Why PC-BSD Sucks

[Zeph3r]

I thought that it might be interesting to try Linux's 'cousin', UNIX.

First, I downloaded the USB Full Install image and burned the image to a usb flash drive.

After booting from the drive, the installer appeared, and asked me to select a time zone. so far so good

Next, I selected the drive to install onto, the packages I wanted, set the system password, and made a user account.

I came back an hour later, and found that the installer had stopped midway, it was stuck installing the GNOME package, but i waited a few minutes more before rebooting the computer.

On my next install, i installed LXDE and XFCE, (because i hate KDE Heresy! Heresy! )

After I was finally able to install PC-BSD, and booted to the login screen, I found . . . . . NO USER ACCOUNT!

I think that this is the point which a new user goes back to his/her 'other os'.

Anyway, being somewhat *nix savvy, I typed root, and logged in.

I opened the 'PC-BSD Control Panel' and clicked on the 'User Manager' . . . . . nothing! I single-clicked, double-clicked, and triple-clicked!

After about 10 minutes I was getting tired of clicking, <lol> so I opened a terminal, typed adduser, and set things up that way.

Not a good first impression on a first time user.

So i logged in with my new account, running XFCE.

After a little while of playing around with the desktop, I plugged in a usb drive.

And Nothing happened!

No drive icon appeared on the desktop.

Nothing in the file manager either.

Reading up on this, i found that XFCE uses udev in linux, but having no udev support under BSD, drives are auto mounted using a PC-BSD script.

Well, this script must not have been working properly.

So I started up LXDE and was able to read my files off the usb drive.

I opened a mp3 but found out that with my choice of desktops there were no media players!

I decided to reinstall PC-BSD with everything set to the default, which was KDE. I hate KDE!

I still had the same trouble with the user accounts.

At least my drives automounted this time.

I opened an mp3 again, hoping that some music would help my PC-BSD caused headache.

NO SOUND!

NO ****ing SOUND!

<sigh>

I opened the PC-BSD control panel and found nothing on sound or audio at all.

I read the help files and found nothing on sound.

Maybe the PC-BSD programmers are all deaf?

I didn't know this was a distro for the deaf.

BTW, MY SOUND CARD IS A GENERIC AC'97 SOUND CARD USED IN BILLIONS OF PC'S, AND EVERY DESKTOP LINUX DISTRO THAT I HAVE TRIED, WHICH IS SO MANY THAT CAN'T REMEMBER, HAS A DRIVER FOR IT!

You might ask why i didn't open a terminal and start typing arcane commands into it and 'make things work'.

Because I sometimes like things to just work, esp. with a supposely n00b friendly desktop system.

At this point, I decided to go back to my 'other' system, Puppy Linux 5.2.8.

Which works great out of the box, with all hardware support, except for the latest video card drivers, which were easily installed.

Also look at the difference in size, PC-BSD (3280 MB), vs Puppy Linux (125 MB)

Puppy Linux even has more apps installed out of the box than PC-BSD.

TTFN,

Zeph3r

[BBOSAK2143]

With user accounts when you are installing have to press the add button to add name and password. I did that myself first time installing and obtained the same results you have obtained.

Yes the file size and structure of PCBSD is quite large compared to other operating systems. As I am new to it(also have issues to work out) I am just starting to realize the potential of it. That aspect is great. Of course getting used to new commands and PCBSD's different way of handling things is not a simple task.

I really suggest to search through a lot of the wiki articles concerning PCBSD to get more of an understanding of it. I am also guilty of knocking it, because I am upset I can't clear my connectivity issue up. Please look thru the adobe type book that appears on screen to find the correct command to view your hardware. Is an epub. Once you fine the command use it the copy results to notepad and post. This will insure someone will understand the problem and be of more assistance.

As I say am new to PCBSD also(2 days over 2 weeks) so am still learning and refuse to stop. I just think will be better for you to learn some more and give it another try. Please don't get frustrated I am sure one of us will come up with a solution on here.

[redshirt]

Oddly, a few years back I had the same issues you had, but with trying to install mainstream well supported linux operating systems on my soon to be new server.

PC-BSD installed and worked well. It's been running ever since. Certain aspects are complex, but worthwhile. It's big, but remember, freeBSD has full linux emulation support built in that can run linux stuff even faster than linux! And PC-BSD has a default portjail configuration. These sorts of things make the distro bigger.

That said, if you have an easy linux OS you like and it works for you, stick with it, and if you want to check out PC-BSD, put it on a less important box and play with it.

[fluca1978]

The battle repeats over time....BSD is better than Linux.... no Linux is.....

I admit that I'm getting some problems with PCBSD, like my screen backligth not working properly, but I'm really happy of this operating system since it gives me back what Linux did a few years ago: the power to do whatever I want and to learn what I'm doing.
This is my personal opinion.

[Ole Juul]

Everything sucks. It's not just PC-BSD, it's all operating systems. I've tried lots of them (except MS-Windows), even Minix3 (it's getting there!) and they have all caused me great frustration at some point. Since I'm not paying anything, and riding on the coattails of other people and their hard work, I try to keep it to myself as much as I can - but it is indeed not always easy. However, I have found several solutions:

1. Do without the program that's giving me a hassle.
   
2. Install something else. (There's lots of choices)

The second choice is particularly effective in a situation such as the OP was experiencing, when I can't get the basics to work.

[Weixiong]

I thought that it might be interesting to try Linux's 'cousin', UNIX.

.
Linux was derived from UNIX, which makes Linux more the 'bastard child' of UNIX than it's 'cousin'.
.
.

At this point, I decided to go back to my 'other' system, Puppy Linux 5.2.8.

Which works great out of the box, with all hardware support, except for the latest video card drivers, which were easily installed.

Also look at the difference in size, PC-BSD (3280 MB), vs Puppy Linux (125 MB)

Puppy Linux even has more apps installed out of the box than PC-BSD.

TTFN,

Zeph3r

.
.
I've tried puppy Linux and while I too had a list of things I found wrong with it, posting a thread on their board telling them how it sucked seemed childish to me.

[fluca1978]

Everything sucks. It's not just PC-BSD, it's all operating systems.

Right, everything sucks, the whole word sucks since I'm not as cute and intelligent as I wish I am.....
Come on, let be serious here. What about start to think that is not product X that sucks, but simply that it does not fit your way of thinking/playing/acting?

[Abdul]

Everything sucks. It's not just PC-BSD, it's all operating systems. I've tried lots of them (except MS-Windows), even Minix3 (it's getting there!) and they have all caused me great frustration at some point. Since I'm not paying anything, and riding on the coattails of other people and their hard work, I try to keep it to myself as much as I can - but it is indeed not always easy. However, I have found several solutions:

1. Do without the program that's giving me a hassle.
   
2. Install something else. (There's lots of choices)

The second choice is particularly effective in a situation such as the OP was experiencing, when I can't get the basics to work.

I feel the same frustration. Though it's more about user space.
I'm moving away from Windows, but I can't really get myself to bite the bullet and leave it because all that I encounter is bug-ridden rubbish. Yeah, I try changing things over and over, but it seems that majority of people use a different definition of 'stable' from mine. You know, I want to be able to click any button w/out causing segfaults. 50% of *nix software that I tried didn't pass this test. But I also want it to do meaningful and useful things when I press buttons. I try to think of programs that worked well for me and I get 2.
ping and grep.
Everything higher level seems like a bunch of code pieces poorly hacked together that work well with each other only by accident that doesn't happen too often.

This applied to *BSD just as well as Linux. My desktop is still Windows, but my workstation in Kubuntu. No, it was not me who chose the OS. And I can say that I never run such rubbish for as much as 3 months before.

I'm a persistent kind of guy and furthermore I don't see my way with Vista and its derivatives, so I still didn't give up. I learn to work around bugs and annoyances and hope to be able to make a *workable* combination of OS and programs. But, well, I don't see how average Joe is supposed to enjoy the journey to *nix.

[Galraedia]

On my next install, i installed LXDE and XFCE, (because i hate KDE Heresy! Heresy! )

PC-BSD has been using a special build of KDE SC for a long time. Other DEs were offered starting with PC-BSD 9.0, so there are still some problems that need to be fixed.

I opened an mp3 again, hoping that some music would help my PC-BSD caused headache.

NO SOUND!

NO ****ing SOUND!

<sigh>

I opened the PC-BSD control panel and found nothing on sound or audio at all.

To check whether the device driver for the sound card works or not, use:

cat /dev/sndstat

Also look at the difference in size, PC-BSD (3280 MB), vs Puppy Linux (125 MB)

Comparing Puppy Linux to PC-BSD isn't really a fair comparison. Puppy Linux is a lightweight Linux distribution that focuses on ease of use, whereas PC-BSD is a desktop-oriented operating system built upon the most recent releases of FreeBSD.