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Old 18th January 2014
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by undercover_penguin View Post
But still the homepage attract with military standards and high reliability...
Most likely, I could drop my old IBM T43 off the back of a truck, & the thing would still probably work. I wouldn't even think of doing this with my new Lenovo X1 Carbon, although I am reasonably happy with its performance, but it is not as sturdy.

Would I buy another Lenovo? Probably. Will a future Lenovo laptop be as well built as my old T43? Probably not.

Some official OpenBSD project developers use Lenovo laptops. Searching the misc@ archives will show periodic discussions on various models. Lenovo laptops will probably continue getting preferential treatment (support), but don't get fixated that Lenovo is the only choice around. Most developers have multiple laptops. I do too -- from different vendors. Given how laptops have standardized through the years, sticking with one particular vendor is not always cost effective.

You haven't asked this question, but I will attempt to anticipate the question you really need to ask: "How does one decide on what laptop/desktop to buy for running OpenBSD?" The answer is threefold:
  • Search the official misc@ archives for previous discussion on the vendor.
  • Install the recent release or snapshot of OpenBSD to a USB drive, & take this to a computer store. Either the employees there will allow you to boot off the USB drive, or they won't.
  • If a computer is being ordered online, be very clear as to the return policy in case you decide that the system doesn't run OpenBSD to your satisfaction.
There is too many new models coming out too quickly for the project to know how compatible OpenBSD will be with all of them. This is where you have to do what research is possible followed by performing your own testing. Hardware has become standardized enough such that basic functionality should be fine. It is with the corner cases that some people have issues. Some people find some features to be required; others don't. It used to be that incompatible wireless support was an issue. Incompatibility appears to be diminishing somewhat with newer hardware, but testing is still needed.

If a laptop has an incompatible wireless card, determine whether it can be replaced, or find a USB wireless dongle which is compatible. The most supported USB dongles at the moment appear to be based on Realtek chips. See the urtwn(4) manpage for more information.

Finally, information on the project's official mailing lists can be found at the following:

http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html

A favorite mailing list archive by many involved with the project & readers here is:

http://marc.info/
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