Question

Fedora Linux and/or FreeBSD as desktop OS (on Acer TravelMate 3473 notebook)

Asked by: delphiheaven

I would like to switch from MS Windows Vista to either Unix or Linux. Which OS is the best desktop system? Fedora, FreeBSD, others?

1) Fedora looks nice, but it looks like there are only basic implementations of wireless lan, which renders it useless for me of course. I need properly working network/w-lan.

2) also it looks like Fedora is updated very often. I don't want to re-install a new version of Fedora every 4-6 months. Also this policy of high update rates looks to me like if Fedora was just some sort of "experimental" linux distro. I want something stable and reliable, I can't spend 2 days until I find out how to configure my wireless lan ;-)

3) Or can I also upgrade to new Fedora versions without re-installing the whole new system? I mean, when I install Fedora 7 today, I will also install software (e.g. Openoffice); I will have files/folders on my desktop etc. When Fedora 8 is released it would mean to overwrite my Fedora 7 installation with all software/files/folders/settings, right? This is not interesting of course....

4) how about FreeBSD? Is it good as desktop OS? Does it have proper wireless lan implementation?

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Asked On
2007-06-10 at 14:44:23ID22624963
Tags

acer

,

fedora

,

freebsd

,

travelmate

Topics

FreeBSD

,

Fedora Linux

,

Linux Distributions

Participating Experts
4
Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: srgilaniPosted on 2007-06-10 at 21:15:59ID: 19255812

According to your requirements it seems you need a desktop with easy network and other deployments. FreeBSD is good but not easy to use as a end user os.

In light of your requirement i suggest you to use SuSE linux as a desktop os.

 

by: nedvisPosted on 2007-06-11 at 16:56:48ID: 19262772

1) "Fedora looks nice...
I agree but are you ready for the answert to  your question #2
2)"looks to me like if Fedora was just some sort of "experimental" linux distro."
Fedors IS EXPERIMENTAL  Linux distribution , namely test bed for future RedHat Linux Enterprise releases.
3) "Or can I also upgrade to new Fedora versions without re-installing the whole new system?"
The answer is "yes" and "no" and it all depends how much effort and risk you want to put in installing upstream release.
4) "How about FreeBSD?"
  There you go! There's a great FreeBSD based desktop operating system and it is called PCBSD 1.3 ( http://www.pcbsd.org )

==============================================
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/acer.html
 

 

by: delphiheavenPosted on 2007-06-12 at 00:44:55ID: 19264219

Ok, I would like give it a try. But how about AIGLX/Beryl and wireless lan support?
I quickly checked but I can't find anything related to w-lan support on PCBSD...

 

by: srgilaniPosted on 2007-06-13 at 22:33:12ID: 19281028

give a try to SuSE and your problem will resolve.

 

by: gheistPosted on 2007-06-14 at 02:22:13ID: 19281879

FreeBSD/PCBSD has no support for broadcom wireless chip in your laptop.
OpenBSD has great wireless support, but very hard to install and get to graphics desktop (once it works it is fine)
I'd suggest Mandriva 2007Spring if you need to install RPM packages for commercial software, otherwise Ubuntu does fine.
You can run them both as LiveCD and see if your hardware is supported at the price of rewriting CD-RW

 

by: cyber_riggerPosted on 2007-06-29 at 13:21:43ID: 19393244

The favorite Linux distribution among desktop Linux PC vendors is Ubuntu.

http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/
http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14

Ubuntu uses the "synaptic" package installer.
http://www.nongnu.org/synaptic/action.html

After the basic installation be sure to get automatix2 from here.
http://www.getautomatix.com/
Automatix gives you extra stuff that doesn't fit the standard distribution license
such as multimedia codecs, movie players, etc.


http://www.ubuntu.com/

 

by: gheistPosted on 2007-07-01 at 01:58:09ID: 19398258

Ubuntu is great as far as one will never use commercial software packaged as RPM

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