i'm a newbie, is pc bsd easy to use?

[randomboy]

i'm getting a new desktop computer, but i'm not so keen on paying $300 for a windows vista. if i can get pcbsd for $0, i thought i'd give it a try. i'm hearing all kinds of linux stuff on tv and all the free software. i thought i'd use it for my new computer. i came across pcbsd on the net.

is pcbsd easy enough for a novice like me?

i normally use windows for openoffice, rip tracks off a CD, play dvds, play mp3s, surf the net, email, chat. can i do all that stuff easily with pcbsd?

[Protagonist]

i'm getting a new desktop computer, but i'm not so keen on paying $300 for a windows vista. if i can get pcbsd for $0, i thought i'd give it a try. i'm hearing all kinds of linux stuff on tv and all the free software. i thought i'd use it for my new computer. i came across pcbsd on the net.

is pcbsd easy enough for a novice like me?

i normally use windows for openoffice, rip tracks off a CD, play dvds, play mp3s, surf the net, email, chat. can i do all that stuff easily with pcbsd?

You can do all the things you mentioned using PC-BSD. Don't expect to be able to use a webcam, though. All of the things you mentioned are available with the PBI, push button installer, files so if your hardware is supported you should find it easy to use.

I would suggest you set aside a couple of weeks to try the various options available. Ubuntu on the Linux side has a live CD that will let you try it without installing it. I orefer the BSDs myself, but they are not for everybody.

PC-BSD is about a 10 - 15 minute install so it would be easy for you to give it a try.

[Dingens]

i'm getting a new desktop computer, but i'm not so keen on paying $300 for a windows vista. if i can get pcbsd for $0, i thought i'd give it a try. i'm hearing all kinds of linux stuff on tv and all the free software. i thought i'd use it for my new computer. i came across pcbsd on the net.

is pcbsd easy enough for a novice like me?

i normally use windows for openoffice, rip tracks off a CD, play dvds, play mp3s, surf the net, email, chat. can i do all that stuff easily with pcbsd?

when you tell us more about your hardware anyone could give you a tip of using pc-bsd or not. because not all hardware is supported.

[TerryP]

PC-BSD is easy enough for most people to use, as long as you've got solidly supported hardware, there are rarely "big" problems to deal with.

i normally use windows for openoffice, rip tracks off a CD, play dvds, play mp3s, surf the net, email, chat. can i do all that stuff easily with pcbsd?

I would suggest building a more detailed list of your needs and research the software available. For example, while you can surf the web perfectly fine on PC-BSD, some sites that require Flash8 or newer, specific plugins (e.g. Yahoo Video) rather then capabilities, and "Internet Explorer only" sites may be problematic. Doing VoIP or Video Conferencing such as using Skype, is a bit sticky. If you require Flash9 and Skype, I would suggest testing Ubuntu or Kubuntu instead of PC-BSD.




For example:

Office Suites: KOffice (on CD2, in ports, in pkgs), Gnome Office, OpenOffice (on CD2, PBIDir, ports, and pkgs), and probably a few others in ports.


Ripping CDs: Should work out of the box with Konqueror in point of fact (pardoning any CD access issues with your hardware), many programs also capable of doing this, and there is also a cd ripper included if I recall correctly.


Playback of DVDs will work but you need to install a few multimedia/libdvd* ports to play encrypted DVDs -- the libraries are perfectly legal but the US-Based developers are paranoid, understandably.


MP3 support comes out of box in Amarok, Kaffine, and KMPlayer, many more players are available.



The default web browser, Konqueror is a decent web browser for surfing the web and will fill at home to Fire Fox users. Many other browsers avaiable, ranging from Lynx to Opera.


E-Mail is available via countless programs, the system ships with KMail.


Instant messenger work comes out of box with Kopete and others are available.



After awhile, you might even build a list of common programs -- I have, along with automating most of their installations ;-)

[randomboy]

Originally Posted by randomboy

i'm getting a new desktop computer, but i'm not so keen on paying $300 for a windows vista. if i can get pcbsd for $0, i thought i'd give it a try. i'm hearing all kinds of linux stuff on tv and all the free software. i thought i'd use it for my new computer. i came across pcbsd on the net. is pcbsd easy enough for a novice like me? i normally use windows for openoffice, rip tracks off a CD, play dvds, play mp3s, surf the net, email, chat. can i do all that stuff easily with pcbsd?

You can do all the things you mentioned using PC-BSD. Don't expect to be able to use a webcam, though. All of the things you mentioned are available with the PBI, push button installer, files so if your hardware is supported you should find it easy to use.

I would suggest you set aside a couple of weeks to try the various options available. Ubuntu on the Linux side has a live CD that will let you try it without installing it. I orefer the BSDs myself, but they are not for everybody.

PC-BSD is about a 10 - 15 minute install so it would be easy for you to give it a try.

this is my pc hardware:

intel dp35dp mobo
nvidia 8800gt 512M ram
4G RAM
seagate 320G HDD
samsung dvd rw

are those components compatible?

[Dingens]

your graphiccard supports freebsd(pc-bsd). with the other components ... i dpon´t know. but you could try and report it here.