geek OS

From: Tom Jennings <tomj_at_wps.com>
Date: Sun Jan 9 15:28:55 2005

On Sat, 8 Jan 2005 gordonjcp_at_gjcp.net wrote:

> I'm *amazed* how many people on this list still struggle on with Windows.
> I would have thought most people with the geeky proclivities that would
> lead them into playing with old computers would all be running one of the
> many free OSes.

Windows is appropriate in places, there's many good software
packages for it, but I otherwise agree you, especiially for anyone
with more than pedestrian demands.

I just sink further into geekdom, and after getting bamboozled by
the increasing complexity and featuritis of linux (SuSE 9.2) (*)
"went back" to freeBSD. (It's > 10 years old... :-)

I found that since the last time I used it (mid 90's) it's MUCH
nicer. Supports all the crappy hardware I have (Sony VAIO vx89),
boots 2X faster, imported, transformed all my data, and tuned for
the new OS in three days.

I'm running fvwm2 (over KDE), gained 200 MEGABYTES FREE MEMORY!,
and sacrificed *nothing* in the way of convenience. Nothing.

I installed it with the three-floppy kernel and an ethernet to the
world (at UCI.EDU, fat pipe to freebsd.org). Practically painless.

Geek onward!



(*) somehow Yast got confused; can't ID the OS version, couldn't
figure out how to do online updates any more. Spent a few hous
over a few weeks trying to track down just how yast determines it,
realized there was a lengthening list of problems knowable, but
unwilling, to solve. CVS for updates is at least debuggable. Big
linux distros are getting more and more baroque as they try to
"compete" with W$.
Received on Sun Jan 09 2005 - 15:28:55 GMT