What you're basically complaining about is lack of OEM hardware device drivers and lack of open source drivers for devices whose specs aren't open. These are obvious sacrifices in any non-Windows operating system. Even the Macintosh platform has occasionally seen hardware which lacks proper drivers for MacOS. However, you'll notice that major manufacturers are starting to provide FreeBSD drivers. Since we lack the mainstream popularity of Windows and Linux, it is likely that we will fall just after Linux when it comes to receiving OEM hardware device drivers. In the mean time, hard working people are attempting to reverse engineer devices that they are interested in seeing supported. If you are interested in seeing certain devices supported, either learn how to write device drivers and start reverse engineering the devices you want to support, or privately contract someone to write the driver, or donate to the FreeBSD Foundation or individual developers of FreeBSD.
However, having enumerated a very non-specific list of devices in your "lamentation" against sacrifices made when running FreeBSD instead of Windows XP, may I recommend you do what the rest of those of us who need those devices do: run Windows XP or limit your hardware purchases to supported devices. Thanks for yet another post of drivel to the San Diego BSD Users Group (cross-posted to -questions too, nice question!). ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Leftwich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 10:36 AM Subject: [SDBUG] lament about freebsd sacrifices I thought I would post this as something of a warning. Using FreeBSD as a primary, non-dual-boot OS means sacrificing. Here is a partial list of sacrifices, as compared to Microsoft Windows XP: * webcam ball * flatbed scanner * color printer * digital cameras * firewire devices * several USB 1 and 2 devices * IM software features such as voice and video chat * websites that use ActiveX (Windows) controls * MP3 devices Any major sacrifices I've forgotten? ":-\ -- Peter Leftwich, President & Founder Video2Video Services Box 13692, La Jolla, CA, 92039, USA http://Www.Video2Video.Com _______________________________________________ San Diego's BSD Users Group http://www.sdbug.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.sdbug.org/mailman/listinfo/sdbug _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"