Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 04:18:51 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> To: Aggelidis Nikos <aggelidis.news@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Laptop suggestions? Message-ID: <20080725111851.GA76361@eos.sc1.parodius.com> In-Reply-To: <30fc78250807250336n4f52b0d0vd087fe01d1f940e6@mail.gmail.com> References: <1216910072.2251.8.camel@jill.exit.com> <a699ffdd0807240739s60ec59a7q22cf4e53025844d6@mail.gmail.com> <1216945181.1179.23.camel@RabbitsDen> <20080725055135.GN53966@stlux503.dsto.defence.gov.au> <20080725064436.GA64711@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <30fc78250807250336n4f52b0d0vd087fe01d1f940e6@mail.gmail.com>
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On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 01:36:37PM +0300, Aggelidis Nikos wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 9:44 AM, Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@freebsd.org> wrote:
> >
> > "I'm buying a new computer, what should I buy?"
> >
> > Buy whatever suits your needs, and feels comfortable for you.
>
> >
> > With regards to OS compatibility, this is a difficult one. Googling to
> > see what other people have experienced is pretty much the only option,
> > or you get to find out yourself.
>
> But this is the reason Frank asks which computer to buy. I don't think
> he is expecting to be told about the weight of a laptop; he can figure
> this himself. But how can you figure OS compatibility from 20minutes
> test drive? That's why you ask for other persons experiences.
> Personally if i were to buy a laptop right now, i would buy one that
> would be fully compatible with bsd or linux even if this meant paying
> a few more euros or getting something heavier... Unfortunately this
> kind of info {OS-- compatibility} isn't advertised, or written in
> specs.
>
> >From my perspective freebsd should "advertise"(*) the laptops that
> work with it, out of the box, so that new users {like me} know what to
> buy; and large corporations have a benefit for promoting OS
> compatibility other than Windows(tm).
>
>
> -best regards
> nikos
>
> (*) when i say advertise , i mean make this info publicly available
> and easily accessible from the website
You really have no idea to what granularity/extreme laptop vendors make
changes to their laptops. Do not, even for a moment, think that any
time they make a hardware modification that they change a model number
or increase a version number: they don't. Hell, it's hard enough
getting ASIC manufacturers to do this (Realtek I'm looking at you).
Here's a real example: do you know how many actual hardware
revisions/models of the T60p there are, just in the United States?
Let's look:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/homeLenovo.do?country=us
Select "Notebooks and Handhelds" from the pulldown.
For Family, select "ThinkPad T60p".
Now look at how many entries there are under Type. Choose one.
Now look at how many entries there are under Model.
Now do you still feel what you want is reasonable? :-)
I understand where it is you're coming from -- you essentially want the
same thing Microsoft totes with their "Certified for <xxx>" logos on
hardware -- which as I'm sure you also know amounts to nothing more than
marketing schmooze.
User X would report that FreeBSD works on their laptop, but then 3
months later, user Y would report <X> feature doesn't work on their
laptop, which then amounts to "is laptop really compatible with
FreeBSD?" Etc. etc...
I'm sure you see where I'm coming from.
--
| Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |
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