Logout's FreeBSD Experiment 02/07/22
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Logout recently  wrote about laziness  in computing, and a  foray into
the world  of FreeBSD[1]. At  some point, I  think we all  become lazy
about  our use  of  computers. Certainly,  the marketplace  encourages
that, and the amount of time we  can commit to computing has to play a
role as well.

But,  he  was  specifically  talking  about being  lazy  in  terms  of
willingness to learn  new things. Most users use  Windows because it's
handed to them  with their new computer. They  don't question anything
about it, they  just comply, because that is how  they think the world
operates. They're victims, ultimately, of a monopolistic system.

Desktop  *nix users,  on the  other  hand, make  a conscious  decision
about their  operating system and  environment. But, as  logout noted,
sometimes we  get locked in  to one way  of thinking, and  forget that
there are new things to learn and try out there in the world of *nix.

And so, logout is trying out FreeBSD  on a Thinkpad T410. To learn new
things,  break free  from fixed  thinking, and  progress. From  what I
read, that seems to be the extent of the reasoning, and it sounds fine
to me.

I've  tried  various BSDs,  but  have  always  ended  up at  the  same
conclusion: BSD  takes more of  my time.  Certainly, it takes  time to
learn something  new... but  I'm talking  about the  time it  takes to
maintain  and manage.  I haven't  found,  yet, a  way for  BSD to  fit
efficiently into my  time/space with everything else that  pulls on me
in life. Perhaps I'm not understanding  something, but to me, it feels
like an OS that requires more of  the operator, which is the price for
the benefits it gives.

It  will  be  interesting  to  see  where  Logout  ends  up  with  the
experiment. I'm also curious how  experienced BSD users feel about the
time it takes to manage and maintain (including new software, software
updates, and new  hardware) a desktop BSD system, if  someone wants to
write that phlog post...

[1] gopher://i-logout.cz:70/0/phlog/posts/2022-02-05_am_i_one_of_those_lazy_idiots.txt