A week ago I solicited suggestions on which version of *nix to try next. I'd been "jonesing" for a new OS experience, and it made sense to see how some of my previous choices had evolved during my six month hiatus. So, after collecting a long and varied list of possible targets, I set out on my odyssey to find out if any of the current crop of *nix variants could serve as a full-time replacement A week ago I solicited suggestions on which version of *nix to try next. I’d been “jonesing” for a new OS experience, and it made sense to see how some of my previous choices had evolved during my six month hiatus. So, after collecting a long and varied list of possible targets, I set out on my odyssey to find out if any of the current crop of *nix variants could serve as a full-time replacement for my satisfying – yet entirely unsupported – Windows 2008 “Workstation” configuration.Since I was starting from scratch, I decided to go with the most radical suggestion first: Turn my Dell XPS M1710 notebook into a “hackintosh” by installing OS X. I’ve always been curious about OS X – just not enough to spring for a new notebook. So the “hackintosh” route seemed like a nice alternative.My previous attempts at creating such a beast, using a modified OS X 10.4.9 “Tiger” installation DVD, had all been unsuccessful. Either the OS wouldn’t install at all or, when it did, the video was so distorted that I couldn’t continue. I was, therefore, quite pleased to discover that an intrepid group of “hackintoshers” had put together a new 10.5.1 “Leopard” version of the modified OS X DVD image (i.e. the “iATKOS” DVD) . This new compilation promised a “one step” installation process as well as better device support for the myriad non-Apple hardware peripherals that a “hackintosher” might encounter. Unfortunately, the experience didn’t quite live up to the hype. Yes, I was able to successfully install OS X 10.5.1. And yes, the video worked reliably on the first try (using the “NVinject” kext). However, I ran into all sorts of problems with the OS X kernel and its interactions with my dual-core T7200 CPU (lots of pointer stuttering and delayed keyboard/mouse input).I was able to work around this issue by disabling dual-core support in the Dell’s BIOS (thus turning my notebook into a single-core system), but it seemed like a kludge fix at best. Then, when I realized that my notebook’s Intel 3945ABG wireless adapter was not supported (and likely never would be since Apple doesn’t use this device in any of its models), I knew it was the beginning of the end for my “hackintosh” odyssey. Since I also could not get my Broadcom wired Ethernet adapter to work (making searching for a solution online nearly impossible), I finally threw-in the towel and ditched OS X in favor of the next OS on my list: PC-BSD 1.5.When I first tried PC-BSD (version 1.4) last fall I found an OS that did a fairly good job of masking the complexities of the underlying BSD UNIX. Unfortunately, spotty device support (that annoying wireless card again) ended my experiment prematurely. So when I heard that the PC-BSD folks had improved wireless support with version 1.5, I became optimistic that my next foray into BSD-land would be more successful. Foolish me! Yes, PC-BSD is still quasi-user-friendly (the installer was a breeze). And yes, they’ve put some “spit and polish” on their KDE-derived UI. However, my Intel 3945ABG adapter *still* is not supported. Given how prevalent the adapter is (i.e. part of the whole “Centrino” package) this is simply unacceptable. All major Linux distros have gotten this right a long time ago. The PC-BSD folks need to wake up and smell the modern hardware.Note: I even attempted to compile my own driver using the “ndisgen” utility and the Windows XP driver for my card. Now the OS won’t boot (gets past the boot loader menu and then restarts – over and over). Add to this the bizarre behavior of the accelerated nVidia drivers (screen will suddenly freak out and become unreadable, forcing me to hit the Big Red Switch) and I decided that, for my purposes at least, PC-BSD is still not quite “fully baked.” Perhaps when they move to the BSD 7.x base things will get better.Two attempts, two failures. Maybe I’ve gotten soft. I’ve become so used to the stellar device support under Windows that I no longer have the patience to tinker endlessly with my OS. Even Windows NT 3.1 wasn’t this hard! Anyway, time to move on. Next up: Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron.” I just hope they’ve fixed that showstopper ACPI bug! Software DevelopmentSmall and Medium Business