On Tue, 21 Aug 2012, d...@safeport.com wrote:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2012, James D. Parra wrote:
I was looking to build a desktop to learn FreeBSD and was wondering if
there
is a list of parts to build one or to just look at the hardware
comparability list? I just don't want to order wrong parts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If don't want to make the full commitment to building a desktop, a good way
to learn about FreeBSD is to install within a virtual machine. Either
VMWare or VirtualBox will serve you well.
If you have a system you want to try you can also check out
http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html.
That is a great resource for laptops, too bad it isn't mentioned in the
Handbook compatibility chapter.
We have purchased many desktop motherboards for FreeBSD over the years,
from Intel, Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI and others. None mentioned FreeBSD
compatibility, none was on any list promising FreeBSD compatibility and
none has failed to boot and run well.
That said, rarely the onboard ethernet has not been recognized and we had
to add a PCI NIC until the next version of FreeBSD included the proper
drivers. No NIC has ever been incompatible in our experience.
We have not ever tested APM or ACPI, and if you follow the newsgroup you
will know that those are sometimes problematic. Notice how few laptops
support APM or ACPI with FreeBSD. Also, while onboard video has always
worked for us, some people will notice that the drivers do not always
provide the full performance available in Windows.
We have not found the Handbook compatibility list very helpful. The list
is mostly by chip, which card vendors don't mention in their literature.
It would be nice to see a list of currently available products, by retail
model number. That doesn't exist as far as I can tell.
So it comes down mostly to your feelings about those issues. If you will
be upset by less than optimal 3D graphics perforance, there is a risk.
Otherwise, don't worry.
But why order parts? If you want to learn FreeBSD, just take any old
windows box and install FreeBSD over the existing windows install. It will
work fine and won't cost you anything.
daniel feenberg
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