From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Oct 31 21:46:38 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from os2.ami.com.au (os2.ami.com.au [203.55.31.51]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 16B3937B4C5 for ; Tue, 31 Oct 2000 21:46:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from emu.os2.ami.com.au (IDENT:root@c0s16.ami.com.au [203.55.31.81]) by os2.ami.com.au (8.9.1/8.9.0) with ESMTP id NAA27529 for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2000 13:46:22 +0800 Received: from possum.os2.ami.com.au (IDENT:summer@possum.os2.ami.com.au [192.168.1.6]) by emu.os2.ami.com.au (8.10.0/8.10.0) with ESMTP id eA15kIW29672 for ; Wed, 1 Nov 2000 13:46:18 +0800 Message-Id: <200011010546.eA15kIW29672@emu.os2.ami.com.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: beginners with bsd In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 01 Nov 2000 05:20:51 GMT." <000a01c043c3$942af1e0$1d24fc3e@knapp> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2000 13:48:40 +0800 From: John Summerfield Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > This is a multi-part message in MIME format. > > ------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C043C3.80227740 > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="iso-8859-1" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > Help, please! > > As a newcomer to any kind of computing, and as one who'd like to get = > away from Windows, what is the easiest way to start with Freebsd? > > I've tried to trace a plain English book on the subject without success. > > Is Freebsd suitable for beginners? Could I run the normal = > wordprocessing, database, and spreadsheet applications with it? It would be interesting to see you try it;-) I've given it a quick trial; my plan was to build a small server based on it. My feeling is that it's not a good choice for beginners; if you want to get away from broken windows, I think you will find a major Linux distribution more to your liking. I use Red Hat linux; Red Hat 7.0 was released 2-3 weeks ago, and Mandrake 7.2 about one week ago. If you chose one of those, you should find it installs easily, and if you get anything more than the most basic package, it will have StarOffice for word processing etc. And probably Koffice too. I think you will find hardware support on Linux better too. For example, I have a M/b with UMDA/66 interfaces. Linux recognises that, but FreeBSD thinks they're UDMA/33. I saw a report of someone who installed Mandrake 7.1 (just superceded) and Windows ME on the same system. Said Mandrake went better. > > Thanks, > > > > > Tony Knapp (membership no 20001001) > > ------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C043C3.80227740 > Content-Type: text/html; > charset="iso-8859-1" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable > > > > charset=3Diso-8859-1"> > > > > >

Help, please!

As a newcomer to any kind of computing, = > and as one=20 > who'd like to get away from Windows, what is the easiest way to start = > with=20 > Freebsd?

I've tried to trace a plain English = > book on the=20 > subject without success.

Is Freebsd suitable for = > beginners? Could I=20 > run the normal wordprocessing, database, and spreadsheet applications = > with=20 > it?

Thanks,

Tony Knapp (membership no=20 > 20001001)

> > ------=_NextPart_000_0007_01C043C3.80227740-- > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message