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I'm undecided between Tiny Core Linux and NetBSD for an old Thinkpad T42, and I had similar emotions reading NetBSDs Guide a few days ago. Tiny Core is really great (I've been using it for 5-6 years) but: - The T42 needs underclocking. Tiny Core solution: Google and find out that cpufrequtils helps (it did). How about NetBSD? First time reading of the manual, 5-10 minutes, and there it is, a built-in feature: http://netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-power.html#chap-power-a... - Similar thing with a non-standard keyboard layout: on Tiny Core, it had some symbols missing. To reconfigure the keymap on Tiny Core, I had to Google and find out about Linux's kbd project. Download kbd sources, compile it, read its (comprehensive, but really well written!) manual to get a hang of Linux's keyboard layout files (interesting stuff). Then modify the layout to my needs by trial and error, and then use two of kbd's tools + a minor hack to make it usable under Tiny Core. On NetBSD: 5 minutes to read a few paragraphs in the Guide: http://netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-cons.html#chap-cons-wsc.... Works. What I particularly liked is that the same chapter of the NetBSD Guide also provides a brief and clear how-to for changing keyboard layout at the kernel level. In other words, everything relevant in one place, easy to find, really well structured and written. For a hobbyist like me, reading the Guide is a true learning experience as to how an operating system actually works. Once again, I absolutely love Tiny Core Linux, its wiki, FAQ, forum, package manager and the provides.sh tool are really great. Excellent distro for less capable or ancient machines. But in terms of documentation, the BSD world does seem to be in a class of its own. I suppose all three BSDs -- Net, Open and Free -- have more or less equally good documentation, no? |