If I were going to run BSD on a laptop, which one is most likely to work? reddit / BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thesoulless78 · 2021-10-14 12:52 I know it's not necessarily going to be as well supported as Linux (unless there's something out there with a BSD userland and Linux kernel?) but if there's anything that will handle power, backlight, wifi, etc. a little bit better than other options that would be ideal. It's an Ivy Bridge Thinkpad if that matters. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- neirac · 2021-10-14 13:03 I think a sure bet would be OpenBSD. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thesoulless78 · 2021-10-14 13:17 I thought OpenBSD had *worse* hardware support than the others, am I wrong? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- neirac · 2021-10-14 13:24 You will need to try as you did not post any specs, in my experience OpenBSD just works and is easier to maintain, check your laptop specs against what is supported by each BSD ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thesoulless78 · 2021-10-14 13:34 I mean, I thought that was enough info to be useful. I know about the hardware lists but they don't usually elaborate on things like backlight control, power saving, etc. beyond "a driver for this device exists". ---------------------------------------------------------------------- craftkiller · 2021-10-14 13:37 I can't speak to personal experience but OpenBSD is notorious for its laptop support. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- vermaden · 2021-10-14 13:47 Here: [https://lobste.rs/s/szzgjl/cheap\_bsd\_friendly\_notebook#c\_nziuxx]( https://lobste.rs/s/szzgjl/cheap_bsd_friendly_notebook#c_nziuxx) [https://freebsdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/A-Straight- Path-to-the-FreeBSD-Desktop.pdf](https://freebsdfoundation.org/wp- content/uploads/2021/08/A-Straight-Path-to-the-FreeBSD-Desktop.pdf) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thesoulless78 · 2021-10-14 13:54 Cool, I guess my assumption was that OpenBSD's reputation for being minimal and secure meant they spent less time on hardware. I'll check it out for sure then. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- craftkiller · 2021-10-14 14:28 The explanation I've seen is the OpenBSD devs run OpenBSD on their laptops whereas FreeBSD devs are "running it in a virtual machine and it shows" so the OpenBSD devs put a lot of effort into having rock solid laptop support. FWIW I don't know how accurate that is, and I run FreeBSD directly on my laptop (pixelbook), so grain of salt and everything. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thesoulless78 · 2021-10-14 17:12 I found a walkthrough of running FreebBSD on exact laptop so I may just compare both and see what happens. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nu0or · 2021-10-14 17:22 openbsd ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FUZxxl · 2021-10-14 18:55 FreeBSD works fairly well on my laptop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dddddavidddd · 2021-10-14 20:02 For a ThinkPad of that age, both OpenBSD and FreeBSD should have excellent support. FreeBSD sometimes takes a year or two to support the latest hardware, but support for ThinkPads is generally great. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- lib20 · 2021-10-14 20:10 The best thing is for you to try yourself. Take an USB image of NetBSD, DragonflyBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD at least (maybe some other if you like) and check whether wifi, mouse, power, etc can work. Probably, you'll need to do some configuration in all of the BSDs, but you can find info online. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-10-14 20:55 Both. If youre willing to put in a little more effort FreeBSD. But if u want it to just work oBSD. Youmll have to go in some configs for FreeBSD but OpenBSD is really simple. Sound just works, brightness keys just work, etc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- peppelakappa · 2021-10-14 21:30 I used to run OpenBSD on my Thinkpad X230 (which has a ivy bridge Intel cpu IIRC) just fine. Everything I needed was working a-ok! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ngc-bg · 2021-10-14 22:08 OpenBSD on Thinkpad x250, T61, Dell XPS 17 lp702 - just works. I mean everything, except Bluetooth and the Dell's second video card which happens to be Nvidia. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- thesoulless78 · 2021-10-14 22:15 I also have Optimus, but even on Linux it's annoying enough I don't bother. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LowerSeaworthiness · 2021-10-14 22:52 What is generally true may not be specifically true. For instance, OpenBSD can run the wifi on a Pi4, but FreeBSD can't. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Psychological-Ad9824 · 2021-10-15 04:32 my x220 has been supported by every BSD with no problems. WiFi works right from the get go with my Intel WiFi card. My t400 with an Atheros WiFi card however, has been near impossible to get any BSD working correctly (but that is mainly because of it being Librebooted). The Atheros card I have was not supported in anyway with OpenBSD though ---------------------------------------------------------------------- cannedprimates · 2021-10-15 07:28 this is super cool imo: [https://jcs.org/2020/05/15/surface\_go2](http s://jcs.org/2020/05/15/surface_go2) i just got mine and will hopefully set up this weekend ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-10-15 11:04 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- gumnos · 2021-10-15 13:17 In my experience, the *breadth* of hardware support is narrower with OpenBSD, but if they say it's supported, it's generally very deep support (including suspend/resume & power management which isn't always included in other OSes' definition of "supported") ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NoseWalrus · 2021-11-03 01:09 My one BSD laptop requirement has been intel wifi chips. Otherwise everything I've had has worked well with both FreeBSD and OpenBSD. If the laptop doesn't have an intel wifi chip it's pretty easy to swap it out with one