After part I, there is now a part II of “Installing and Configuring PC-BSD”. In part II, the author explains how to install more fonts and how to configure printing and scanning.
“PC-BSD has as its goals to be an easy to install and use desktop OS”
Routine work that must be done, strictly following some manual, when installing the system – this totally contradicts their philosophy. An easy-to-install OS has as its key features that it “just works”. This is just brain-dead. On the other hand I hardly think that this is the intended final state of that OS. It would be just too geeky to be real.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I’m sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It’s not anymore. It’s about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you’re told. It’s about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it’s going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I’m leaving core. I don’t want to feel like I should be “doing something” about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don’t have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won’t achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I’m sure that I’ve offended some people already; I’m sure that by the time I’m done here, I’ll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I’m discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There’s no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot “BSD is dying” crowd – big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It’s not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large – keep your eyes on the real goals. It’s when you get distracted by the politickers that they sideline you. The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean and building is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have their moments in the sun. In the end, we need you all; in order to go forwards we must first avoid going backwards.
To the paranoid conspiracy theorists – yes, I work for Apple too. No, my resignation wasn’t on Steve’s direct orders, or in any way related to work I’m doing, may do, may not do, or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today. It’s about real problems that the project faces, real problems that the project has brought upon itself. You can’t escape them by inventing excuses about outside influence, the problem stems from within.
To the politically obsessed – give it a break, if you can. No, the project isn’t a lemonade stand anymore, but it’s not a world-spanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the more grandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality. Keep it simple, stupid.
To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda – give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors.
Future
I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I’m going to continue, it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, and with any luck I’ll find the time to meet those obligations.
However I don’t feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don’t feel that my efforts were worthwhile. So I won’t be standing for election, I won’t be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won’t vote in the next round of ballots.
You could say I’m packing up my toys. I’m not going home just yet, but I’m not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again.
= Mike
—
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt
I had been using PC-BSD for quite a long time and a few months ago I suggested to my boss that we install it on a few of our client machines just as an evaluation. After some persuasion he finally agreed to the idea – mainly due to the fact that our IT manager had run BSD successfully on his PC for a while.
It all was really good to start with. PC-BSD was better than our expectations and my boss was happy with the switchover – I had even been nominated for a promotion at the end of the year. Unfortunately we encountered one problem. One employee lost a whole project due to the OS corrupting the filesystem.
My boss wasn’t happy with me at all. I was called into his office and given a stern reprimand. A few days later I was looking for another job from home. A word of advice: don’t use PC-BSD as all it seems to do is cause problems.
Actually the real moral of the story is don’t store important data on workstations, insist that users store critical data on the server and back that up!
This is a known variation of a slashdot troll. I have seen it referring to Linux and standard FreeBSD. Imagine if people were fired for filesystem corruption under windows. There would be a lot of IT jobs available!
I second vondur’s statement, this is a variation of a troll post I have seen before. Also the story is so rediculous that I’m surprised anyone believed it:
– People don’t get fired because one computer dies no matter what is lost, using any OS there is always a chance that a few of the computers will experince software or hardware failures that will cause data to be lost.
– Important projects in any professional work environment will have backup copies on a server or external drive. I mean hey, even I keep copies of my important work on USB Jumpdrives and CDs, stupid and/or lazy only sound like good excuses for not having backups when you’re the one justifying it to yourself before something really bad happens.
– If the boss approved it then why did this person get fired for the failure of one computer?
– Being very close to a promotion for recommending PC-BSD, yeah right.
– Going from on the edge of a promotion to fired that fast over the failure of one computer, roflmao.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Isn’t it a form of rape- forcing your operating system ideology on other people? Why can’t you enjoy your little niche toy system without wringing your hand over “blah blah blah viable desktop solution,” or whatever it is you repulsive faggots are shitting out your mouths these days?
Computers aren’t an end unto themselves, and only disgusting pedophiles like star trek.
A word of advice: don’t use PC-BSD as all it seems to do is cause problems.
And this is based on one episode with one computer, with no explanation of why you are so sure it is the OS. Exactly why do you think PSBCD corrupted the filesystem, and why would an employee’s whole project be corrupted? And by the way, if it was your responsibility, they you deserved to lose your job for not making sure the data was backed up.
well did you even decide what YOU was talking about… ADSL or PPPOE ? which is it…
yes, thanks for pointing out those fine examples of what might go wrong in debian, i dont know how I lived without that sage advice that if you mix stuff in debian you might break something….I cant wait to run out and spread that breaking news… And that coming from someone who claims that CNR doesnt run into dependency issues… Considering we was talking about the advantages/disadvantages of CNR and you was claiming that CNR is perfect you sure proved your point…..
Oh and thanks for pointing out that linspire relases a new version every few months… of course only you would consider a bug fix a “new” distro release….
so what is ADSL and what what is the opposite of it and what is the difference? run and google and copy and paste
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
PC-BSD messed over my 12 linux box but a bunch of clever tricks saved the partitions at a linuxmafia.com installfest, thanks daniel, and then Ubuntu managed to put toghether a new menu.list for grub [and we even downloaded kppp for ubuntu so it CAN work from my place – major hint to gnome bigots – get a better dialer!]. The problem comes from bsd style slices not getting along with others or others not getting along well with slices might represent the problems more accurately since grub was made with bsd in mind. In fact, I wouldn’t even have tried PC-BSD at all if it didn’t claim to make the partitioning easier than prior attempts. I probably won’t try another BSD along with my linuxes until one of them adopts ext3 or similar filesystem as this was not the first time I had this drive won’t work in that box problem with a BSD.
It happens every time I try to install a BDS: they simply conflict with *every* other OS which can run on a PC. And according to virtually every installer, every partitioning tool, the HD geometry has been messed up.
Please take this into account when commenting about PC-BSD… If things were done using the command line it’s because PC-BSD is not ready. Why dont people get this?
Of course all the command line options will remain there but if the goal of the project is simplicity, things aren´t obviously ready… why do people play dumb just to downplay other people’s projects? Makes me sick. Religion is a kind of mind corruption…
PC-BSD while still in beta stage is very stable, has the easiest installs and packaging system (pbi). Windows partition is mounted by default no configuration required (not that it’s difficult but saves time) unlike linux, installing linux binary package enables to use linux apps on PC-BSD, while still retaining the ability to install ports FreeBSD style. PC-BSD to me is “FreeBSD made easy”.
We Tried Working With… is a cut and paste troll made infamous by anti-slash.org. The troll starts out by telling a story of an employer who evaluates <insert new item here> based on an employee recommendation. The troll then goes into how great <insert new item here> is, but then goes into how the new thing destroyed their company project – which leads to the dismissal of the employee who suggested the evaluation.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
No comment seems to be on how the guide is but instead this turns into a flamefest. Can we stick on topic and give our opinions on the guide?
As for my opinion, I think the guide does a very good job of making it easy for a determined newbie to get PC-BSD up and running successfully. The scripts are helpful. Just download and run them and things get installed with ease. Good job. I for one, am awaiting part 3 eagerly.
Installing and Configuring PC-BSD??? If people have to edit configfiles, why the heck use PC-BSD over FreeBSD???
Installing and Configuring PC-BSD??? If people have to edit configfiles, why the heck use PC-BSD over FreeBSD???
Name me an OS doesn’t have to be configured.PC-BSD can save you a lot of install time.
> Name me an OS doesn’t have to be configured.PC-BSD can
> save you a lot of install time.
But… setting font paths??? I’ll quote from http://www.pcbsd.org
“PC-BSD has as its goals to be an easy to install and use desktop OS”
Routine work that must be done, strictly following some manual, when installing the system – this totally contradicts their philosophy. An easy-to-install OS has as its key features that it “just works”. This is just brain-dead. On the other hand I hardly think that this is the intended final state of that OS. It would be just too geeky to be real.
– Morin
Hmm… why doesn’t the author make a live CD similar to FreeSBIE? This would make allow potential users to try PC-BSD without any fuss and muss. :/
i agree making it a live cd that you can install off of much like pclinuxos would be nice. that and better tools to partition the HD with.
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1148/sam0107a/0107a.htm
in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin
http://www.amdest.com/stars/Kreskin.html
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1148/sam0107a/0107a.htm
in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin
http://www.amdest.com/stars/Kreskin.html
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1148/sam0107a/0107a.htm
in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin
http://www.amdest.com/stars/Kreskin.html
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I’m sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It’s not anymore. It’s about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you’re told. It’s about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it’s going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I’m leaving core. I don’t want to feel like I should be “doing something” about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don’t have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won’t achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I’m sure that I’ve offended some people already; I’m sure that by the time I’m done here, I’ll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I’m discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There’s no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot “BSD is dying” crowd – big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It’s not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large – keep your eyes on the real goals. It’s when you get distracted by the politickers that they sideline you. The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean and building is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have their moments in the sun. In the end, we need you all; in order to go forwards we must first avoid going backwards.
To the paranoid conspiracy theorists – yes, I work for Apple too. No, my resignation wasn’t on Steve’s direct orders, or in any way related to work I’m doing, may do, may not do, or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today. It’s about real problems that the project faces, real problems that the project has brought upon itself. You can’t escape them by inventing excuses about outside influence, the problem stems from within.
To the politically obsessed – give it a break, if you can. No, the project isn’t a lemonade stand anymore, but it’s not a world-spanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the more grandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality. Keep it simple, stupid.
To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda – give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors.
Future
I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I’m going to continue, it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, and with any luck I’ll find the time to meet those obligations.
However I don’t feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don’t feel that my efforts were worthwhile. So I won’t be standing for election, I won’t be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won’t vote in the next round of ballots.
You could say I’m packing up my toys. I’m not going home just yet, but I’m not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again.
= Mike
—
To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. — Theodore Roosevelt
I had been using PC-BSD for quite a long time and a few months ago I suggested to my boss that we install it on a few of our client machines just as an evaluation. After some persuasion he finally agreed to the idea – mainly due to the fact that our IT manager had run BSD successfully on his PC for a while.
It all was really good to start with. PC-BSD was better than our expectations and my boss was happy with the switchover – I had even been nominated for a promotion at the end of the year. Unfortunately we encountered one problem. One employee lost a whole project due to the OS corrupting the filesystem.
My boss wasn’t happy with me at all. I was called into his office and given a stern reprimand. A few days later I was looking for another job from home. A word of advice: don’t use PC-BSD as all it seems to do is cause problems.
The real moral to his story is to backup your data!
Actually the real moral of the story is don’t store important data on workstations, insist that users store critical data on the server and back that up!
1st of all PC-BSD is still in BETA, so it must be used with this in mind.
2nd of all your exboss is soooo wrong to fire you for another employees fault (or carelessness) knowing that the swich was for evaluation.
I wish PC-BSD and its team the best, and am looking forward to use it as my Primary OS when it reaches the stable release.
This is a known variation of a slashdot troll. I have seen it referring to Linux and standard FreeBSD. Imagine if people were fired for filesystem corruption under windows. There would be a lot of IT jobs available!
Good point.
I second vondur’s statement, this is a variation of a troll post I have seen before. Also the story is so rediculous that I’m surprised anyone believed it:
– People don’t get fired because one computer dies no matter what is lost, using any OS there is always a chance that a few of the computers will experince software or hardware failures that will cause data to be lost.
– Important projects in any professional work environment will have backup copies on a server or external drive. I mean hey, even I keep copies of my important work on USB Jumpdrives and CDs, stupid and/or lazy only sound like good excuses for not having backups when you’re the one justifying it to yourself before something really bad happens.
– If the boss approved it then why did this person get fired for the failure of one computer?
– Being very close to a promotion for recommending PC-BSD, yeah right.
– Going from on the edge of a promotion to fired that fast over the failure of one computer, roflmao.
lol that must suck
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1148/sam0107a/0107a.htm
in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin
http://www.amdest.com/stars/Kreskin.html
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
Isn’t it a form of rape- forcing your operating system ideology on other people? Why can’t you enjoy your little niche toy system without wringing your hand over “blah blah blah viable desktop solution,” or whatever it is you repulsive faggots are shitting out your mouths these days?
Computers aren’t an end unto themselves, and only disgusting pedophiles like star trek.
A word of advice: don’t use PC-BSD as all it seems to do is cause problems.
And this is based on one episode with one computer, with no explanation of why you are so sure it is the OS. Exactly why do you think PSBCD corrupted the filesystem, and why would an employee’s whole project be corrupted? And by the way, if it was your responsibility, they you deserved to lose your job for not making sure the data was backed up.
And what other problems does it “seem” to cause?
I like the idea. I had been waiting for something like PC-BSD for years.
However the project is very young.
Here is what I need before PC-BSD can become a real alternative:
1)Easily setting up an ADSL connection
2)Having sound: I have a SoundBlaster Live! 24 bits (in linux you need kernel 2.6.12 for full support)
3)The HD geometry issue needs to be solved. This is possibly the most important and difficult issue.
4)I want to read my PC-BSD partition from linux and the other way around.
someones ignorance is showing again….
so are we talking about ADSL or PPOE? either one isnt hard unless you have chosen some crazy isp….
Can you describe the geometry issue you seem to have?
no reason bsd cannot read a linux partition and anyway how hard is it to have a sperate partition in a common format to share stuff?
“someones ignorance is showing again….”
Look at your own: suffice to say that you need examples of what can go wrong in Debian, ROTFLMAO.
well did you even decide what YOU was talking about… ADSL or PPPOE ? which is it…
yes, thanks for pointing out those fine examples of what might go wrong in debian, i dont know how I lived without that sage advice that if you mix stuff in debian you might break something….I cant wait to run out and spread that breaking news… And that coming from someone who claims that CNR doesnt run into dependency issues… Considering we was talking about the advantages/disadvantages of CNR and you was claiming that CNR is perfect you sure proved your point…..
Oh and thanks for pointing out that linspire relases a new version every few months… of course only you would consider a bug fix a “new” distro release….
so what is ADSL and what what is the opposite of it and what is the difference? run and google and copy and paste
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1148/sam0107a/0107a.htm
in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin
http://www.amdest.com/stars/Kreskin.html
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
bsd can kiss my ringworm infected ass
A pig is a noble animal when compared to you
PC-BSD messed over my 12 linux box but a bunch of clever tricks saved the partitions at a linuxmafia.com installfest, thanks daniel, and then Ubuntu managed to put toghether a new menu.list for grub [and we even downloaded kppp for ubuntu so it CAN work from my place – major hint to gnome bigots – get a better dialer!]. The problem comes from bsd style slices not getting along with others or others not getting along well with slices might represent the problems more accurately since grub was made with bsd in mind. In fact, I wouldn’t even have tried PC-BSD at all if it didn’t claim to make the partitioning easier than prior attempts. I probably won’t try another BSD along with my linuxes until one of them adopts ext3 or similar filesystem as this was not the first time I had this drive won’t work in that box problem with a BSD.
It happens every time I try to install a BDS: they simply conflict with *every* other OS which can run on a PC. And according to virtually every installer, every partitioning tool, the HD geometry has been messed up.
this is crap
“this is crap”
What a detailed, convincing counterargument!
If you have nothing to say, just shut up.
in what ways do they “conflict”? does a OS give you a error message? what? strange works just fine here…
Please take this into account when commenting about PC-BSD… If things were done using the command line it’s because PC-BSD is not ready. Why dont people get this?
Of course all the command line options will remain there but if the goal of the project is simplicity, things aren´t obviously ready… why do people play dumb just to downplay other people’s projects? Makes me sick. Religion is a kind of mind corruption…
PC-BSD while still in beta stage is very stable, has the easiest installs and packaging system (pbi). Windows partition is mounted by default no configuration required (not that it’s difficult but saves time) unlike linux, installing linux binary package enables to use linux apps on PC-BSD, while still retaining the ability to install ports FreeBSD style. PC-BSD to me is “FreeBSD made easy”.
This is an old Slashdot troll for sure.
Quoting Wikipedia:
We Tried Working With… is a cut and paste troll made infamous by anti-slash.org. The troll starts out by telling a story of an employer who evaluates <insert new item here> based on an employee recommendation. The troll then goes into how great <insert new item here> is, but then goes into how the new thing destroyed their company project – which leads to the dismissal of the employee who suggested the evaluation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSD_is_dying
(at the bottom)
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last
http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1148/sam0107a/0107a.htm
in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin
http://www.amdest.com/stars/Kreskin.html
to predict *BSD’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.
Let’s keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let’s see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dbblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
No comment seems to be on how the guide is but instead this turns into a flamefest. Can we stick on topic and give our opinions on the guide?
As for my opinion, I think the guide does a very good job of making it easy for a determined newbie to get PC-BSD up and running successfully. The scripts are helpful. Just download and run them and things get installed with ease. Good job. I for one, am awaiting part 3 eagerly.