5.1 - should I?

Jesse Guardiani jesse at wingnet.net
Mon Jun 16 13:49:43 PDT 2003


Michael Collette wrote:

> As you've probably seen from my previous posts, I'm having a heck of a
> time
> getting 4-STABLE to play properly on this Thinkpad R40.  My #1 problem has
> to
> do with the power management.  After running through a variety of kind
> suggestions I'm still no further along in returning this box to it's
> owner.
> 
> I'm a little leary about putting 5 on there, as it'll be my first install
> of
> this version.  I wouldn't mind so much playing around with it on a box
> that I would have in front of me, but this is going to a user that has no
> intention
> of learning Unix.

Whoa. Hold up!

For users who want to learn as little about *nix as possible, I'd recommend
Red Hat Linux. Full GUI driven configuration. FreeBSD will likely only
frustrate such a user.

I _still_ haven't gotten ACPI or APM suspend successfully working under 4.x or 5.x
on my IBM A30p. And I'm not a dummy. The code just isn't interfacing properly
with my hardware. I can get standby to work under 5.x with APM, but nothing more.
(And standby barely helps at all on this laptop)

I did, however, get APM working fully under Debian Linux. And I've since had
some time to fiddle with Red Hat Linux. (I like it much better than debian.)

Red Hat is a good choice for a user who doesn't want to learn *nix, but even
Red Hat is a long shot IMHO with such a user. Usually users like that need to
get either a windows box or a Mac. (Preferably a Mac)


As for me, I'm sticking with FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE, but I've got a different set
of needs than a normal GUI-familiar user.

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
http://www.wingnet.net




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