Date: Tue, 09 Feb 1999 06:03:10 +1000 From: Greg Black <gjb@comkey.com.au> To: MrChevy <captainauto@lightspeed.net> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Which OS to install Message-ID: <19990208200310.13812.qmail@alpha.comkey.com.au> In-Reply-To: <36BD2080.59EB5013@lightspeed.net> of Sat, 06 Feb 1999 21:11:28 PST References: <36BD2080.59EB5013@lightspeed.net>
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> I'm a newbie to UNIX, and was wondering: I have a spare pentium system > laying around, and am going to set it up fully freeBSD or Turbolinux. > Which would you personally recommend? If you ask a FreeBSD user, they'll recommend FreeBSD; if you ask a Linux user, they'll go for Linux; same for NetBSD, OpenBSD, BSDI, Solaris, etc. Obviously, people here think that FreeBSD is best. The main reason for considering Linux is its large user base -- but that's an argument for Win95 or NT and so it doesn't have much force. The BSD systems have a much longer heritage than Linux and have been worked on by a large group of people who have a vast amount of collective experience, leading to a robust and well-tested platform. Linux is basically a (very well-done) student project that happened to take off because of political factors that have faded into insignificance in this fast-moving world. However, because it's all new and because much of it has been written by people without much real experience, it's technically inferior to any BSD system. (And lots of people will disagree with this claim.) > Also, any books and other docs > that might help me out? There's a huge amount of documentation that comes as part of FreeBSD (although you wouldn't believe it if you read some of the questions that people post here) and that's worth study (and it will take years to get your head around all of it). There's Greg Lehey's excellent book "The Complete FreeBSD" (which you can buy as part of a package including the CDROMs from Walnut Creek), which is a great starting place for both overall newbies and newbies to FreeBSD, and there are many books (of varying quality) in the bookshops. Without knowing more about your background, interests and skills, it's hard to say more. > I am going to get deep into programming. Which > computer language would you recommend me study? Depends on what you mean by "deep into programming". If you intend to make your living as a programmer, then you need to learn a few languages. If you have Unix (of any flavour) then you'll want to start with sh, awk and sed; then move on to Python and C. If you'll be doing much complex stuff, you'll eventually need to come to terms with lex and yacc. If you want to get the best out of the only real programmer's editor, you'll learn lisp (and you'll get used to other people who think it's not the best editor flaming you -- but you won't be bothered by that while you get ten times as much work done as they do) and you'll go on feeling happy about the amazing power of all the tools that just come with any Unix system (or which can be added to it for free). -- Greg Black <gjb@acm.org> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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