FreeBSD, good and bad

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I've run the LXDE version of GhostBSD in VirtualBox, but there was also a bug in the installer that caused it to crash about halfway though. This was about a year ago, so that issue is probably fixed.

I had same experience with GhostBSD in VirtualBox in last half of '13. But it is older hardware, like 2007, just over Gig RAM (whole box not for V-box), 64 bit AMD. Crashed every time with a little use. Had PC-BSD a few versions back running on an (also older, 2009 ish) HP Laptop. Come to think of it that laptop is 64 bit AMD too. My wife broke a few laptops flippin' the lids up with one hand on one side over and over... Anyway, PC-BSD (...Isotope...) on that was stable, didn't crash, but the package manager would crash it and just plain fail. I don't know how to pin it down explicity, but I liked the feel of it. But I got tired of having to monkey with it. At some point i will run a non-gui server and will try plain vanilla FreeBSD first. I can't promise a timeline but I'll burn Ghost on a CD and try it on a few PCs and report back. Maybe MidnightBSD too. Frog and black cat. It'll be interesting. I've run several GNU/Linux distros on Virtual Box on that old hardware just fine - never crashing. But it remains to be seen whether the gui live-cd BSDs are immature or just not good on virtual installs.

If you get a Toughbook, (even an older one) this will cease to be an issue.

I have 2 of the oldest toughbooks ever made. Bit underpowered for her, lol. I got her a macbook pro, which she used until the Ipad came along. No lid to flip, but I did replace the screen once. I am a fan of ruggedized 'puters - total cost of ownership is low if you keep one a long time. I have an Xplore IX104 tablet that runs Ubuntu. Bought used (with XP on it) and I've had it for years since - even dropped it a few times. Rock solid, it never crashes. I still eyeball rugged laptops with true daylight readability. I may go in debt to get one someday - may pay for itself in vitamin-D supplements unbought.

Avoid Dell XFR's (essentially a ruggedised Latitude. -- To get away with shock mounting the HDD, they use a 1.8" drive in a shockmout canister that fits the slot for the regular 2.5" drive caddy) Also, I think the fan vents might be open, so not good for either dust/moisture ingress.

Also avoid General Dynamics, as they stopped making systems as of spring 2013.

Getac systems certainly look promising however, Panasonic seems to be the best bet as they seem to be used much more by Law Enforcement, Fire Dept's and the like, so the availabilty of replacement parts is more prevailent for Toughbooks rather than Getac stuff.

Thanks for that. I realized I don't need full-rugged after a year with the ix104. So several panasonics are back on the list. And good battery life. And I like to type so I don't want a slate.

My preference is for OpenBSD. Whenever I install FreeBSD on a computer it doesn't generally take me long to change my mind and install OpenBSD on the computer instead.

Link: OpenBSD may have to shut down
They need donations quick. I think i'll buy a CD set.

I've been following the discussion on the mailing list.

Damn I just finished college, but someday if I actually make decent money I want to contribute to some of these great opensource projects to keep them going.

Latest update on OpenBSD funding:

Don't you have to enable a long list of things daemons, etc? that are disabled by default? On OpenBSD that is. What's on that list?

It's not that big a list. What I enable depends on the purpose.

And it's usually pretty easy to enable what you want. For most things, I find it easier and more straightforward to enable them on OpenBSD than on any other OS.

I downloaded a fresh image for GhostBSD from SourceForge. Version 3.5 for i386. 1.7 GB. The XFCE version because i'm a fan of it. Burned a DVD. Slapped it in the laptop I'm typing on now. Got as far as a terminal window with a "mountroot>" prompt. There were some options above it that a user could type in. I tried a few, like for listing bootable media, etc... those worked but the command to mount a filesystem did not. Dead in the water. Next I'll try the AMD64 iso. I have to download and burn it, so not tonight. My AMD64 boxes are not any newer but maybe I'll get lucky. If that doesn't boot I'll snatch the openbox version as it's small enough to fit on a CD and will no doubt run lean and mean. The SF download page had about 8 reviews and they were equally split between the best and worst rating possible.