Re: Why are you on a *nix desktop?

Hello,

My own story:

I originally started using FreeBSD because a friend's BBS (that I helped out with) became something of a small Internet Service Provider. This was in the mid 90's (1992? 1993?), and Windows support for TCP/IP just wasn't that great. They wanted web servers and stuff like that, and they chose FreeBSD, as it was (and still is, but it has more competition now) one of the top platforms for hosting web servers, routing TCP/IP, etc.

On the 486es of the day, you needed something like FreeBSD to support 20+ people using the Internet simultaneously.

So I got involved in FreeBSD. I started setting up my own servers and experimenting with it, and I found myself hooked. Later, I started trying it out as a desktop as well as a server.

FreeBSD has a lot of the attributes that we all value in IBM i. It "just works". It's very stable. The development is conservative -- the folks at FreeBSD are very careful not to break things. The focus is more on stability, upgradability, etc, rather than having the new fancy whiz-bang features.

I also tried Linux, quite heavily in the 2001-2003 time frame, and did not find the same philosophy. I was using RedHat mainly, but also tried something else (now I forget what it was.) It was virtually impossible to upgrade releases without replacing all of the software. The base system would come with beta-quality developers tools preinstalled, and all software would depend on it. (It was funny, you'd go to the developer's page and it would say "I don't recommend using version XX yet, it's not quite ready" but it would come preinstalled on the OS!)

I realize that there are different flavors of Linux, some better than others... and the open source RedHat (which is what I was running) ended up being dropped shortly after that, replaced with Fedora... so in no way am I putting down Linux, I'm just explaining my experiences.

With hardware in FreeBSD, it "just works". Either it's supported, you'll see the driver, and it'll work as expected, or it's not supported, and there won't be a driver. There's none of the "weird quirks" that seem to go hand-in-hand with Windows. With Windows, strange things sometimes happen, with absolutely no log messages or diagnostics, and rebooting the computer or reinstalling the software fixes them. It drives me nuts. How can you correct a problem when there's no diagnostics explaining what's happening? Never had that problem with FreeBSD.

Indeed, when I have a Windows PC, and I can't figure out why it's misbehaving, one of my "tricks" is to boot a FreeBSD CD, and see what errors FreeBSD finds. Tells me what's wrong, when Windows wont!

So I got hooked on FreeBSD because it makes my life easier. Much like IBM i.

Problems I've had:

a) People sending me Word and Excel documents, and expecting the format to be EXACTLY the same on my system. Since the fonts often don't match, and since OpenOffice doesn't always render things exactly the same way, this can cause confusion and frustration.

b) The core assumption from (it seems everyone) that you are running Windows. They send you Windows things, and just expect you to be able to use them immediately. (Why can't you view the video I sent you? It works fine on my computer. Your computer must be broken! Maybe you should upgrade!)

c) Web sites that flat-out REQUIRE Internet Explorer. This has become less and less in recent years, but still happens.

-- even if I deal with those --

d) IBM only makes iNav and RDi for Windows. Two of the core tools I need to work with IBM i (which is critical to me) are Windows-only. Therefore, using IBM i forces me to use Windows.

If I could overcome those problems, I'd be in FreeBSD for my desktop all the time. But, alas, I'm finding myself using FreeBSD as a desktop less and less because of those challenges, and only using it for a server.

I'd love ideas for how I can solve those problems!