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Date:      Thu, 9 Jun 2016 16:06:48 +0200
From:      Christian Baer <christian.baer@uni-dortmund.de>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: advice for buying a laptop
Message-ID:  <njbt5o$pk6$4@ger.gmane.org>
In-Reply-To: <57586E36.40509@holgerdanske.com>
References:  <nj9kmu$7r8$1@ger.gmane.org> <57586E36.40509@holgerdanske.com>

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On 06/08/16 21:12, David Christensen wrote:

> These sites are useful: https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops 
> http://people.freebsd.org/~bcr/laptop_article.html

Thanks for the links! I can't help but think about how current the
information on these sites actually is. I mean, article is from 2007 and
refers to FreeBSD 4 and 5 (we are talking nearly 10 years here) and I'd
like to think that things may have improved a bit since then. :-)

There is no info on the T520 in the wiki and the info on the T530 is
from 2014. Dunno if it's still current. Can someone verify that?

> Dual+ boot is a PITA -- been there, done that, got the scars.  I 
> prefer one small, fast SSD for each OS instance.  I'd get a laptop 
> with an easy to swap HDD/SSD or a laptop that can hold 2+ drives.

So people keep saying. I don't quite get why though. I've been playing
around with dual boot systems since I ran OS/2 2.1 - which is a few
years back BTW. :-) I stuck with OS/2 until Warp4 but even when that was
released, IBM had already dug OS/2's grave. During that time I already
started to play with Linux and due to frustration with the concept of
Linux I went to FreeBSD at v3.3. After seeing the OS/2 boot loader, I
always wondered why the other boot loaders out there (esp. the FreeBSD
one) weren't more like that one.

Today I have a dual boot system at home with FreeBSD for most of my
stuff and Windows 7 for gaming and certain apps I cannot get to run with
Wine.

Have I been missing out on all the fun here? :-P

> I've had the best luck with Intel parts -- processors, chip sets, 
> graphics, sound, networking, etc..  Other brands just cause
> problems and/or don't last -- especially NVIDIA.

Is this a general rule or are you only referring to mobile adapter from
nVidia?

> I was looking for a used laptop that is known-good with FreeBSD a 
> few months back: 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/2016-March/270997
.html

Interesting
>
> 
thread. Thanks for the link!

> I never bought one, but my searches led me to Dell Inspiron with 
> second-generation Core i processors.  Latitude and/or Precision are
>  appealing, but it's hard to find examples without NVIDIA or ATI 
> graphics (other than brand new, which are very expensive).

May I ask why you went to all the trouble researching the hardware an
then never bought that laptop your wanted?

Since I have kept away from mobile hardware for quite a while now, I
don't know much about the mobile graphics cards (chips). In both my
computer at home and in my workstation in the office, I have an nVidia
card installed. Both work very will with the drivers from nVidia. I have
real a lot about the open source drivers having "issues". Normally this
should decrease for AMD graphics because of the open source nature, but
it seems they are mainly targeting the Linux kernel, which doesn't help
FreeBSD all that much.

What's the deal with nVidia's mobile chips?

> Let us know what you buy and your experiences getting FreeBSD onto 
> it.

When I do buy something, I will let you guys know. Currently I am
holding myself back, because when looking around I see more and more
laptops that I would like to have and there is so much potential for
spending *so* much more money than I should, :-)

Best,
Chris
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