On Mon, 2 Jun 2003 22:29:56 -0400, Jan Schaumann <jschauma@NetBSD.org>
wrote:
> "James K. Lowden" <jklowden@schemamania.org> wrote:
>  
> > If I were to own a laptop, I would want it to Just Work.  I'd rather
> > it ran NetBSD, but from here it looks like one long uphill struggle
> > against entropy.  I'd be very happy to be convinced otherwise.  
> 
> I don't know about the T40, but when I got my T30, I unwrapped it,
> popped in the install CD, booted, installed NetBSD and was up and
> running in about 15-30 minutes.  Another hour or so and I had all the
> packages I most commonly use and a custom kernel.  No hassle whatsoever.

Does that include DVD playback, Jan?  If I'm spending that kind of money,
I want all the toys to work, too.  When you take it from work to home or
whatever, does the network automagically detect what's going on and the
Right Thing?  Or does it need some encouragement?  

I admit to laziness.  The most popular computer in my house is the
"couchtop", which has three flavors of Linux on it, besides the
factory-installed OS, and sits on the endtable.  The only Win32
application I ever run is its crappy one that plays DVDs, because when I
want to watch a movie, I don't want to fiddle; I want to press play.  From
a clean boot, I can almost always get to the end of the movie with no
hassle and only a modicum of sourness in my mouth.  IOW, it works well
enough not to tempt me to try ogle, given the tribulations I've read on
netbsd-help.  

I'm *not* whining.  It just seems to me Apple has filed the rough edges
off BSD, and offers pretty good value-for-money in the nosebleed market.  

> And yes, the laptop never ever booted anything else but NetBSD.  So
> technically, Microsoft owes me about $120 or so.  :)

"See you dealer for details."  ;-)

--jkl