I have been looking for ages for a simple system on which to do the following:-
a. Unix-Based.
b. Do Programming in C. (I like gedit if possible).
c. Xfce as GUI.
d. Production Work:-
1. OpenOffice (not LibreOffice).
2. The GIMP.
3. Inkscape.
4. Something with CAD and 3-D Rendering.
5. Film and Sound Editing.
6. Databases: PostgreSL, MySQL, and db2.e.
7. Internet Work, including uploads to my website with FTP, my web host using
the latest version of Apache.
f. Good Graphics and Media.
g. Good wireless connectivity through an external hotspot - currently using
Sprint (not the best or the worst) 3G (more reliable than 4G) OverdrivePro but
may upgrade when something better appears.
If I did not have to travel a good deal, I should be content with a desktop
computer, but cannot escape from laptops.
I have tried many versions of Linux and some of the offshoots of FreeBSD, and
only FreeBSD and DragonflyBSD seem close to what I think is best. FreeBSD wins
because DragonflyBSD is just too esoteric at the moment.
After over a month of effort, I freely confess that installing FreeBSD 9.1 is
beyond my capability. I have a Toshiba Satellite L755 with 32-bit Intel® Core™
i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz × 4 Processor at the moment, and this is nowhere
mentioned on any list of FreeBSD-capable laptops that I can find. Indeed, after
ruthlessly searching the web and talking to dozens of people, none of whom have
any close experience with FreeBSD, it seems that there are very few laptops
which are capable of trouble-free installation of FreeBSD. In the case of my
Toshiba Satellite L755, I believe that the wireless driver is not friendly to
the idea. As I currently use Ubuntu 12.10 (native - wiped it in attempted to
instal FreeBSD 9.1, and then re-installed after failure of said installation of
FreeBSD), I ran the following command and received:-
$ lspci | grep Network
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
And, running
$ iwconfig
produces
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"OverdriveProA1F"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.422 GHz Access Point: 84:DB:2F:35:9A:1F
Bit Rate=18 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr=2347 B Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-40 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:8 Missed beacon:0
lo no wireless extensions.
eth0 no wireless extensions.
And this:-
$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family
DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core
Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series
Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family
USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family
High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI
Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI
Express Root Port 6 (rev b4)
00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI
Express Root Port 7 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family
USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC
Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family
6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus
Controller (rev 04)
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188CE
802.11b/g/n WiFi Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8152 v2.0 Fast
Ethernet (rev c1)
Well, the installation of FreeBSD floundered at the configuration stage of the
GUI, and then stopped at the command line when the ports could not be installed
because of lack of connectivity.
Oh, well - no need to waste time discussing this because my present computer is
not good enough in other respects for what I should like to do.
Therefore, my question is ultimately:-
Is there any 17"64-bit laptop that will readily support FreeBSD 9.1 with
wireless connectivity to an external hotspot?
Many thanks.
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