From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 24 10:43:18 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B61A51065670 for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:43:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jthomasp@gmualumni.org) Received: from eastrmmtai110.cox.net (eastrmmtai110.cox.net [68.230.240.29]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 492358FC1B for ; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:43:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jthomasp@gmualumni.org) Received: from eastrmimpo03.cox.net ([68.1.16.126]) by eastrmmtao103.cox.net (InterMail vM.7.08.02.01 201-2186-121-102-20070209) with ESMTP id <20080324100420.SVPM4272.eastrmmtao103.cox.net@eastrmimpo03.cox.net>; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:04:20 -0400 Received: from [10.12.12.21] ([24.255.118.95]) by eastrmimpo03.cox.net with bizsmtp id 4y4K1Z00623ayMC02y4K1J; Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:04:20 -0400 Message-ID: <47E77CA1.9000401@gmualumni.org> Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:04:17 -0400 From: "Jason P. Thomas" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.12 (Windows/20080213) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Joe Demeny References: <200803210556.50743.jd1987@borozo.com> In-Reply-To: <200803210556.50743.jd1987@borozo.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Laptop advice X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:43:18 -0000 Joe Demeny wrote: > I need to get a budget-priced laptop, such as one of these: > > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101123 > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114430 > > Does anyone have experience with these? > > Any suggestions for other comparable choices? > > From personal experience, getting a laptop to work under FreeBSD (or even Linux) is a hair pulling experience. It took me about six months of tinkering off and on to get a Broadcom(yuck!) wifi adapter to work in my HP laptop last year. In the interim, I found a work around that was about $30. I purchased a usb wifi adapter that used the rum driver. At the time, I had to run -current to get that particular driver, but I never had a problem with the computer or the adapter under -current. The most headaches I've gotten with laptops have always involved the wifi cards. Consequently, every laptop I've installed FreeBSD and Linux on had a Broadcom(yuck!) wifi chipset. Everything else has been well supported, graphics, sound, power management, pointing devices, and usb devices. I even managed to use FreeBSD to connect to the robots I had to use in one of my master's classes last year. That was pleasantly surprising. --Jay