Suggestions for OS to use behind freebsd pf firewalls.

[eculp]

Quoting Chad Gross <avatar4d at gmail.com>:

>
> On Mar 1, 2008, at 10:13 PM, Rico Secada wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:45:14 -0600
>> eculp <eculp at encontacto.net> wrote:
>>
>>> I have installed freebsd server in a small company that has approx
>>> 30 pc's of all sizes, shapes, brands, etc.  They have just realized
>>> that a large part of the problems that they had before the firewall
>>> was caused by the 30 windows pc's that were connected directly to
>>> the ISP's wireless router.  They would like to change the PC's to
>>> unix desktops.
>>>
>>> I would like to install FreeBSD or any other bsd but don't feel that
>>> we have the drivers available to substitute such a wide variety of
>>> hardware.  I would love to be proven wrong.  Therefore I am
>>> considering a linux version with a graphic installer that will make
>>> it easier to train someone to install on any new machines that they
>>> add later.  My problem is that I haven't done a linux install since
>>> before FreeBSD 2.2 IIRC and have no idea which version would be the
>>> most versatile and has an installer that is basically brain dead
>>> simple with most all drivers.  I suspect that I am asking the
>>> impossible but you never know.
>>>
>>> I'm sure that I'm not the only person to run into this situation and
>>> I would sure appreciate any suggestions.
>>
>> In my experience from similar situations I would recommend OpenSUSE
>> from Novell, since it has to be as windows "like" as possible. OpenSUSE
>> is very well supported and since it is Novell who is behind the distro,
>> the company can provide professional support.
>>
>> In general I recommend Debian over any distro, but in some rare cases
>> like this one, I would rather recommend OpenSUSE.
>
>
> I would recommend investigating Ubuntu or one of it's clones (e.g.  
> Xubuntu, Kubuntu). The install is "brainless", they offer commercial  
> support through the parent company Canonical, and they are  
> Debian-based.

Hi Chad,

Thanks a lot, I just tried the latest and greatest Ubuntu on my PITA  
laptop, acer 5520-5679, that is running FreeBSD current amd64 and was  
unable to get to the next step after the X configuration on the  
graphic installer.  I got no error so maybe I should have waited  
longer and something would have happened.  I think I dislike graphic  
installers unless maybe they were verbose and give an indication of  
the problem.

> Another option would be PC-BSD or DesktopBSD as they both have very  
> easy installations and will support most things that the above  
> support. The only stipulation that I have run into is the standard  
> trouble of Flash on BSD operating systems.

Very true.  Windows folks, have a hardtime not just clicking on the  
"you must update to the latest version of the flash player" or  
something like that and expecting it to just work.

Thanks again,

ed

>>
>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> ed
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>>
>>
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