But I feel more would jump to FreeBSD if a decent laptop was available.
That's the topic of several discussions we have here for years.
Points are:
FreeBSD developers are working on it.
After all it's not so much in FreeBSD's hands what kind of hardware producers decide to use, and if the manufacturers deliver drivers, or at least make them open source. The more users use something besides Windows, the more alternative hardware will be available.
We already see several projects, like Rock, Framework, and, yes, even RaspPi, just to name quickly only 3. There are many others I just don't remember now; mostly Linux, yes, but it's a start.
There is progress.
Looking back thirty years ago we dared not dreaming of the situation we have today. There wasn't even remotely that amount of supported hardware under Open Source OS as today. Graphics card? Better chose one at least three years old - and cross your fingers!
Any half experienced Open Source OS user knows:
You have to check if your hardware is supported first, before you buy it. Which is generally true for every hardware, software, and system since the dawn of computers.
Because of MS Windows people forgot that fact; they're used to the believe 'just buy it - everything always work' - and not seldom oversee three things:
1. With a new Windows some of their fully sufficient, and perfectly working hardware may become suddenly obsolete.
2. There is nothing, and I doubt there ever will be some system that supports everything.
3. Nowhere else is so many hardware supported as under Open Source (Try to get a floppy disk working on a today's Mac!
Okay, bad example.)
Just yesterday I learned in version 15 AGP will be not supported anymore. Does anybody here remember, what AGP was? Anybody still depends on an AGP graphics adapter? Is there still AGP support for Windows? And if not, when was it removed? Fifteen years ago? [doesn't matter!]
Again, bad example, but you get the picture.
Edit:
For almost twenty years we live in a situation, you still can use a over ten year old machine (games excluded) -
Thanks to Open Source!
Back in the 90's completely unthinkable. A three year old machine was 'total useless obsolete junk from the stone ages.' (almost also with Open Source, but I don't want to stress all the details.)
Since the dawn of Open Source OS' there are lists of supported hardware, and their supervisors are begging for experiences. FreeBSD also has its own supported laptop list (
see the wiki); which can only stay useful, if people share their experiences.
'cause that's exactly one way to do it: check out, what's supported, and buy that.
A couple of months ago some one started a thread here
foundation of a laptop and desktop work group - seems there were some starting an own, FreeBSD specific laptop. (Good Luck, Guys! If the price is right [above all the shipping charges are reasonable {not everything needs to be shipped by air/express}] I'll buy one!)
With Framework you've willingly chosen a laptop designed for Open Source; and the core issues solved in the last days to get your machine up and running weren't really issues of not supported hardware...
Besides hybernation not getting the WLAN running on a laptop seems to be main problems.
My (very) personal opinion on this is:
Besides I don't use hybernation
1. Laptops are always a kind of a compromise. Also my laptop's WLAN wasn't supported neither until 14. Just buy an USB dongle for <10€, and voilá! To me that's nitpicking, but no reason to whine. Graphics adapters, yes, but those seem not to be the top problem. With drm-kmod built by ports the most issues I've seen here were solved; and if not, and you do not depend on having 3D (gaming, blender, CAD,...) one can be fully satisfied with SCFB (no, really; I used it myself; for pure desktop usage it's completely sufficient.)
2. As long as I'm not always travelling a laptop to me is a secondary, but not a full machine.
I like to have several monitors, at least a large one, a real keyboard, a decent trackball or mouse (to me there could be laptops without a touchpad at all - I hate to use those) I like to have many ports, having more than just one, or just two HDDs/SSDs; I don't see much sense in using ZFS when not also doing RAID at the same time (As I said: that's just my highly personal opinionated taste, of course) I like to have everything as far as possible clean and secure within a closed housing, not messing with USB-hubs, and tangling cable muck-heaps... plus you get more hardware for the same money, while laptops are not modular, but monolithic (framework is an exception, of course) ...
However:
Bottom line:
To me it's more lamentation on a highly satisfied level, than a serious issue.
Besides (all of that) that:
FreeBSD will attract more users, aynway (I'm convinced of that.)
Systemd wasn't that applauded in Linux world, plus there seem to be other decisions made long year Linux users turn their back on it.
And I'll bet the latest decisions by Microsoft, and Apple how to milk their cows even more, will also make more people to reconsider, and look for alternatives.
While FreeBSD is doing the things right.
Not for Jonny Everyone, of course. But we're not talking cattle here, are we?
For those, there may be some 'distros', based on FreeBSD, or somrthinh else -
if they don't want to be milked anymore. But those are neither our concern, nor responsibility, or are they?
I think not.
FreeBSD has stayed true to the *NIX philosophy of keeping shit simple and separated, least that's what I got from it back in the late 90s when I played with it the most. It's lightyears easier to support than the goat-rodeo of Linux distros today.
That's another fear occurs regulary here once in a while (including myself):
Too many people may join FreeBSD who don't know about true Unix Philosophy (We're not talking a protected OS' name, but UNIX Philosophy - that's allowed to name), and trying to prevail their non-unix-philosophy attidude, cause they are not used to it, not willing to learn, or change, while never got that's a fundamental, timeless engineer's core principal of how to do complex things best.
E.g. you'll see: App. every half a year some one starts a thread here, if it wasn't better if FreeBSD would come as a turn-key OS like ubuntu; fully automatically self installing everything including a desktop environment... - not getting it at all. Neither FreeBSD, nor Unix Philosophy.
But after the years I'm pretty convinced, here the wise are still in the majority
So, again too long, too much on what have been said here already many times.
Sorry for that.
With FreeBSD for sure you made a good decision. (Flaws, and gotchas are everywhere; difference is: is it worth learning them? With FreeBSD: YES!)
Especially as an Unix veteran you will feel most at home.
Welcome to the light side of the force
(didn't found a Yoda)
But I'm least a "GUI desktop" 
