FreeBSD 5.1-BETA2 (or -RC1) with IBM Thinkpad A30p !!!SOLVED!!!

[Jesse D. Guardiani]

Jesse D. Guardiani wrote:

[...]

> So, when FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE is released, I'll happily return to
> the proud ranks of the FreeBSD mobile crowd. I'll update the
> FreeBSD Laptop page when that time comes.

Well, 5.1-RELEASE was released two days ago, and my IBM A30p laptop is
now happily running FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE.

<rant>
Here are some notes from my month long experience running Debian "Woody"
Linux:

1.) Maybe it's just the fact that I'm new to linux, but I found it
    very very difficult to do even the most basic administrative tasks
    under linux.

    I think "distro"s are the worst idea anyone has ever thought up.
    Every distro has their own way of doing things, which means that
    most software developers pretty much let the user guess how to
    install their software.

    And what's up with the avid hatred for 'man' pages? Geez...

2.) EVERYTHING works better under FreeBSD. The first thing I noticed
    when I first started using linux was that I could no longer compile
    a kernel in the background transparently. I felt like I was on a
    windows box again! The mouse would jerk and hang constantly while
    my box was under heavy load. Under FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE everything
    is smooth, even when my processor is under 100% load. Hurray for
    multitasking!

    In addition, my sound support was TERRIBLE under linux. I heard a
    constant popping sound and my CDs skipped all the time. The same CD
    under FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE is perfectly clean and sounds great across
    all tracks.

3.) LILO sucks. Since lilo isn't a multi-stage boot loader like 
    FreeBSD's boot loader, I had to grab the first 512 bytes from my
    boot sector, place them on a floppy, and reboot into Windows to
    install the 512 byte file in NT's boot loader EVERY TIME I recompiled
    my kernel! That got old like the second time I had to do it.

    Later I installed and used 'grub', which _is_ a multistage boot
    loader, but I still hate LILO, which is the default loader under
    Debian Linux.

4.) Linux's VGA text console makes life difficult. 'grep'ing for various
    strings in log files under /var/log would consistently CHANGE my
    VGA MODE! I would then be restricted to two lines of text at the
    bottom of the console. Getting the full text console back was a 
    royal pain too.


I really could go on and on, but you get the point, I think.
</rant>

Anyway, I think it's needless to say that I'm a HUGE FreeBSD fan after
my brief experiences with Linux.

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
http://www.wingnet.net