PC-BSD - ready for the desktop?

I have a laptop. It's a very picky laptop. Only the very best in operating systems will install on it. So far, Debian, Ubuntu, Knoppix, Gentoo, Damn Small Linux, and FreeBSD have attempted residency on my laptop. To be fair, I think some of my hardware hates life, the universe, and everything (but especially software). It may have something to do with that time a high voltage wire shorted out - sparks and smoke resulted. The current contestant, and the topic of this post, is PC-BSD. PC-BSD purports to be FreeBSD, made shiny and easy. Think UbuntuBSD. But first, the results of my previous attempts.

• Debian installed, but I didn't like something about it. I forget what it was now, but I'm pretty sure it was trivial and silly.
• Ubuntu installed and worked with half of my networking hardware, but the zappy event occured while I was using it and that was the end of that.
• Knoppix froze during boot.
• Gentoo froze during install.
• Damn Small Linux froze during boot, but even faster than Knoppix.
• FreeBSD installed but it was hell trying to get my network hardware to work and setting up a GUI was pain. I limped along on this setup for a week while my order for a new motherboard for my desktop came in. Ironically (or perhaps not), my desktop was also felled by the minions of static electricity.

And no, Windows is not an option. I have a very short and simple list of well thought out arguments why not:

• Windows is expensive. I am cheap.
• Bill Gates can have my money over my cold dead body
• Windows will run very slowly on my hardware (it's only 333MHz)
• I hate windows

Now that that is over with, you should see that I want an open source operating system. One that I can mess with. One that has a decent command line. So, the process of installing PC-BSD awaits.

To begin with, I put in the boot CD (I'm using version 1.11a, FYI) and turned on my computer. So far I have had to click maybe 4 times and hit enter once. A 3 year could do this. However, the installer is still copying files over, so I'm not done yet.

Ah, it finished with very little hassle. So far, I haven't had any problems except for my wired LAN card, the Linksys EtherFast PCM100. I am currently in the depths of confusion and despair about the recognition of my ethernet card. Details of my eventual success or failure to follow.