior humans in the world have ever
> even attempted - let alone succeeded - getting Flash to work with
> Mozilla - or Firefox... or anything.

  Works fine here.
$ uname -a
FreeBSD wizard.dyndns.org 5.4-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE #1: Wed Jul 27
17:06:49 MDT 2005 root*wizard.dyndns.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/CYRIXIII
i386

> Next, having finally gotten an X desktop, I fire up Mozilla.
> More bad news. The first site I hit tells me I have no Flash
> support. OK, OK, in spite of the fact that when I installed
> BSD I asked for a fairly complete X desktop, Flash is just too
> new, too wild, too far out there to consider for inclusion.

works fine here on Firefox 1.0.6_4,1.
(about:plugins)
File name: libflashplayer.so
Shockwave Flash 6.0 r79
 
Test with
http://download.games.yahoo.com/games/web_games/iwin/jqflash/jewel_quest.html
  Strangely enough, this game doesn't work on Linux
Flash 7... and it runs perceptibly slower under
FreeBSD than it did under Linux.
  
(about:plugins)
File name: libjavaplugin_oji.so
Java(TM) Plug-in 1.4.2

runs Cubis Gold, found at
http://games.yahoo.com/games/downloads/cb.html just
fine. Yes, Java is a bit of a pain because you have
to go to the Sun site, register, manually download
several tarballs, and follow directions. I seem to
recall I got it all done in an evening in between
doing other things.

> But that's OK - because I don't have a /etc/libmap.conf anyway.
> so even if the port had built, I probably wouldn't have been
> able to "Follow the instructions displayed by the port"

  No, /etc/libmap.conf doesn't exist until you follow
the instructions given by the port and create it.
Well, actually the instructions say to "add <stuff>
to your /etc/libmap.conf." It's kind of axiomatic
that if you don't have such a file, you have to create
it.

> A modest suggestion, folks. Drop the desktop support. Just
> get rid of it. It's clearly beyond your scope, which is
> apparently devoted to niche server markets.

  My desktop works just fine.

> In the face of such sterling server performance, it is
> altogether too tempting to use FreeBSD on the desktop. The
> headlines are grabbed by the question "Is Linux ready for
> the desktop?" I propose another question "Does FreeBSD
> know the desktop exists?"

  I've been using Linux for 8 years, FBSD since June.
The transition required a bit of reading, but all in
all, the FreeBSD desktop has filled my needs nicely.

> But if FreeBSD is to provide desktop functionality, then
> some attempt must be made to recognize at a minimum, what
> should work on a desktop.

  What should work on a desktop is X with a Window
Manager. That's it. Everything else should rightly
be at the user's option.

  That said, the one thing I still haven't
figured out is the Super TV Tuner.

$ xawtv
This is xawtv-3.94, running on FreeBSD/i386 (5.4-RELEASE)
no video grabber device available

> When the most popular browser
> on the planet (barring M$ Internet Exploiter) can't be made
> to "just work" with the most popular plugins on the planet,
> then, in my modest opinion, something is really, really,
> wrong.

  Well, you do have to read a man or handbook page or
two, but yeah, after that, it basically "just worked."

> In the meantime, I can develop, say wxPython applications -
> but I still can't hit a website with Flash content.

  Can't? I doubt it.

  I don't recall the exact steps I took, but it was
basically just a 'make install' or two, and creation
of the libmap.conf so I could follow the instructions
given by the port.

 - Steve

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