Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 13:10:09 +1000 From: "Doug Young" <dougy@gargoyle.apana.org.au> To: "James Diefenderfer" <james@worldly.org> Cc: "Joe Warner" <jswarner@uswest.net>, "Jerry Dunham" <jerry@dunham.org>, <cal@rushe.aero.org>, "Greg Lehey" <grog@lemis.com>, "Wes Peters" <wes@softweyr.com>, "Michael Smith" <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Sue Blake" <sue@welearn.com.au>, <newbies@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Still No FreeBSD Message-ID: <064201bfd4e4$e5167730$847e03cb@ROADRUNNER> References: <200006100634.XAA15122@calamari.aero.org> <20000610202611.H22659@rider.dunham.org> <3942F563.9613BCE7@worldly.org> <20000610212117.N22659@rider.dunham.org> <3942FA1C.68246759@worldly.org> <20000610213641.P22659@rider.dunham.org> <3943EB0B.CB3B
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G'day James :) Hey I'm certainly no expert on this stuff, but there's no way I'd even try installing ANY unix in a laptop unless it used really basic videocard / soundcard /network card etc. For some reason laptop designers seem to feel its obligatory to dredge up the weirdest bits for their products .... certainly all the ones I've looked at had oddball rubbish componentry like SiS video, unknown weirdo soundcards, & something like those "broken even when new" RealTek NIC's, etc etc that are difficult enough to get working properly even in Win98 !!!! I guess a lot depends on ones philosophy ..... if you are like certain geeks of my acquaintance you may well appreciate a challenge, however what I want most times is the simplest possible way to get the thing working properly. Lots of things are probably "do-able" by experts, but virtually impossible for newbies. Whilst I do occasionally "have a go" at installations in borderline machines, 90% of the time its just not worth the aggro .... far easier to assemble a system with nice standard (and easily obtainable) bits like Intel CPU, S3 / ATI video, SB16 sound, SMC / 3-com / Intel NIC that work in virtually all operating systems. Other bits *might* work, but the only way to know is put the time in & see what happens. I'm usually very short on time so as far as I'm concerned those el junko taiwanese garbage generic disasters are best left in the shop. I thought there was a hardware compatibility list somewhere ..... or was it just a list of suggested bits & pieces by one of the FreeBSD guru's (Jordan himself as I recall)?? ... whatever it is / was I'm certain it contained well known breeds of components. My only objection was the recommendation for Matrox videocards, and that simply because (at least in OZ) one needs to mortgage the house to buy one. I've found ATI ones give virtually the same result at something like 20% of the cost. > i asked, several people on this eMail list, and read ALOT before i thought > about trying to install FreeBSD on this Dell Latitude LM. Several people told > me they had it working with no problem and several "Hardware list" listed this > laptop as one that could handle FreeBSD ! > > > Doug Young wrote: > > <snip> > > > Weird isn't ?? ...... I think its probably best that newbies avoid > > proprietory hardware generally- I agree but sometimes, when you're first > > starting out, it's hard to know you've got proprietory hardware until you've > > already pounded your head against a wall and pulled your hair out for a > > week. > > -- > James > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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