[Tfug] FreeBSD vs. Linux

[Predrag Punosevac]

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:24:32 -0700, andy <andyjones at cox.net> wrote:

> I appreciate the info and I'll try to make the next happy hour too. I'd
> like to see BSD in action/installed, but there's no reason to do a fresh
> install, I'll trust you that its just as easy as Linux.
>
> I'm going to assume that BSD because of the tight control is less buggy,
> but also less cutting edge? It would make sense in a server environment
> as opposed to a desktop where you can live with a few bugs. I was just
> wondering whether it would work as well on a notebook with all the WiFi,
> sound, and other odd drivers that seem to give Linux fits.
>


Yes FreeBSD is little bit less edge but do not be fooled by it. For  
instance
Gnome 2.20 is already in our ports while I think that Ubuntu is still using
2.18. FreeBSD is no stable branch of Debian.

FreeBSD has less drivers for WiFi card than Linux as alpha and beta  
drivers are
big no no in FreeBSD. The following link is the complete list of drivers  
for FreeBSD.

  http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/ALTQ_drivers

I did not make mistake pfSense is derivative of FreeBSD. In particular pay  
attention
to wi driver.

I know that you would probably like to run your build in WiFi device.
Intel has released the firmare (binary blob drivers for FreeBSD).
See the port three on  
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/net/ipw-firmware-kmod/

ndis is also an option but it is not as good as Linux ndis

Ariff's hnd should be good enough for you sound card. It is in default  
installation of
7.0 but on 6.2 has to be installed manually.

If you want I could bring the FreeSBIE http://www.freesbie.org/ which is  
live CD based distro of
FreeBSD. Unfortunately 2.01 is based on the 6.2 stable from February but  
it could give you an idea
how FreeBSD would run on your notebook. It will be sluggish as it is  
LiveCD.

The favourite notebook of FreeBSD people is ThinkPad and should work  
without the glitch.

This is also a complete list of notebooks and how they behave under  
FreeBSD.

http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~dkulp/fbsd/laptop.html

You should read Handbook if you want to learn more about FreeBSD as it is  
probably the
best peace of documentation about open source OS period

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html



Best,
Predrag