Hi all, I am a native Linux user but I thought I would give FreeBSD ago. I have successfully installed it onto a VM without any problems and so far I am happy with it. But I am about to install 8.0-Beta3 onto my laptop and before I end up with a useless system I had a few questions.
I have heard that FreeBSD does not have support for some of the latest hardware. My laptop is about a year old (dell xps m1330), so I would think that the hardware would be supported is there a place where I can check what hardware is supported by the kernel? While reading through the Wireless networking page in the Handbook It told me to check wlan man page to check if the drivers for my card are available, but I can't find my card. It's a Intel 4965AGN. From what I have read it only has support for the 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG cards.
Secondly, the ports system. I have played around with it briefly and from what I understand it works a bit like the gentoo emerge package manager? by downloading the source and compiling it for you and resolving all the dependences? I am installing gnome2 now on my VM and it has been going for ages. I'm assuming that's because it is compiling everything. Is that correct? Also is there a way to check the download size required before stating the install?
I think that is about it, well they are the 2 big things that I need to know to get a system up and running, the rest I'll work out as I go along.
If anyone knows of any good docs other than the handbook that could help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
dissident85
I have heard that FreeBSD does not have support for some of the latest hardware. My laptop is about a year old (dell xps m1330), so I would think that the hardware would be supported is there a place where I can check what hardware is supported by the kernel? While reading through the Wireless networking page in the Handbook It told me to check wlan man page to check if the drivers for my card are available, but I can't find my card. It's a Intel 4965AGN. From what I have read it only has support for the 2200BG/2225BG/2915ABG cards.
Secondly, the ports system. I have played around with it briefly and from what I understand it works a bit like the gentoo emerge package manager? by downloading the source and compiling it for you and resolving all the dependences? I am installing gnome2 now on my VM and it has been going for ages. I'm assuming that's because it is compiling everything. Is that correct? Also is there a way to check the download size required before stating the install?
I think that is about it, well they are the 2 big things that I need to know to get a system up and running, the rest I'll work out as I go along.
If anyone knows of any good docs other than the handbook that could help me, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
dissident85