PC-BSD works for community center
britneysimpson
Monday July 03, 2006 (05:00 PM GMT)
By: Henry Gillow-Wiles
As the IT director for a non-profit community center, I face several
challenges, the most pressing being the lack of money. This means our
lab is filled with donated older equipment with limited capabilities.
Given this state of affairs, I am always on the lookout for free,
easy-to-use open source software. I chose PC-BSD as our standard
operating system because of its exemplary performance on older
equipment.
When considering an operating system for our hardware, I have a couple
of requirements. First comes performance. The operating system needs to
be usable on Pentium III equipment. If end users have to wait for
applications, they get frustrated and start clicking on stuff. I then
get to clear print queues with 40 copies of the same print job. The
second requirement is ease of use. Our users for the most part are not
very computer-literate and come from a Windows environment, so
consistency in desktop look and feel helps them transition to an open
source operating system, and helps me not to have to answer too many
questions involving differences in doing common tasks.
After looking at several Linux distributions and finding them lacking
in either speed, ease of use, or ease of management, I tried PC-BSD.
This OS installed quickly and ran well on all but the most limited
Pentium I equipment. With a default installation, PC-BSD feels snappier
than the Windows 98SE that usually shows up on the donated equipment. I
has also been stable, with few unexpected system freezes or crashes.