[shrek]

Didn't want to put this with Sun stuff because these distros are their own things now. What do you all think about OpenSolaris based projects like OpenIndiana and Tribblix? OpenIndiana offers a nice graphical installer and MATE desktop out of the box while Tribblix is more of the DIY option. I've been using it on an old laptop with WindowMaker. So far it seems like a good alternative to Linux/BSD if you want a solid *nix system. 

http://www.tribblix.org/about.html

[commodorejohn]

Interesting. How well do wifi and power management work in a laptop environment? That was where I always ran into trouble with the BSDs.

[shrek]

Intel wireless in my ThinkPad T400 works under OpenIndiana. Not so sure about power management. The screen shuts off when I close the lid but that doesn't mean much. The battery is pretty much shot so I always keep it plugged in when using it anyways. I'm using Tribblix primarily on a ThinkPad R60, which has no wireless card at all (I just use Ethernet). Same deal with the R60 where the screen shuts off when I close the lid. I think basic functions like this and the keyboard light are done in the laptop's built in firmware. Not sure if any drivers at all are needed for that to work, regardless of the operating system. 

Looking at some Oracle docs, I've seen that the T400 was an officially supported Solaris platform at one point. I haven't checked it in a while so I don't know what the current support situation for Solaris hardware looks like, nor do I really know how much of this carried over to OpenSolaris and the derivative projects. For now, I would strongly recommend using these operating systems on desktops or docked laptops.