No GUI

[Oliver Fromme]

Justin C. Sherrill <justin at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
 > Simon 'corecode' Schubert wrote:
 > > I concur with that.  If somebody wants to make a nice install/live CD
 > > with GUI and whatnot, please go ahead!  But I think this should not be
 > > the official DragonFly CD.  Our nrelease framework and the installer is
 > > so flexible, it is very easy to have additional packages and configs
 > > added for an "advanced GUI CD"

I completely agree with Simon and Matt.

 > Would it really be a problem to have something more on the CD than what we
 > have now?  It seems to have worked out OK for  most mainstream Linux
 > distributions, especially Knoppix, and for FreeSBIE, PC-BSD, etc.

Last time I tried to boot FreeSBIE on my notebook I got a
black screen and nothing else.  Same with Knoppix.  They
were completely useless.  I've never tried PC-BSD, but I
guess it doesn't look much better (given the fact that it
uses the same FreeBSD + Xorg base as FreeSBIE).

In my opinion, the installation CD for an operating system
(especially for an OS that runs perfectly fine without any
graphical interface) _must_ work under as many different
circumstances as possible.  It must work with any graphics
card that's not supported by Xorg, it must work with the
old 8bit ISA Hercules monochrome card in my printer server
(I don't even think it supports graphics mode), it must work
without any graphics card at all.  When I boot the FreeBSD
install CD on a headless machine with serial terminal, sys-
install comes up fine and allows me to install the OS (I
haven't tried that with DragonFly yet, but I assume it works
as well).

I also very much love the fact that the DragonFly install
image is a lightweight download (less than 100 MB gzipped,
and uncompressed it fits on a cheap 256MB USB memory stick),
which works as a life FS and installation source at the same
time.  That's just cool.  You don't have to waste time and
space downloading things you don't need.  You can download
just the packages that you really need (which may include
Xorg and a graphical desktop if you're so inclined), and
it's all quite easy and straight-forward.

During the production of JF Lehmann's "BSD Collcetion DVD"
I had the opportunity to look at the installation procedures
of all the four major BSDs (Free, Net, Open, DF), and guess
waht?  I like the DF one best.  FreeBSD and NetBSD share the
second place, and OpenBSD's installation is just horrible.

In my opinion the DF installer people are doing an excellent
job, and I hope they will continue this way and not listen
to those who ask for a GUI just because Knoppix and FreeSBIE
have one.

My two cents ...

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme,  secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing
Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd

Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author
and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way.