As I fire up my C# debugger in windows it occurs to me “Is there a decent debugger for .NET code in MONO?”

Apparently there is. Having been a fan of debugging java code in jdb instead of a GUI, I like the looks of this. In fact, after a quick glance over the commands I would say that this debugger is based on jdb as the command set looks similar.

Now if you’ve never used a command line I’m sure you’re mumbling the standard caveman comments about using the command line for debugging. All I can say is there’s a learning curve, it feels clumsy at first but it quickly surpasses any GUI debugger in terms of performance, speed of use, etc as you become proficient with it.

Can you get up and running much faster in a GUI debugger? Yes, no question. Can you say the same after three months? My experience is no but I’m a caveman.

So I think I’ve answered one of my outstanding questions. It looks as though I can have a software based RAID 1 support in FreeBSD using Vinum Volume Manager.

“The Vinum Volume Manager is a block device driver which implements virtual disk drives. It isolates disk hardware from the block device interface and maps data in ways which result in an increase in flexibility, performance and reliability compared to the traditional slice view of disk storage. Vinum implements the RAID-0, RAID-1 and RAID-5 models, both individually and in combination.”

Based on what I’ve read, starting with a software based RAID makes the most sense. If it works then I save the cost of extra hardware.

“With present CPU speeds, software RAID can be faster than hardware RAID, though at the cost of using CPU power which might be best used for other tasks.”, link.

As well, if you’re interested in performance and failure rates related to RAID 1 you can check here.

I still have a few outstanding questions related to running a FreeBSD variant on my new desktop. I haven’t found clear answers and I’m sure I’ll just have to try. If anyone has any advice, please let me know:

1. Can I use the hybrid RAID/SATA support included on the Intel motherboards? As far as I can tell it’s only supported with windows so I may need to buy a separate RAID controller ($150 to $200). This isn’t a big deal as buying the card will get me true hardware RAID instead of this hybrid. If it’s an option though then I’d rather try it out and see if it’s adequate before buying the card.
2. How difficult will it be to configure and run a dual monitor setup?