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So yesterday I decided to install another operating system. Since we use a couple of Sun X4500 Thumpers at work and I really like ZFS, I decided to ditch Ubuntu 9.04 and load up Opensolaris 2009-06 on my Dell M2400.

Now the install process went (almost) without a hitch. Initially the install broke because I had my hard drive set to IRRT in the BIOS. Changing that BIOS setting to AHCI allowed the setup to boot... well kind of (I had to select VESA mode). After all of this.. the setup worked.

Having said that... the install took bloody ages. Maybe I was just anxious to boot into my new system running ZFS, but it felt like it sat at 99% for minutes. After the install, I rebooted. Suffice it to say my initial impression of Opensolaris was..mixed.

Grub picked up my Windows XP partition and the DELL Diagnostic partition in addition to the newly installed Opensolaris partition. I selected Opensolaris and the boot-up started. Now for someone coming from Ubuntu 9.04 running on EXT4 it felt like Opensolaris took mere millenia to boot up.

Once logged into Opensolaris I was impressed by the interface (which was essentially GNOME). It picked up my wireless network card (Intel 5100) without a hitch. Sound worked... but there was this odd hissing noise whenever I moved my mouse. Firefox worked, and was actually quite snappy. Having said that, my touchpad scrolling did not work out of the box.

Alas, my Nvidia Card did not work. While trying to setup my dual monitors I clicked on Nvidia XServer Settings. It told me I was not running the nvidia driver and should run nvidia-xconfig as root. Idiot uncritical thinker that I am, I did as I was told. Promptly, nothing happened. So I rebooted.

Which gave me a nice black screen. From then on, Opensolaris was a console experience. I tried downloading the latest and greatest driver from Nvidia, and installing that. It was an experience so similar to the previous one it felt like the matrix re-adjusted itself.

Now since I am no longer in my 20s, I actually don't LIKE having a system that's not working. So I destroyed my Opensolaris install.

Should I go back to Ubuntu 9.04?

Of course not. I want ZFS.

So I decide, what the hell, let's install PC-BSD 7.1.1, I mean, it is advertised as an operating system for casual users...

The install was fairly easy. It took less time than Opensolaris, though granted, that is not saying much. Now PC-BSD runs KDE4, which to me is way too much like Vista. But it looks good, and it supports ZFS (albeit EXPERIMENTAL). Unfortunately.. I am not running PC-BSD as I type this. The reason for that is, well, PC-BSD doesn't support my wireless card. That is a deal breaker.

Anyways, I'm back on Ubuntu. Running Karmic now. No hissing noise while moving my mouse, and boot-up takes mere seconds. If I wanted I suppose I could go back to running ZFS in userspace the way I previously did on 9.04. Now if only I could get this bloody Nvidia driver working. I suppose it is back to 9.04 for me...

What did I learn from all of this?
I guess I am just an Ubuntu fanboy.