From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Mar 21 05:43:07 2004 Return-Path: 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 1DC9316A4CE for ; Sun, 21 Mar 2004 05:43:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail6.speakeasy.net (mail6.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.206]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1B0343D39 for ; Sun, 21 Mar 2004 05:43:06 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from johnmills@speakeasy.net) Received: (qmail 23048 invoked from network); 21 Mar 2004 13:43:06 -0000 Received: from dsl027-162-100.atl1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO otter.localdomain) ([216.27.162.100]) (envelope-sender ) by mail6.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 21 Mar 2004 13:43:06 -0000 Received: from localhost (jmills@localhost) by otter.localdomain (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id i2LDh7Z26838; Sun, 21 Mar 2004 13:43:07 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: otter.localdomain: jmills owned process doing -bs Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 08:43:07 -0500 (EST) From: John Mills X-X-Sender: jmills@otter.localdomain To: FreeBSD-questions In-Reply-To: <1079851883.474.111.camel@localhost> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: ecrist@adtechintegrated.com Subject: Re: Best *nix OS for a laptop? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: John Mills List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 13:43:07 -0000 Eric, Freebies - I ended up with Linux for some specific reasons. YMMV. On Sat, 2004-03-20 at 17:42, Eric F Crist wrote: > Could some of you please send me an email telling me what OS you utilize on > your laptop, and why? I'm not looking for anyone bashing any other OS, just > why you use what you do. I am working on a Linux development project, have very limited funds, and spend many weekends out of town. I was given an elderly Toshiba (430CDT) that was a casualty of the class-action suit a few years ago, about their handling of CPU and/or BIOS problems. I wanted a setup that would parallel the code development environment of my RH-7.3/X11 Linux setup. I expanded the RAM to 49 MBy but was still unable to run any installer I could find for a RedHat setup. ('Slinky' bit me viciously.) I was able to run the Slackware-9.1 Linux console installer without problems, and by being very careful I even fitted a few frills into the system's 1.2 GBy HDD. It generally works (sllooowwwlly), though I sometimes crash my X session when some app ties up the resources (i.e., there seems to be a minimum hardware base for stability and I'm not _quite_ there). Otherwise it meets my requirements perfectly. I'm typing this now by SSH login to my home system over a [miserable] dial-up account, and at home I put it on my LAN and it works fine. X11 takes a long time to start, but is responsive once it's going. I use WindowMaker because KDE and GNOME are pretty much out of the question with so little RAM: they swap all the time and KDE takes _many_ seconds to even find a keystroke. WM is fine. I didn't try other lightweight window managers ('fvwm', 'fluxbox', ...), but any of them would probably have worked out. I installed from a boot floppy and CDs of the packages. I expect to install future Linux systems from Slackware after about 6 years of RedHat (though my early setups were Slackware). Naturally I'm heavily influenced by my anecdotal experience. I don't have sound working, and the only power management is screen blanking, c/o XFree86. I am sure I could have installed a good freeBSD configuration; I recently installed FBSD by ftp in a junker desktop that didn't even have a CD drive. As soon as the Linux project works I plan to port it to FBSD due to its fine reputation as a server environment, but the client asked for Linux and I have more development experience (and a good working setup) in Linux. Bottom line: I got what I needed, but my limited hardware and specific use had a lot to do with the path I took. Regards. - John Mills john.m.mills@alum.mit.edu