I have doubts that openBSD will work with the cards if NetBSD didn't (assuming the driver is to blame). Open and Net share each other's drivers and follow each others source. Small changes are made when porting from one to the other, but bugs are often ported right along too. FreeBSD has the larger development community (more people with laptops) and is probably more likely to have Linuxish Drivers. Truth be told, the majority of people using Open and Net are using them to do pretty big things and big machines. FreeBSD has a lot more focus on "Workstation" issues. This is most likely "As it Should Be". Hopefully in the future we will see even more cooperation.
I personally have lots of issues with Free Open and Net. I ussually address these by reporting them to the appropriate list.... and then waiting for the temperature in hell to drop a bit. The quickest way to get a developer on your side is to buy him/her the hardware you want to work. This is obviously not often an option. I'm still waiting to be able to use BSD on my Net-PC.... TimH > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of > larry a price > Sent: Friday, November 09, 2001 9:18 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [EUG-LUG:3742] The error of PCMCIA > > > So I trashed the file system on my laptop last night and am > writing this > from my backup workstation. > > I did this under the mistaken impression that I was going to > be installing > netbsd over the network. which might have worked if EITHER of the > pcmcia ethernet cards I have worked. > > One of them would be found, assert a MAC address and then send mangled > packets off into the ethernet and utter messages like NIC > memory corrupted > and claim that all it's packets were stolen by some bullies > at the router. > > The other one would be seen plugging into the cardbus only to > vanish from > the sight of the operating system which would say: Where did > the card go? > > (the MIA card IBM creditcard ethernet worked fine under > linux, the other > one (linksys) worked after a modules upgrade) > > Moral of the story. Beware pcmcia ethernet cards when > installing netbsd. > So in order to return the laptop to a functional state I'm > looking for an > OS, right now the leading contenders are in order. > > 1. FreeBSD - Pros: wide support, likely to deal well with > minority pcmcia > cards and such. Cons: safe and solid and boring > > 2. OpenBSD - pros: fanatical support locally, secure, strong crypto, > cons: smaller developer/user community, PCMCIA support unkown > > 3. Linux from Scratch: pros: would be kind of fun and educational. > cons: How much edification do I want, really? > > 4. Slackware: Pros: slighlty saner than option 3. cons: Neal > would lord it > over me for weeks at time. > > 5. debian-testing: Pros: I'm already somewhat familiar with the debian > internals. Cons: could be too close to my comfort zone > > AnyHoo, I'm confused and seeking input, if you have a suggestion as to > Operating Systems that's not on the list, my only criteria are: > Must be open source, should run python, Must be able to connect to the > network via the PCMCIA bus. Should allow me to learn about itself > relatively quickly and easily. > > > > http://www.efn.org/~laprice ( Community, Cooperation, Consensus > http://www.opn.org ( Openness to serendipity, > make mistakes > http://www.efn.org/~laprice/poems ( but learn from > them.(carpe fructus ludi) > http://allie.office.efn.org/phpwiki/index.php?OregonPublicNetworking >
