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Old 28th May 2008
ViperChief ViperChief is offline
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Default Dual core and FreeBSD

I'm waiting for a Lenovo T61 Laptop with a Core 2 Duo T9300 and 2GB RAM to show up and had a couple questions.

1) As of right now, planning on installing 7 i386, but was considering CURRENT. I wanted to see ask opinions on this. I haven't used FreeBSD before (tried in VirtualBox but couldn't get the networking to work, even with trying everything I read online). I have, however, used Linux for about 9 years, so I'm not completely new to using a UNIX-like system, and I know the risks of using a non-release version, but I like having a little more bleeding-edge. Currently, I use Debian testing. I realize that FreeBSD != Linux, which is why I'm asking for input.

I'm going with i386 because I've used both 64-bit and 32-bit and haven't really seen much difference except that the 64-bit can be a PITA sometimes when trying to use 32 bit programs. But, again FreeBSD != Linux, so can I get input on that, as well?

2) How does FreeBSD do on dual-cores? Will it effectively use both cores?

I greatly appreciate any input and I'm really looking forward to finally using FreeBSD.
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Old 28th May 2008
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with FreeBSD 7 you can use Dual Core system , without config kernel and you do not need compile kernel.
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Old 28th May 2008
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>and I know the risks of using a non-release version, but I like having a little more bleeding-edge.

You don't need this kind of bleeding edge, it's sometimes a must with Linux to get the lastest software, which depends on the lastest kernel, running but in $BSD there isn't such an influence. So yes it's nice to have the latest drivers and so on, but you usually want usable drivers too ;-) So in my opinion FreeBSD 7 stable (RELENG_7) is the way to go. There you will get quality to some degree but also the latest MFCed code.

>How does FreeBSD do on dual-cores? Will it effectively use both cores?

Yes FreeBSD 7 scales rather good while using multiple cores.

--> http://people.freebsd.org/~kris/scal...%20Preview.pdf <--
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Old 28th May 2008
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1) I think you would do just fine sticking to 7. By bleeding-edge, with respect to linux, I believe you are referring to application not necessarily the system itself. FreeBSD Current is the system development which is necessarily tied to the applications. There are except such as when a application depends on something that is only in the Current system.

FreeBSD application are in the ports tree and there is only one offical ports tree.

Now, if I'm wrong and you like running a system where new things are being added to or removed from the kernal and system and one day it may work and then you build the next day and it may not then yeah you want Current.

2) Don't know. I use dual processors haven't upgraded to dual core ones yet.
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Old 28th May 2008
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I want to thank you both for your replies. I appreciate it greatly. That link had some good info. Thank you for that. Another question that I just thought of. I've gotten spoiled the last couple years with the whole automounting of external hard drives and flash drives. I did a quick search on here and on Google and all I could find was about how to make GNOME or KDE do it. I use Xfce (I like keeping my system lightweight and I just like it, too). Is there a way to do the automount in Xfce? If I have KDE installed and have it configured for automounting, will that make it work in Xfce, as well? If not, no big deal. I'm in no way scared of command line. In fact, I always have at least one terminal window open at all times (actually, I've started using Yakuake...great app, I think), and I've got no problem using mount/umount when I need to. After all, I did it for years. Actually, that reminds me how surprised I was the first time I didn't have to mount something myself.
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Old 28th May 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by roddierod View Post
1) I think you would do just fine sticking to 7. By bleeding-edge, with respect to linux, I believe you are referring to application not necessarily the system itself. FreeBSD Current is the system development which is necessarily tied to the applications. There are except such as when a application depends on something that is only in the Current system.

FreeBSD application are in the ports tree and there is only one offical ports tree.

Now, if I'm wrong and you like running a system where new things are being added to or removed from the kernal and system and one day it may work and then you build the next day and it may not then yeah you want Current.
Actually, I think that answers my question. I don't worry to much about kernel updates (aside from security). As long as everything works...I'm happy. Apps was more of what I was talking about. If I can, I like having newer versions of apps, especially if they fix bugs. I don't care much about new features as much as bug fixes and making them run better.

Though, on the other hand, I have to admit, sometimes it's fun when things break. I actually enjoy trying to figure something out. But, for a computer I plan on using a lot, stability is #1. If I can throw in having a few new things, too, then cool. But, having a stable OS is the most important to me (I'm trying hard not to start ranting about how Ubuntu got--I won't touch them with a 10' poll anymore).

How often do they update programs in the ports tree?
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Old 28th May 2008
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http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...nelconfig.html
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Old 28th May 2008
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For automounting you'll want to check out HAL, I use Openbox w Thunar and automount works fine once you get HAL installed and configured.

As for how often is the port tree updated. It's updated daily Which ports and how fast they are updated depend on the maintainer of the port itself.

You can check out http://www.freshports.org/ and even get notification of what ports are updated daily.
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Old 28th May 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ViperChief View Post
How often do they update programs in the ports tree?
They are updated continuously as programs are updated and bugs are fixed. For reference, the FreeBSD Gnome port usually follows its Linux release by a few days, so the ports usually are very current.
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Old 28th May 2008
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>so the ports usually are very current.

They are indeed most of the time bleeding edge.
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Old 28th May 2008
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>>so the ports usually are very current.

> They are indeed most of the time bleeding edge.

I count that as a bug, and not a feature, actually. But we've been round that before.
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Old 28th May 2008
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I just want to thank everyone for the replies. Seems like everything I was looking for is there. I appreciate all of ya'lls help. Thank you very much. Again, I'm really looking forward to getting FreeBSD up and running.
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Old 29th May 2008
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I have run up to 8 cares on FreeBSD. It scales wonderfully.

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Old 2nd June 2008
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I've run Gentoo unstable, Debian Etch, FreeBSD stable, and now run Debian Sid. I love FreeBSD and Debian, but lack of KDE 4 keeps me from migrating one of my boxes to FreeBSD. Anyway, I agree with one of the posters who mentioned that you use Debian Sid for the latest application releases rather than latest base. Often times, the base should be stable rather than bleeding edge. The apps on the other hand can be the latest and greatest. Ports is generally very up to date and stays that way, so I'd stick with FreeBSD stable.
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