Re: [Sheflug] BSD

["Netsonic" <netsonic [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan" <jonathan [at] sirtis.org.uk>
To: <shef-lug [at] list.sheflug.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, November 07, 2003 2:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Sheflug] BSD


> Netsonic wrote:
> > Far be it from that as I remember Jonathan, I'm sure it was a BSD
support
> > page of some kind. If I do come across it again, I'll definitely post
the
> > link.
>
> There is always someone asking about things like this, especially when
> people take the flamebait that BSD is dying - it's a natural progression
> to "ooo, if we merge 3 sets of users, we'll be bigger and stronger".
>
> Maybe you saw this?
>
> http://daily.daemonnews.org/view_story.php3?story_id=3644
>
> :)))
>
> > The actual reason I asked is because I've been snooping around the BSD
sites
> > recently, pondering one of them for my new laptop (Dell Inspiron 8500).
>
> FreeBSD, without question! There's some info on an 8200 at:
>
> http://www.stethojupi.de/laptop_i8200.html
>
> > I think Im going to have to try and install over the network this time
> > though, if thats possible, as my blank CDs have just ran out :)
>
> Yes, you can install from floppies over NFS or FTP. When onsite on a
> decent network, I normally use the mini ISO for installations and then
> network for the rest, but I used to use floppies - too many bad
> experiences on the underground with wiped floppies changed that approach
:)
>
> > (If anyone here has any experience of BSD on such a laptop, any pointers
> > would be much appreciated).
>
> OpenBSD is not really geared up to drivers for fancy graphics cards and
> it's not something I'd consider running X on. Great for firewall, not so
> great for desktop, imho.
>
> NetBSD I haven't used, I don't like the install script, possibly the
> most unfriendly I've used.
>
> I've used FreeBSD on a fair few laptops though of an older vintage with
> smaller screens, where X is too painful to consider for more than short
> bursts. Dell are normally pretty well supported though.
>


Well I for one certainly don't see BSD as dying any time soon.

In fact, my own personal view is that BSD is more of a hybrid. In the big
four, I see windoze and linux side by side at the mo, and BSD firmly above
both of them. The fact that windoze and linux are relatively easy to use,
does not necessarily make them better in my opinion, just more popular. Im
not so sure about solaris at the minute; I've tried the intel version with
limited success, but from what I have seen on the solaris mailing lists, Sun
is beginning to develop it properly once again.

/me points out again that the above is only my personal opinion :)

I just raided the ever dwindling copper collection and scrounged enough to
buy a few blank CD's so thats gonna make life a little easier.

As for the partitioning issue, if the swap should generally be double the
amount of physical memory, then it would be 2Gb as the machine has 1Gb of
memory. I have my doubts as to whether 2Gb of swap space is really that
useful though. I only initially went for 512Mb as a round figure as I'm not
aware that BSD can be used without a swap partition. (I shouldnt really need
one with that much memory I would have thought). The machine is capable of
running as a small server, but the only one I will be interested in at a
later stage is an FTP service.

What I would *prefer* to do is use only primary partitions of a larger size
instead of smaller partitions, some of which are logical (or illogical
depending on how you look at it) :)

Is there any particular argument as to where the swap partition should be
ie. second, third, last ???

Steve.


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