Hardware for trying FreeBSD
reddit / BSD

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AskJeevesIsBest · 2019-07-30 11:55

I’m thinking about buying some older and inexpensive hardware to
experiment with FreeBSD. Would an old ThinkPad be a good laptop to
try? I’m open to other suggestions.

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nargek · 2019-07-30 12:01

Start with a VM. Then nearly anything will run FreeBSD.

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AskJeevesIsBest · 2019-07-30 12:02

I think I will do that. Thanks for the recommendation.

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EsotericFox · 2019-07-30 13:22

Depending on what you want to play with, ignore the VM suggestion. A
ThinkPad is a fine machine to experiment with.

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vermaden · 2019-07-30 13:31

Get a ThinkPad that name ends with 20. That means one of these:

* T420
* T420s
* X220
* T520
* W520

Personally I like T420s the most with X220 as second choice.

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AskJeevesIsBest · 2019-07-30 17:15

I think the X220 will be a good choice. I was thinking about getting
one and throwing Debian Buster on it. I’ll test FreeBSD as well once I
have the laptop.

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icantthinkofone · 2019-07-30 18:28

If you were to build a desktop, most any hardware will work just fine
but you need to be cautious of broadcom networking (though I admit I
think it's better now) and to use nVidia graphics cards.

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AskJeevesIsBest · 2019-07-30 20:20

Thanks for your advice. Though I think I’ll stick to laptops for
FreeBSD, since I don’t have a lot of space.

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annadane · 2019-08-04 03:43

Why do the FreeBSD users recommend Nvidia, I've seen this
recommendation a few times now

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icantthinkofone · 2019-08-04 10:21

nVidia routinely supplies drivers for their boards and even have a
FreeBSD support page.

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annadane · 2019-08-04 16:42

Yeah but to recommend Nvidia more than AMD or Intel?

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icantthinkofone · 2019-08-04 17:34

From what I recall, and I could be wrong, AMD support is not as wide
ranging. Don't know about Intel.

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Arisu_Unixfan · 2019-08-05 02:02

AMDGPU gap is narrowing fast, FreeBSD current has parity with Linux
5.0 for that driver and I think the stable version isn't so far behind