i give up

[Conrad J. Sabatier]

It's been two-three months now since I bought this new machine, and I'm
no closer to seeing any solution to the failure on FreeBSD's part to
recognize and/or utilize my SATA controller.  I've been monitoring the
lists and the CVS repo, even offering suggestions as to how I might help
to resolve this issue, but no one seems to be interested in helping me
to get this thing working.

So, it looks like it's fare-thee-well to FreeBSD after 12+ years of
dedicated usage, and now I'm off to the Linux world. <sigh>  At least
there I know that *all* of my hardware is recognized and working
properly.

If FreeBSD hopes to remain viable as either a server or desktop
platform, then I would think the developers would be willing to bite
the bullet and consult with other OS developers to see how they're
handling the latest and greatest hardware developments.  Hell, the fact
that even at this late date we still don't have an amd64 nVidia video
driver speaks volumes, in my opinion.   Otherwise, all I can see is
that FreeBSD will eventually go the way of the dinosaurs and be someday
relegated to little more than a quaint and curious bit of ancient and
forgotten folklore on display in the museum of bygone
primitive computing platforms, right there alongside the TRS-80s and
Sinclairs and Commodores and Amigas and what-not.  What a pity.

It really does pain me greatly to have to abandon my beloved FreeBSD in
favor of the the plethora of Linux "distros" out there, but my patience
has worn quite thin, and I'm still not seeing any particular effort
being put forth in the the FreeBSD camp to rectify the situation I'm
finding myself in.  I've really come to love FreeBSD over the years,
and have been a very outspoken advocate on its behalf amongst my
friends and colleagues, but what I can I say?  That it's a great
system, provided you have the right hardware?  This is just not
acceptable in this day and age, I'm sorry.

With many deepest regrets, I remain...

Conrad J. Sabatier <conrads at cox.net> (former FreeBSD devotee and
fanatic, but no more, alas)