Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 09:45:28 -0400 From: "Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse@wingnet.net> To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 5.1-BETA2 (or -RC1) with IBM Thinkpad A30p !!!SOLVED!!! Message-ID: <bc7bm9$rk1$1@main.gmane.org> References: <bbni9l$k4h$1@main.gmane.org>
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Jesse D. Guardiani wrote: [...] > So, when FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE is released, I'll happily return to > the proud ranks of the FreeBSD mobile crowd. I'll update the > FreeBSD Laptop page when that time comes. Well, 5.1-RELEASE was released two days ago, and my IBM A30p laptop is now happily running FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. <rant> Here are some notes from my month long experience running Debian "Woody" Linux: 1.) Maybe it's just the fact that I'm new to linux, but I found it very very difficult to do even the most basic administrative tasks under linux. I think "distro"s are the worst idea anyone has ever thought up. Every distro has their own way of doing things, which means that most software developers pretty much let the user guess how to install their software. And what's up with the avid hatred for 'man' pages? Geez... 2.) EVERYTHING works better under FreeBSD. The first thing I noticed when I first started using linux was that I could no longer compile a kernel in the background transparently. I felt like I was on a windows box again! The mouse would jerk and hang constantly while my box was under heavy load. Under FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE everything is smooth, even when my processor is under 100% load. Hurray for multitasking! In addition, my sound support was TERRIBLE under linux. I heard a constant popping sound and my CDs skipped all the time. The same CD under FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE is perfectly clean and sounds great across all tracks. 3.) LILO sucks. Since lilo isn't a multi-stage boot loader like FreeBSD's boot loader, I had to grab the first 512 bytes from my boot sector, place them on a floppy, and reboot into Windows to install the 512 byte file in NT's boot loader EVERY TIME I recompiled my kernel! That got old like the second time I had to do it. Later I installed and used 'grub', which _is_ a multistage boot loader, but I still hate LILO, which is the default loader under Debian Linux. 4.) Linux's VGA text console makes life difficult. 'grep'ing for various strings in log files under /var/log would consistently CHANGE my VGA MODE! I would then be restricted to two lines of text at the bottom of the console. Getting the full text console back was a royal pain too. I really could go on and on, but you get the point, I think. </rant> Anyway, I think it's needless to say that I'm a HUGE FreeBSD fan after my brief experiences with Linux. -- Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator WingNET Internet Services, P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605 423-559-LINK (v) 423-559-5145 (f) http://www.wingnet.net
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