FreeBSD strives to be the best server OS for
i386 platforms.  Its SCSI stuff is the best
of the best of the best of the best.  Its
IDE stuff, well, um...who would use IDE in a
*REAL* server, right?  :)  (The :) means that
was a J O K E; but I do prefer SCSI in servers)
Its network drivers (and TCP/IP stack) are
absolutely fantastic.  Also, by focusing their
efforts on a single platform (and not expending
effort resolving multi-platform issues),
they're able to maximize performance.  And yes,
I'm aware that FreeBSD is porting to other
platforms.

So, on to the video chip.  In the server world
(well, at least the non-M$ server world), many
people prefer to use a serial port as the console,
so video chip support is a non-issue.

I'm not sure what type of support you're looking
for for your video chip, but assuming it's not
console or SVGA support, the video chip support
would be provided within the XFree86 project,
not the FreeBSD OS.  So, if your video chip
is listed as supported under XFree86 v4.0.3,
you should be able to do

pkg_add ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-4-stable/All/XFree86-4.0.3_3.tgz


> > I must be on mushrooms.
> What kind of mushrooms?  (lol)

Totally squashed.


D

* On Tue, May 15, 2001 at 01:44:29PM -0700, yarddog wrote:
> I have FreeBSD sitting in the closet here. It is collecting dust because
> it will not work with a mainstream Intel video chip that has been out
> for 2 years. It is version 4.2 and not that old. So, while I have heard
> good things about BSD, I don't understand it's incompatibility. At least
> some Linux distros are making attempts to work with this.
> 
> 
> Tom Bradford wrote:
> > 
> > Derek Neighbors wrote:
> > > > However, I don't know which BSD to try: OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD.
> > >
> > > If you MUST taint your machines with poorly licensed software. :)
> > 
> > Poorly licensed?  How so?  A license that doesn't require the licensee
> > to be part of a socialist society of free software is bad?  I must be on
> > mushrooms.
> > 
> > --
> > Tom Bradford --- The dbXML Project --- http://www.dbxml.org/
> > We store your XML data a hell of a lot better than /dev/null