I think I officially have a smorgasbord of OSs now, too. Slackware, Gentoo, OpenBSD, plan9front (Plan9 fork), and Mac OSX.

Ultimately, it's up to the user to insure that their systems are properly secured. They all can be insecure if you don't know what you are doing. It's just that some are more secure by default than others.

By comparison, Illumos has come a fairly long way as an OS. Really enjoyable OS to use.

A OS is good if who uses it has brain.
Doing comparisons is useless. What is good for me, it's bad for you.
Just a thing is important: use OS that you like it, don't what is cool for others.

My 2 cents.

Good point. Cool often is non-practical.

I just watched. LOL. It's TTS.

Beware! It depends on the hardware.

Some laptop manufacturers "whitelist" hardware in the BIOS. Which means if you swap the cards, they may not be detected at all, and you'll still be in the same place you started. Google the card and laptop first before trying.

The lack of hardware support is an issue with all BSDs that I cannot get over, much as I would prefer to switch over.

I don't know about that. Many of the BSDs support multiple architectures. Of course one should always buy a PC that has components that will play nice with your OS. I take care when I buy my PCs and ensure that they are supported by Slackware and OpenBSD. At the moment I have one OpenBSD box and three Slackware work stations.

hardware support sucks on all BSD's...

quit until my gets support ! and it could be YEARS from now !!

Total bummer, mate. Yeah broadcom support is poor. As a rule I will evaluate the hardware on a PC *before* I buy to ensure that it will run the OS of my choice. The BSDs have ample documentation listing what network controllers are supported. So in this case it is a good idea to read the manual.

Broadcom support has been poor, even for Linux, for a long time. I won't even consider buying hardware that has it. I've always done well with Intel wireless/graphics hardware, so I stick with it. But then, I've never run Windows, so I've never been in a position of using hardware that I previously ran Windows on.

Broadcom support is iffy on any UNIX system, hence why in the hardware requirements most people are told to avoid them. Some Broadcom chips are supported fairly good, but most are supported terribly.

This is also why any of the BSDs are recommended more for desktop and server systems than laptops. hardware on desktops can be swapped out for working hardware, but not so much on laptops.

The only way that BSD developers know a piece of hardware isn't supported is by letting them know via the mailing list, otherwise drivers are never worked on, period.

The best option you have gor0 for your Broadcom chip is to look and see if the hardware has at least a skeleton/staging driver and see if you have firmware needed.

Before you commit to ANY operating system always check the hardware compatibility list FIRST. Failure to do so will cause high levels of disappointment that you may not wish for.

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/b...s-howto.36611/

too much work...

I'm sorry, but what part of FreeBSD isn't going to require some "work" to get it how you want it? Seriously, this needs to be asked, what the hell do you want out of UNIX? A point, click, and go operating system all ready to go out of the box?

You're lack of patience gor0 and unwillingness to actually get your hands dirty with your own system only shows your lack of maturity towards UNIX as a whole. To be honest, your posts both in the BSD section and the Linux sections has really only showed you are not ready for UNIX on any level.

You need to just stop and either learn this hard lesson, UNIX regardless of flavor, requires work and effort to get it working how you wish.

That link about the Broadcom driver? That's honestly about 5-10 minutes of work and effort to gain hours of usefulness and usage out of your system.

If what you want out of UNIX as a whole is not going to be found and you are unwilling to lift a finger, seriously, go buy a copy of Windows and stay away from UNIX until you're mature enough to appreciate it for what it has to offer.

Well, I'm glad someone finally said it. ;)

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Me, too. I could say more about gor0, but it would get me banned from LQ.