On Sat, Aug 11, 2007 at 12:10:57PM +0200, Toni Mueller wrote: > Of course, and I usually do something very similar when I have a chance > to actually lay my hands on a machine, but for server stuff which is > usually BTO, this does not work. In such cases, one has to find out > beforehand what works and what not, or have an agreement to swap > non-working hardware even if the hardware itself is ok. The latter is > becoming a bigger problem by the day, from my perspective, because less > and less dealers want to let you do your tests, but _only_ wrap up a > sale, and that's it. While we're at it, I'm interested in good dealers > in Germany.
A while back I found myself in the position of finding server hardware to run OpenBSD. I checked the hardware pages on openbsd.org. I checked that server compat list mentioned in this thread. I looked at various online vendors, ebay, and wherever I could think. It seemed very tricky to get a proper list of what would be in any given server and make sure it would work with OpenBSD. I ended up finding a company that seemed to have a decent reputation, quality hardware, nice service, and had been around a long time. And *then* I saw they are listed at http://www.openbsd.org/products.html. This was ASA Computers. We found cards that OpenBSD would be happy with and they built the machine, installed the OS with RAID setup as I requested, and burned it in. I probably could have shopped and saved a tiny amount of money, but instead... 1. Everything works under OpenBSD. I did not have to swap out and return hardware. First boot (for me) was into OpenBSD. I had zero hassle. 2. I give my business to someone willing to support OpenBSD in some way. They worked with me to get supported hardware in the machine. 3. If more OpenBSD users would do this, those dealers would order less closed, blob-ridden hardware and more supported hardware, which sends a stronger message to *their* upstream distributors than if you order it from NewEgg (or wherever). -- Darrin Chandler | Phoenix BSD User Group | MetaBUG [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://phxbug.org/ | http://metabug.org/ http://www.stilyagin.com/ | Daemons in the Desert | Global BUG Federation
