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Old 13th December 2011
sysfu sysfu is offline
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Default Mac Air vs Asus Zenbook hardware support

I'm curious if anyone here has experience running OpenBSD on either the Mac Air or Asus Zenbook UX21/31 platforms. I'm considering purchasing an ultraportable laptop and want to know which one is best supported.

Here's a post about OpenBSD on the UX21

Last edited by sysfu; 13th December 2011 at 01:31 AM. Reason: make title more succinct
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Old 13th December 2011
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srf21c View Post
I'm curious if anyone here has experience running OpenBSD on either the Mac Air or Asus Zenbook UX21/31 platforms.[/URL]
When it comes to compatibility questions, it is best to search through the archives of the official misc@ mailing list. For the Macbook Air:

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&w=2...acbook+air&q=b

I saw no mention of the Zenbook.

Other archive sites can be found at the following:

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

My recommendation would be to:
  • find a shop which has the model you are interested in, & plead with the powers at be to allow you to attempt to boot OpenBSD.
  • be very clear about the return policy before purchase.
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Old 13th December 2011
sysfu sysfu is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ocicat View Post
When it comes to compatibility questions, it is best to search through the archives of the official misc@ mailing list. For the Macbook Air:

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&w=2...acbook+air&q=b
Thanks for the link. I read through the "Which laptops do the developers use?" thread and found that pretty informative w/regards to the Mac notebooks.

My takeaway was that all the macs use the Nvidia display chip which is not well supported and according to one dev "not worth bothering with"

Researching the Zenbook display adapter chipset now..

Quote:
Originally Posted by ocicat View Post
My recommendation would be to:
  • find a shop which has the model you are interested in, & plead with the powers at be to allow you to attempt to boot OpenBSD.
  • be very clear about the return policy before purchase.
Duly noted.
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Old 13th December 2011
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srf21c View Post
My takeaway was that all the macs use the Nvidia display chip which is not well supported and according to one dev "not worth bothering with"
Life will be much more pleasant if you can avoid nVidia altogether.
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Old 13th December 2011
sysfu sysfu is offline
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Maybe I spoke too soon, looks like the current Macbook Air specs feature Intel HD Graphics 3000 processors
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Old 13th December 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srf21c View Post
Maybe I spoke too soon, looks like the current Macbook Air specs feature Intel HD Graphics 3000 processors
Why would you want to replace OS X with OpenBSD to begin with on Macbook Air? OS X is a very nice desktop operating system for people who actually know how to use it. OS X 10.7 includes the most up to date version of PF of any BSD like system except OpenBSD itself. MAC Ports are really OK so the price you are paying (lack of centralized rc.conf file) to get all proprietary software running is really small in my point of view.
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Old 13th December 2011
sysfu sysfu is offline
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Mostly out of security concerns, e.g. the FinFisher iTunes update.

OS X is a nice operating system, I use and know it well. I really like the fact that Lion now supports FDE (Full Disk Encryption).

After doing further research I'm actually leaning more towards the Thinkpad X300/301 or X1 in lieu of a Zenbook or Macbook Air.
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Old 13th December 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by srf21c View Post
Mostly out of security concerns, e.g. the FinFisher iTunes update.
You should be able to take care of that with custom pf.conf file but I (not a regular OS X user) imagine that there is a way to kill those daemons (probably not simple because of lack of rc.conf).

I personally like Thinkpad hardware better than Macbook Air but you will have to run then vanilla OpenBSD as the OS which comes with them is not usable.
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