I can actually see where BX is coming from here.  Over the years ive used a range of distros starting out with Debian when you _had_ to know the command line.  In that time ive gone through Madrake(Mandriva), Lindows(Linspire), Red Hat, White Box, Centos, Suse (that im using again) and Ubuntu.  For quite along time if wireless was in the equation i would be loading FreeBSD without a thought.  Its got a few features that Linux lacked.  Personally these days i still lean towards BSD for anything with wireless because when you compare the reliability of the drivers BSD takes the cake.  Similar for a file server, BSD is slicker and it is pretty much a fire and forget solution.  Linux is great once youve tweaked it, but BSD out of the box just works.  Ive used both and found for some things BSD just wins.  When you remember its a "Proper" Unix as well you have ot take acoc**t of the various apps that Linux just cant run in a commercial environment.  

Good point - the uptake has been amazing - Ill be very interested to see how Vista shakes things up, if at all

it wont, if that THING they call a Beta is actually the RC as has been suggested then i see Apple doing even better.

Edit: Ive also got Solaris on Download atm.  Considering using that rather than FreeBSD for lappy or the Q-Pack ive just ordered.

Well despite the small disagreement seen within this thread, I am very much grateful for all the advice I have recieved.  I think I will go for Ubuntu as the support does seem tremendous if things go a bit wrong.  I am only a noob in the sense of OSs outside Windows/Apple domain and think I will find it relatively easy to work out.  Will let you know how I get on in due course.  Many Thanks again.

Good luck matey, not that youll need it  

Quote from: Chaostime

Quote from: BXGTi16V

Surely a lie is when I knowingly tell something that isnt true?

I know what I see, and I know that BSD installs more easily on difficult hardware such as laptops. Linux falls over and has a hissy fit. BSD also has much better USB support.

I also know that a lot of linux installers are a PITA designed for nerds, by nerds. The FreeBSD installer looks daunting, but in actuality all you have to do (For the simplest install) is about 6 keystrokes and a few disc swaps.

Update rollback is absolutley essential. If you use a large number of apps or are always keen to test new stuff then you appreciate being able to roll back to a state where a certain version of a certain app will work - linux is a total PITA for this. In a corporate environment (Especially as a server - and I know this from bitter experience) it is absolutely *essential* that you can roll back updates in case something goes wrong.

The last experience I had with the flavour of the month distribution of linux (Seems to change once a week) was with Ubuntu - put the install disc in a laptop, it hung on startup - great beginnings there.

Theyre not quite different either.BSD dictates UNIX, of which linux is a lookalike. So its more like a cousin, except on BSD, you can run the Linux software too.

i read about half of the first paragraph and dismissed the whole thing because you clearly dont know wtf youre on about.


Please come back when you have actually researched a little

Sure, I only have 23 years experience of computing, 7 of those in the profession, and being an IT manager and formerly a datacomms engineer working mainly in Solaris/UNIX03 and AS/400 i clearly know nothing about UNIX/UNIX a like OSs !

And youd think thatd help wouldnt you?

You seem to be basing all your judgements on what linux was like about 5 years ago, back when even redhat and mandrake needed you to piss about in configs and didnt calibrate X or OSS (or indeed ALSA) properly, its moved on quite a bit since then


(sorry for the late reply, just flew back in from france about 10 mins ago)