Re:Too true (Score 1)

Don't take this personal, I'm just making suggestions:

Here you go: First, because some of the stuff I have to use, like vmware, doesn't work under linux emu from what I'm told (I did mention that).

You've been told one thing, and I have heard another. Did you search the questions@freebsd mailing list archives for vmware and matlab?

Second, because it means that installing anything that doesn't come tgz'd is a royal pain in the ass, generally.

Can you quantify the PITA effect of using the compiler? I personally find the compiler less a Pain in the Pack Animal and more of a useful tool. Would like a little less GNU cruft, I suppose.

And third, ports aren't released at a rate that is sufficient to take care of 1) and 2) above, though they seem to generally do a good job.

It looks to me like you're arguing popularity there. Is popularity a valid argument?

Personally, I think your point #2 sums up your argument. Even if you have antipathy to using the compiler, there are Linux distributions that you can set up and get to work on fairly quickly. For a variety of reasons, Linux may be better for you.

Maybe I'm just being overly sensitive, but it seemed that your parent-parent post implied that Linux would be better for me too, especially if I need to use vmware or matlab, and I just wanted to point out that your brush was a little wide for your picture.