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At this point, I've run about 15 or so live Linux CDs with varying degrees of success. And yes, I have manually configured a static networking connection before -- Fluxbuntu's "command line interface is EVERYTHING" philosophy sent me to the Web for instructions on how to do so. But I'm not a full card-carrying geek, so I'm not all that crazy about going to the command line with no help whatsoever just to get freakin' Internet flowing into the box with a live CD I've never run before on an OS I've also never run before.
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At this point, I've run about 15 or so live Linux CDs with varying degrees of success. And yes, I have manually configured a static networking connection before -- Fluxbuntu's "command line interface is EVERYTHING" philosophy sent me to the Web for instructions on how to do so.
But I'm not a full card-carrying geek, so I'm not all that crazy about going to the command line with no help whatsoever just to get freakin' Internet flowing into the box with a live CD I've never run before on an OS I've also never run before.
But that's what happened with FreeSBIE, the live CD that features the FreeBSD system. First of all, unless you elect to use the "cheatcodes" (and can figure out from the help screen what exactly to type), FreeSBIE boots, after the usual 4-minute wait typical of a full-fledged live CD, into the shell. Yes, the GUI doesn't start automatically. You're in the BSD shell. At least you're logged in. It does that much for you.
But what to do then? I typed xwin, which I use to restart the window manager in Puppy. No go. Luckily I have two computers at my desk. I got the FreeSBIE "manual" (they are using the term very, very loosely) open and figured out from there that I had to type startx to get Xfce running. Whatever you do, if you plan to try FreeSBIE, print out the "manual" before you begin.
FreeSBIE looks good, and there are all the usual ways to tweak the Xfce interface. There are even printer utilities. But a utility to configure the Ethernet interface? Nada. And since I don't have DHCP here -- it's fixed IP -- I had to figure out how to get the network going.
I just wanted to do it for this one session -- you know, from the command line -- and I looked at the entire FreeSBIE site. Nothing. Even the 900+ page FreeBSD manual wasn't all that much help. I tried to configure, figuring out what the interface was called in BSD (it was bge0, by the way, which is very unlike the eth0 it's called in Linux -- I see nothing wrong with that, I'm just relaying the information).
I followed the instructions, but BSD wasn't accepting the addresses I was typing in. After all that, I kind of know how to get my main address, netmask and gateway into the system, even if they are "out of range" (not sure of the wording, but it was something to that effect). How to allow for my DNS servers? I have no idea. I'll try to find the Linux help page I used with Fluxbuntu, and maybe I'll try again. Maybe not.
So I couldn't connect and therefore couldn't really give FreeSBIE a good test.
Hey, if I can get Fluxbuntu to connect with the command line, I should be able to do it in FreeSBIE, right? Not right. And the whole thing where the GUI doesn't come up unless you ASK for it (or type startx at the prompt)? It's not ready for newbie prime time.
If all you've aiming for is to have longtime BSD users downloading your live CD, and if your sparse Web site gives no information on how to configure networking, then you've made you're own lonely bed, 'cause very few people are gonna lie in it if they can't get Firefox working.
Would it kill you to strap a GUI network-config utility into the window manager? Would it kill you to put detailed command-line configuration information in the help file that pops up in Firefox when it loads?
I don't think that Fluxbuntu has to leave new users in the dust either, but at least I was able to find the information I needed to start networking -- and it worked.
Another thing: I like Xfce a lot. I like Abiword a lot. But the FreeSBIE disk is a bit anemic when it comes to software. There's Abi, Gnumeric, emacs, Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, the GIMP, Joe, mPlayer ... and more. But it seems a bit light on utilities (including the aformentioned net config one), and while I understand that they can't cram Open Office on there (the compression on the fly isn't as good as Linux, I believe), I guess I was expecting more.
I'm not ready to give up on FreeSBIE just yet. I will get its networking going, one way or the other (I'm not above bringing in a router and turning my static IP into a DHCP connection).
And I'm not ready to give up on the BSDs either. I have hard drives waiting for DesktopBSD and FreeBSD installs. But in a world of over 100 Linux distributions and at least seven BSDs, first impressions do matter, and FreeSBIE has a lot of work to do in that regard.
Whether or not you like Ubuntu, Knoppix, Puppy and the other distros on live CD, you can't deny that they have a rather gentle learning curve and have done much for the cause of Linux. If a newbie can't get networking started, printing configured and drives mounted quickly and easily, you and your favored OS are in real danger of losing them. And right now FreeSBIE isn't exactly flying a welcoming flag for FreeBSD.
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