Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:53:57 -0400 From: Joe Demeny <jd1987@borozo.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: "Jason P. Thomas" <jthomasp@gmualumni.org> Subject: Re: Laptop advice Message-ID: <200803271353.58323.jd1987@borozo.com> In-Reply-To: <47E77CA1.9000401@gmualumni.org> References: <200803210556.50743.jd1987@borozo.com> <47E77CA1.9000401@gmualumni.org>
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On Monday 24 March 2008 06:04:17 am Jason P. Thomas wrote: > Joe Demeny wrote: > > I need to get a budget-priced laptop, such as one of these: > > > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101123 > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114430 > > > > Does anyone have experience with these? > > > > Any suggestions for other comparable choices? > > From personal experience, getting a laptop to work under FreeBSD (or > even Linux) is a hair pulling experience. It took me about six months > of tinkering off and on to get a Broadcom(yuck!) wifi adapter to work in > my HP laptop last year. In the interim, I found a work around that was > about $30. I purchased a usb wifi adapter that used the rum driver. At > the time, I had to run -current to get that particular driver, but I > never had a problem with the computer or the adapter under -current. > The most headaches I've gotten with laptops have always involved the > wifi cards. Consequently, every laptop I've installed FreeBSD and Linux > on had a Broadcom(yuck!) wifi chipset. Everything else has been well > supported, graphics, sound, power management, pointing devices, and usb > devices. I even managed to use FreeBSD to connect to the robots I had > to use in one of my master's classes last year. That was pleasantly > surprising. > > --Jay Thank you all for your advice. I am familiar with the Hardware Notes. The problem is that from the specs it's hard to tell what is in the computer. The Gateway web site lists this under the specs: "Integrated Realtek 802.11b/g Wireless Networking" for "Wireless Network"; same for the Toshiba. This is why I wondered if anyone has one of these laptops... In the end, the best advice seems to be indeed to take the FreeBSD CD to the brick-and-mortar store... -- Joe Demeny
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