For the first time since 199[45] (can't remember exactly which) my main desktop machine is no longer running a version of Linux -- that after running Linux-only since 1997. My UDMA controller won't play nice under 2.2.*, and every kernel from 2.4.3 through 2.4.14 blows up with swap problems. I've spent 6 months verifying that it's not hardware. The final straw was when 2.4.14 was giving me bad swap entry messages even after I'd turned off all the swap and rebooted.

So after a harrowing 6-pack night disemboweling my interface to all things digital I now have another FreeBSD machine where it matters most. While it's been >5 years since I've run desktop FreeBSD it feels like a giant step forward already.

Now only 1/3rd of my machines run Linux with the other 2/3rds split evenly between FreeBSD and OpenBSD. I really need to plug my NeXT back in soon to skew the balance.