From owner-freebsd-advocacy Mon Mar 1 11:40:35 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from smarter.than.nu (lal-99-91.Reshall.Berkeley.EDU [169.229.99.91]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7846315437 for ; Mon, 1 Mar 1999 11:40:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by smarter.than.nu (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id LAA03107 for ; Mon, 1 Mar 1999 11:39:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU) Date: Mon, 1 Mar 1999 11:39:44 -0800 (PST) From: "Brian W. Buchanan" X-Sender: brian@smarter.than.nu To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: FreeBSD and Linux on portables Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG While we're on this FreeBSD vs. Linux thread, how does FreeBSD's support for portable computers compare to that of Linux? My Libretto is running PAO for 2.2.8, and it runs beautifully. It was quite possibly the most painless FreeBSD installation I ever performed (excepting 'make installworld', of course), as it detected my PCMCIA network card and floppy drive right off the bat and everything installed from the local FreeBSD mirror without a hitch. A reboot, an automatic config file patching and kernel build, and another reboot later, I had a fully functional system. Luigi's pcm driver supports the integrated sound controller fairly well, so I can even listen to my MP3 collection on the go now. :) I don't know anyone who runs Linux on a laptop, so I don't have even the slightest idea how it measures up. In any case, it would be a good idea to use FreeBSD and FreeBSD-PAO's usability on portable machines as a point in our favor. Just being able to carry FreeBSD around is also good for advocacy on its own. I get lots of curious and interested looks when I pop open the Libretto and people notice that the screen looks nothing like Win98. Them: "Wow, your computer is so small! What operating system is that running?" Me: (points to stickers) "That's FreeBSD. The GUI you see is Window Maker running under X11." Them: (boggle for a second) "FreeBSD? Is that like Linux?" At this point, I either sigh and shake my head sadly, or, if they show some faint glimmer of the ability to comprehend what I'd say, attempt to explain the difference. -- Brian Buchanan brian@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! http://www.freebsd.org daemon(n): 1. an attendant power or spirit : GENIUS 2. the cute little mascot of the FreeBSD operating system To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message