Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 07:27:27 -0400 (EDT) From: Daniel Feenberg <feenberg@nber.org> To: doug@fledge.watson.org Cc: "James D. Parra" <jamesp@musicreports.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Locksmith <Tyler@tristatesafeandlock.com> Subject: Re: Building a FreeBSD desktop. Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.64.1208210712180.17858@nber6> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1208210229110.91609@fledge.watson.org> References: <1552740774.89081.1345522411775.JavaMail.root@mri-mail> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1208210229110.91609@fledge.watson.org>
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On Tue, 21 Aug 2012, doug@safeport.com wrote: > > > On Mon, 20 Aug 2012, James D. Parra wrote: > >> I was looking to build a desktop to learn FreeBSD and was wondering if >> there >> is a list of parts to build one or to just look at the hardware >> comparability list? I just don't want to order wrong parts. >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >> >> If don't want to make the full commitment to building a desktop, a good way >> to learn about FreeBSD is to install within a virtual machine. Either >> VMWare or VirtualBox will serve you well. >> > If you have a system you want to try you can also check out > http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html. That is a great resource for laptops, too bad it isn't mentioned in the Handbook compatibility chapter. We have purchased many desktop motherboards for FreeBSD over the years, from Intel, Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI and others. None mentioned FreeBSD compatibility, none was on any list promising FreeBSD compatibility and none has failed to boot and run well. That said, rarely the onboard ethernet has not been recognized and we had to add a PCI NIC until the next version of FreeBSD included the proper drivers. No NIC has ever been incompatible in our experience. We have not ever tested APM or ACPI, and if you follow the newsgroup you will know that those are sometimes problematic. Notice how few laptops support APM or ACPI with FreeBSD. Also, while onboard video has always worked for us, some people will notice that the drivers do not always provide the full performance available in Windows. We have not found the Handbook compatibility list very helpful. The list is mostly by chip, which card vendors don't mention in their literature. It would be nice to see a list of currently available products, by retail model number. That doesn't exist as far as I can tell. So it comes down mostly to your feelings about those issues. If you will be upset by less than optimal 3D graphics perforance, there is a risk. Otherwise, don't worry. But why order parts? If you want to learn FreeBSD, just take any old windows box and install FreeBSD over the existing windows install. It will work fine and won't cost you anything. daniel feenberg
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