Why PC-BSD Sucks

[Emegra]

Hi everyone
I'm very new to BSD and like the original poster I've had a nightmre with this system, very little has actually worked for me, I fell into the same trap as the original poster about adding a user during installation, I spent the best part of an evening trying to figure out why I couldn't connect to my network server only to discover the firewall blocks it by default, whats all that about ?, I ticked the check box to tell it not to start the firewall on startup but it does it anyway. During my attempts to connect to my server I tried to install smb4k only to be told I need to update the pbi manually, I don't know what a pbi actually is let alone how to update it (manually or otherwise), I tried installing jags it installed but just plain wouldn't work, I then tried installing xsane to see if i could get my scanner to work but it wouldn't open up either, this evening I have tried for hours browsing for my network shares in keepassx can't find them anywhere (in linux they'd be in the gvfs folder but no such folder seems to exist in BSD and I can't find any alternative), in spite of these problem I'm not saying it's a bad system most of the problems are most probably due to my lack of understanding but for someone not particularly computer literate like myself the system is almost impossible to use unless I'm prepared to sit for hours on end frustrating my self to distraction trying to learn it

[Ole Juul]

Hi everyone

Welcome to the forums.

If there is something you would like help with, feel free to ask.

[Emegra]

Welcome to the forums.

If there is something you would like help with, feel free to ask.

Thanks Ole
I wasn't knocking BSD in my post I'm not a particularly computer literate person so my opinion on what makes a good or bad operating system doesn't really count for much anyway, I can only talk from the standpoint of an average pc user who enjoys learning, I Installed PC BSD onto a secondary hard drive on my pc because my freenas server failed and I wanted to be able to check an external drive that was connected to it was ok so I needed something that could read ufs natively because I'm having problems importing the drive to the new server I've built using freenas 8. BSD has served it's purpose for me which was to read the drive and copy the contents over to the new server but I would like to try using pc bsd for a while at least but I am having many problems, I dont think it would be right to mention them on this thread as I would be throwing it way off topic but I'll probably start a new thread and see how I get on.

Many thanks
Graeme

[cyclingforfun]

Honestly I dont know what these guys have against such a great system as PcBSD. I am using Lubuntu for sometime, but my 65years old father has problem with his monitor under *ubuntu and I was never able to make other linux distribution running on his PC.
So I installed PC BSD without major issue! All hardwear was recognized properly. I think that PCBSD is in some way easier to run for average user as me than most linux distros.

Now my father has PCBSD on his computer and can manage installing applications and do easy stuff. So guys shame on you if you are not able do what my father can even without knowledge of english. HAHA

[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.

[Ole Juul]

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.

Very commendable.

But, well, I don't see how average Joe is supposed to enjoy the journey to *nix.

There are always problems it seems. However, I've got a complex Kubuntu system which has been running without serious incident for over 5 years now. The PC-BSD system has not been bad, and it appears that the problems have come from demands which I've made which were not provided out-of-the-box. Most OSs work well if you don't make additional demands. I think that goes for MS-Windows systems as well.

In reality most people get their Windows systems professionally installed and don't actually do it themselves. In fact it appears that the vast majority of them even buy pre-assembled hardware with OS and major applications ready to go. You can't compare that to the do-it-yourself approach. I don't have any personal experience with Windows systems, but I do notice that many of my neighbours and acquaintances take their machines to the shop once in a while and spend $150 or so to get things straightened out. I'm sure if they spent the same money on a *nix system things would get straightened out there too.

[bebuxe]

>Zeph3r
If you are still here. Install gentoo. You will never have to worry about nothing again.

>Every other person
He is a troll. Notorious. And he is enjoying this.

And honest opinion from an honest user. Use what makes you work best. All humans learn and work differently. That is why we have many "OSes" and distros. Pick you best easy tools that work well. You never know if you find OS variable X the best after using Y so much.

If you still need a specialised recommendation, look at your wiki or at:
http://distrowatch.com/

Much customisation can lead to a really good thing, but no support at all.

[whitelightning777]

A few points here:

Linux isn't UNIX. They just look enough alike enough to mess with your mind.:

Use a live DVD or USB (you'll need to use dd unetbootin won't work) to test things out first. Heck, try it out in a virtual machine for a while, or install it to an external drive like I did. What you don't know will hurt you.:

Trouble shoot your hardware before installing any O/S.:

Lastly, if PC-BSD won't work for you, I would suggest Linux Mint. Its even more user friendly then puppy while having just as many features as BSD (give or take a few) There are several spins with different desktops to choose from. All the codecs work with Mint. Its still not quite as fast as puppy, but not bad for a full- sized distro. The LXDE or xfce spin would be just fine coming from puppy.:

Don't get overly emotional, never helps.

[Tigersharke]

I'm not sure how fine a line there is between complaining and constructive criticism, but it certainly seems easy to tread too far in the wrong direction.

It is infinitely helpful when inconsistencies are found, mistakes made, or a lack of clarity is needed, that they are described as clearly and as neutrally as possible. This way, the difficulty can be solved for the discoverer and for all that follow.

I understand that there may be frustration, it happens to all of us, and unfortunately in some cases it is a simple stupid error that we overlook. Personally, the frequently repeated "blah doesn't work as I think it should (or as it does in 'other OS') so I'm going back to that 'other OS', so there! hmmph!" is beyond old and does not cause the slightest hint of a wish toward suggesting any sort of authority and only tends to devalue anything in the same post with it.

BSD does many things differently. However, there is an inherent stability and consistency that most avid users greatly appreciate. This consistent behavior helps to reduce the learning curve because it allows generalizations. We know where base is stored compared to added software, we know that the software included with base shall not change with any great frequency, we know that nearly everything is well documented with a rather well-written nearly too-extensive manpage. These things we can rely upon.

It is my strongly held belief, that a lot of the software difficulties that we in the BSD world face, are due to the origin of the software. We can get nearly anything ported to BSD in time, but to perfectly clarify a tangled weave of dependencies or options would at best mean a BSD replacement which could break compatibility and/or cause a nightmare of maintenance. (One example is sound, another may be desktops or window managers in general.) When every author chooses to do things *their* way, when new software is only supported until the next spiffy concept of how to solve that same 'problem' begins to get fleshed out, this is how the chaos is built. Abandoned partially developed ideas can also be partially supported by a subset of collections. I would much prefer software specific to BSD than ported, simply because it has much much less baggage and potential problems. There just seem to be far more numbers of motivated developers banging out useful software outside of BSD, which can be ported to BSD, gaining for ourselves those same capabilities, keeping the ports tree a very useful and valuable resource. Then to angle this to PC-BSD, we have many automated and simplified ways to get things done, including our PBI system. The intent is ease of use, and in many but not all situations, this is exactly the result. Unfortunately, PC-BSD suffers the same challenges that FreeBSD does, as mentioned above.

Is it an unreasonable expectation that PC-BSD be the epitome of perfection? Were PC-BSD still neatly contained within the boundaries that limited v8.2, then sure, it would be entirely realistic to assume stunning results. However, once v9.0 opened a pandora's box of multiple desktops and associated software which may also be specific to those desktops, it very nearly sacrificed a potential for perfection in place of greater flexibility and customizability. I feel it is likely that we may see an approach to that same approximation of perfection as with v8.2, though with multiple desktops, by version 9.2 or 10. Cats are not like cattle or sheep.

Let me not need to remind those who discover motivation or desire within themselves, that PC-BSD is not a closed system which turns away help that is offered. If you have skills, there is a place for you to donate them. If you have time, there are numerous things of various levels of difficulty which you could choose from. There is no educational degree as a requirement, no certain qualification to fill, but without a scrap of interest there is unlikely to be any effort given because with interest comes motivation and with those along with learning, progress and accomplishment are born.