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posted by janrinok on Sunday August 21 2016, @09:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the over-to-you dept.

It's been a while since we ran a story about some facet of people's home computer systems and I got to wondering what kind of monitor setup other Soylentils have at home. (If you have multiple systems, feel free to enumerate each setup.)

For example, I run Win 7 Pro on a Dell laptop which has a Mobile Intel Core 2 P8700 Duo processor and which sports NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M graphics. Instead of using the built-in laptop display, I have a several-year-old Gateway monitor with 1920x1200 resolution @ 59Hz and 32-bit color. I do not do any gaming, so I don't need the latest graphic card/monitor.

Some time down the road, though, I'd like to get a new computer and am thinking about a multi-monitor setup. I'd like at least 1920x1200 across 3 screens, though I'd not mind it if I could afford 3 x 4K screens. I'd like it to be compatible with some flavor of Linux or *BSD, preferably without systemd. Does anyone here have experience with that kind of setup? What OS do you use? What graphics card? What monitors and resolutions do you run?

I know there are some gamers on the site, as well. Here's a chance to brag a bit about your rig!

And, of course, please share any horror stories and/or triumphs, too!


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  • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 22 2016, @06:12PM

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday August 22 2016, @06:12PM (#391767)

    I am trying to get FreeBSD working on 10 year old hardware. For my 16 year old hardware, FreeBSD actually supports it better than Linux does (somebody fixed WOL for the Intel NIC).

    My initial problem was while booting an encrypted ZFS image, the video hardware was not enumerated. The 10.3 release fixed that. The other day I got X working after some poking and tweaking. Just need to fine-tune stuff now.

    For the most part I avoid binary drivers, so Linux does not really support newer video hardware anyway.

    Back on topic:
    15" LCD 1280x1024 - 60Hz
    4GB RAM
    Core 2 3Ghz
    Linux Mint ("Test" machine, bleeding edge drivers -- was trying some proprietary games)
    Currently using the on-board video since Nvidia card I have laying here was not playing nice with proxmox (black text on black).
    The Drop-down menus are grey-on-grey text though :P

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 22 2016, @06:18PM

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Monday August 22 2016, @06:18PM (#391769)

    17" display.

  • (Score: 2) by RamiK on Tuesday August 23 2016, @01:54PM

    by RamiK (1813) on Tuesday August 23 2016, @01:54PM (#392123)

    For the most part I avoid binary drivers, so Linux does not really support newer video hardware anyway.

    Mostly true. But you can get a year old nVidia & Intel hardware that doesn't load a blob with nouveau and i915 in linux-libre. Sadly, AMDGPU mostly depends on DRM_AMDGPU unless linux-libre made some breakthrough I'm not aware of...

    Regarding that Core 2\4GB box, if you can't sort out the FreeBSD graphics issues, try Trisquel. It's a deblobbed Ubuntu and should just work on old hardware if you're lucky. I think it doesn't use systemd by default either.

    And if you're feeling really adventures, try GuixSD. Mind you, even if it was stable, it's a steep learning curve.

    --
    compiling...
    • (Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Tuesday August 23 2016, @02:23PM

      by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Tuesday August 23 2016, @02:23PM (#392136)

      FreeBSD does have some DRM support.

      The documentation is being updated as we speak.

      My card is a 5000 series, and appears to work.