Suitable laptop for FreeBSD?

[Warren Block]

On Wed, 3 Mar 2010, Aaron Lewis wrote:

> Programmer In Training wrote:
>> On 03/03/10 16:15, Aaron Lewis wrote:
>> <snip>
>> 
>>> Here's some suggestions ,  don't choose ATI video cards.  ( No UNIX
>>> Drivers .. )
>>> 
>>> Well , i'm on ThinkPad R400 , ATI Mobile HD 3400 and an integrated Video
>>> Card ,
>>> FBSD doesn't boot when i switched to ATI Video card.
>>> 
>> 
>> Is this only true of more recent ATI devices, or is this only affecting
>> laptops with ATI cards? I only ask because I'm running an ATI card for
>> my desktop with no problems. If this is true for more recent ATI cards
>> only, this puts a crimp in my plans for my "super"-computer.
>>
>> 
> Yeah , it's too new, the open-source driver will not support it.
>
> Well , that's because my Thinkpad has two video card , one ATI , one Intel 
> integrated card.
> The Default OS is Vista , it supports switch between these two without 
> changing BIOS settings.
> But i kick windows off my laptop , i'm using Linux with ATI card someway ;-)
> So in my BIOS , i disabled intel integrated video card , only use ATI.
> Then FBSD hangs after boot menu , can't load kernel ;- (
>
> Strongly recommand you try out NVIDIA , at least it has FreeBSD and Solaris 
> drivers

Closed binary drivers only.  Which is adequate if they support the 
version and arch of operating system you plan to run, and you trust the 
vendor to supply updated drivers for later versions of the OS.

> ATI has a bad support for Linux/UNIX ..

I disagree.  ATI has released programming information for their boards; 
nVidia has not.  Which is why there's a mostly-functional open-source 
driver with 2D and 3D acceleration for ATI, ...and nouveau for nVidia.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA