From owner-freebsd-questions Fri Jul 26 22:13:40 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2F4DA37B400 for ; Fri, 26 Jul 2002 22:13:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtprelay9.dc2.adelphia.net (smtprelay9.dc2.adelphia.net [64.8.50.53]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 55AE143E65 for ; Fri, 26 Jul 2002 22:13:37 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from bsturk@adelphia.net) Received: from telengard ([68.64.102.51]) by smtprelay9.dc2.adelphia.net (Netscape Messaging Server 4.15) with ESMTP id GZW6IN01.L24 for ; Sat, 27 Jul 2002 01:13:35 -0400 Received: (from bsturk@localhost) by telengard (8.11.4/8.11.4) id g6R5phO10298 for freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG; Sat, 27 Jul 2002 01:51:43 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: telengard: bsturk set sender to bsturk@adelphia.net using -f Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 01:50:43 -0400 From: Brian Sturk To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD as a Desktop Message-ID: <20020727015043.A10258@adelphia.net> References: <002c01c23408$5a860330$6801a8c0@SURVIVAL> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <002c01c23408$5a860330$6801a8c0@SURVIVAL>; from met@uberstats.com on Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 02:23:10PM -0400 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thu, Jul 25, 2002 at 02:23:10PM -0400, MET wrote: > From: "MET" > > There is without a doubt that FreeBSD is an amazing server OS, but how > well does it stand as a desktop, or rather a laptop. To be blunt, I'm > tired of Microsoft and was wondering how feasible it is to run FreeBSD > as my Laptop OS. I will do some searching, but are there good GUI > environments for word processing, C/C++ development, email, ICQ, some > port of AOL Instant Messenger (I can't believe I'm putting this here), > MP3 players/converters, web browsers that actually keep up to date with > the standards, and anything else commonly used ? Well, I'm currently running 4.6 on my T20 Thinkpad and it works great. The wireless card I have is supported too. Check your laptop hardware against the supported hardware list. As for word processing, well I just use vim. Flat text files are easier to deal with. C/C++ development is a dream on FreeBSD. All the tools are there. There are also plenty of tools to do the rest of what you've mentioned. As for a web browser I currently use Galeon, which I personally like better than IE. Tabbed browsing is great. One non-software related aspect I really like is the community. For the most part folks are pretty helpful. HTH -- .--------------------------------------------------,---------. | Brian Sturk - http://users.adelphia.net/~bsturk \ C/C++ | .> )\,^a__ |-------------------------. bsturkadelphia.net | Python |( _ _)/ /-." ~ | http://www.telengard.com `------------------------`--------| `( )_ )/ | Telengard Technologies Inc. - NT/*nix UI & device drivers |_<_s_<_s `------------------------------------------------------------' To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message