From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Oct 31 23: 4:21 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from firefly.prairienet.org (firefly.prairienet.org [192.17.3.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 59CD937B4CF for ; Tue, 31 Oct 2000 23:04:18 -0800 (PST) Received: from sherman.spotnet (slip-84.prairienet.org [192.17.3.104]) by firefly.prairienet.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id BAA11466; Wed, 1 Nov 2000 01:04:14 -0600 (CST) Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 01:03:13 -0600 (CST) From: David Talkington X-Sender: dtalk@sherman.spotnet To: Anthony J Knapp Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: beginners with bsd In-Reply-To: <000a01c043c3$942af1e0$1d24fc3e@knapp> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Tony - In response to others who've answered, I'd like to add that (in my experience) if you're interested in some flavor of Unix and friends, FreeBSD presents to a newcomer at least one advantage that I don't think Linux can match: clear, thorough documentation. I was quite impressed by the readability and depth (often conflicting goals!) of Greg Lehey's book. I learned Linux by chasing information on the 'net, but if I was a newbie all over again, I'm pretty sure that with a book like Greg's, I'd have had a much easier time with FreeBSD than I had with Linux. I use Red Hat on my laptop, and I like it just fine, but it's a moving target. If you want to learn computing the right way, you can't do better than here ... if you're persistent and willing to read, you'll do fine. The points about device support are certainly valid, however. Cutting-edge hardware support, which many Linux distributions have, really isn't one of FreeBSD's strengths. Whatever you decide, have fun! - -d - -- David Talkington Community Networking Initiative dtalk@prairienet.org 217-244-1962 PGP key: http://www.prairienet.org/~dtalk/dt000823.asc Anthony J Knapp wrote: >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? > > >Thanks, > > > > >Tony Knapp (membership no 20001001) > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 6.5.8 Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.75-6 iQEVAwUBOf/ANb1ZYOtSwT+tAQGevQgA0w8hGMfzT/+fQUuQwwwsz5FNbRGeczvD tfmQtokr/egknOtHQIB/kXoptqzF18VS5RmRN5YtXnFl5jJ9J80TkMTGiFQORK/c TDeXtRyCozkzwiPM5kzAiCIHR3fDWYHIzMnePLqcOiMY+BaTM6Kw/vfLOOf/yvqv 5N0fzsjt6uBANNv/Lb0+52mZn5VuYX194nKJo9FLwpbXGT7NPhFXCmZkHgPNPu57 eP8078DbH9EgPw65l5PDv36M5G7g+oAGGheromiDy4WwAExnsXQv0FDcPO0uVqaz 6qZ6KsDLu4nDtdhqeG/V+ix4nwwBsWGzbSPkzD/Uh2vhKRq1vdwfmQ== =veLj -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message