My boy loves Ubuntu because we can't get graphics going after two days!

Status
Not open for further replies.
I think that's something FreeBSD and PC-BSD teams can collaborate to make a recommended list.

There seems to be a Hardware recommendation page, and it looks like an official one:

https://www.freebsd.org/commercial/hardware.html

I am no administrator and not interested in running lots of servers. I come from the Mac World and love the BSD-way when it comes to OSes. I dream of the ability of FreeBSD to beat the hell out of Linux when it comes to Laptops and Tablets. Since Jordan Hubbards talk recently, I dream of FreeBSD focussing also on these things.
 
Almost exactly 4 years ago (Dec, 2010), I bought my newest new computer. An HP tower with a Core i7-870....preloaded with Windows 7 (to replace my aging P-II 3.2Ghz Dell tower running Win98)....after a couple of near death experiences with it, it patched itself into oblivion on Valentine's Day in 2012. A Dell tower at work did the same thing a few months later.....always wondered about its Intel Matrix RAID and its need to 'initialize' anytime the system didn't shutdown properly.....due to BSOD.

I decided that I would wait for Ubuntu 12.04LTS to drop and try that....install...run for a bit, panic, panic, panic. reinstall, run for a bit, panic, panic, panic. Wonder if I want to wait for 12.04.1 to appear. (a couple years earlier I had jumped the gun on upgrading from 8.04LTS to 10.04LTS, and my mirrored system disks couldn't be detected anymore. A bug was that fixed two weeks later. (otherwise, I hadn't any issues with the software raid that I had been doing with Ubuntu....) As, I recall the problem had something to do with whether you had made a PV using the MD, or if you had created a partition of type PV on the MD first....and was only an issue for the boot one (since that was the only one I lost.)

Had heard they weren't going to offer upgrading older LTS systems until the first update dropped.

So, decided to check out all the buzz about FreeBSD 9.0...I at least had a running system and I already knew ZFS since we were a Solaris shop at work, it did take a little over a month before I got a desktop but well before the 3 years were up on my 10.04LTS system.

But, then x11/gnome2 disappeared....and finally got x11/gnome3 to build on the 11th, and just barely have a desktop again now....(now trying to figure out the new hal-less xorg-server....)

Later when 12.04.1 did come out, I was on a kick to use CFEngine to manage configurations of my home systems, I got to thinking about whether how much I wanted to write policy/promises for how things are on the Ubuntu servers or to recreate those services (DNS, DHCP, NTP, Radius, etc.) elsewhere....I had been collecting parts to complete an SFF server, which I ended up with some extra bits and decided to see if could make two instead....was apparently too hard to run Windows 7 on these dual core atoms....recommendations were to buy MacMini's and run Windows 7 for the digital signs.... if the box had at least two NICs on it, I'd be using it for something else, hopefully someday a box or two of that will appear.... so instead of document/promise what I have and the upgrade, or upgrade and cross my fingers....I went with door number 3, and built two headless FreeBSD servers and promised into existence the services on these systems, gradually displacing the old Ubuntu systems.

I didn't get everything done, but enough....when one Ubuntu server died. I later killed the other one by harvesting its powersupply for my FreeBSD desktop....

This leaves on last Ubuntu desktop (actually, xubuntu), which was originally an impulse acquisition of an off-lease Win98 desktop after a tower of empty pop cans fell over (earthquake) and I joined the QuakeCatcherNetwork....only to find that the sensor only had Windows drivers for it. Linux support came later. The sensor for Radioactive@Home is now also on this computer.

Though I do have a small 12.04LTS headless server, which does three things....runs chrome service, so I can continue to do cloud printing (used to work in chromium....), to run Dropbox (with NFS and Samba exports), and to do local github-pages processing. No USB ports on this, but had thought about finding something that did to see about using usbip to present USB2.0 to VirtualBox VMs on FreeBSD, ended up getting a Silex SX-DS-4000. Undecided on upgrading to 14.04LTS....

But, first...need to figure out upgrading all my FreeBSD systems since 9.1 and 9.2 EOL soon.

Oh yeah...I have/had an Ubuntu laptop....that I'm in need of replacing, and have been wondering whether FreeBSD would work on there. Though chromium not support NPAPI anymore has also been reducing the appeal of having a FreeBSD DE anywhere.... Might be time that I finally see what these Mac's can do....

Also, heard that the issue with 12.04LTS when it first dropped was the kernel didn't like systems with graphics cards with 2G or more of memory. The HP had come with a GT-420 with 2G of memory. (had since replaced it with a Quadro X1700, to solve the hanging the system on logging out of X or attempting a vt-switch....had tried AMD cards, got instant reboot for those events instead....)

The Dreamer
 
This thread has drifted quite a bit. I'm going to close it for now, and encourage people to start new threads with titles that are somewhat related to the contents. Thanks!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top