Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2003 05:23:38 +0100 (CET) From: "Cordula's Web" <cpghost@cordula.ws> To: Incoded@MyRealbox.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: I am a newbie Message-ID: <200312250423.hBP4NbCD058444@fw.farid-hajji.net> In-Reply-To: <20031224195459.CCC9B43D46@mx1.FreeBSD.org> (message from Robert on Wed, 24 Dec 2003 11:56:31 -0800) References: <20031224195459.CCC9B43D46@mx1.FreeBSD.org>
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> My name is Robert. I am 13 and I want to use a bsd distro because my > of best friend uses it and he says you can really get into it deeper Hi Robert, welcome to FreeBSD! It's great that you're so enthusiastic about using FreeBSD. This is the same motivation that keeps us working on (or playing with, or even developing [for]) FreeBSD. It's fun and useful too. By sending a mail to freebsd-questions@freebsd.org (or the shorter address questions@freebsd.org), you're actually e-mailing literally thousands of people all around the world. Some of us are developing (programming) the system itself, other develop programs that you can run within FreeBSD, and a lot of us are using FreeBSD for fun or profit... With so many people reading your mail, you can't expect that they all use the same e-mail reader, don't you? Some e-mail readers are text-oriented (no nice flashy GUI), and it is awful to have to decypher mails with lines longer than about 70 characters or so. Please tell your mail program to wrap long lines, so we can all read you more easily. Furthermore, it is much easier to read mails that are structured in paragraphs. If someone can comment on something, or reply to a question, they can do so immediately at the right position (like this reply). So please break up long paragraphs in smaller logical units. > than any closed OS like Windows and its stability is greater than > any other OS in the world. One great thing about FreeBSD, is that it comes with full source code. This is fantastic if you're a programmer. By simply reading the source code, you can understand how the system works. It's like peeking under the hood of a car. A closed source OS would be like a box that you can't open, so you're dependant upon what the vendor says. You can't adjust this box to do things that the manufacturer didn't anticipate. With an open source OS, you can not only see exactly what's going on behind the scenes, you can also change things, sometimes break them, but more often make them better or enhance them. As for stability, FreeBSD is rock solid. Many internet service providers (including very big ones), and companies are using FreeBSD on their big servers. They are relying upon this stability, because they can't afford the downtime caused by crashes. They are also not willing to put up with virus-related vulnerabilities that are common in another OS. > Well I am in high school and I would like to do something with BSD > for my high school project and impress the whole school with how > deep I can get into your OS by controlling a robot or making an > interface like the one my friend made for programming a simple > robot. FreeBSD is a great system for school projects. I assume that this project includes some programming. With FreeBSD, you can pick your programming language (we've got a lot of them in /usr/ports/lang), and immediatly start hacking [hacking in the sense of programming, of course, _not_ cracking]. Something like controlling a robot requires that you do a lot of reading though, but it's fun! :-) > None of my other freinds in school even know about UNIX or BSD or > any of tat. That's sad, but true. You could get acquainted to FreeBSD, and then show it to friends. They may even like it, and start playing with it too. It's up to you to help spread the word ;) > purist. I am no sure totally what he means by OS purism? What does > it mean to be a purist and like BSD so much because of this belief? Perhaps someone who likes an OS without any bells 'n whistles? "Purist" is not defined in the Jargon Dictionary http://www.jargon.org/ Why won't you ask him what he means? > Also I was checking out BSD on the web at the OS world and I dont > get something. I dont get why you guys call your OS FREEBSD when > OPENBSD is free as well. I just dont see why there is two different > OS's here within BSD. What is the difference. Which one should I get > into. All three BSD flavors: http://www.freebsd.org/ http://www.openbsd.org/ http://www.netbsd.org/ started from a common parent, called 4.4BSD Lite, released by the University of California at Berkeley. 4.4BSD Lite is not an active project anymore, but the three BSDs are well supported by enthusiasts. All BSDs share a common core, but the three projects differ in their goals and mentalities. FreeBSD's main goal (well, one of their goals) is to provide the best OS for PC-hardware (though other CPU types are supported as well), lots of ports, etc... OpenBSD's goal is more focused on security. FreeBSD is secure too, but the OpenBSD folks are particularly focused on finding even the slightest bug before it can be exploited by crackers. NetBSD's goal is to support as many different platforms (processor types) as possible. You won't find any other OS in the world that you can run on more machine types. All BSDs have a lot in common, and the three projects are cooperating by sharing their experiences. So, at the end of the day, it's your call what OS you would use. For a newbie, FreeBSD is certainly the better choice. People using OpenBSD or NetBSD have generally already some experience with FreeBSD, and would be able to fix problems on their own, should they arise. > I just want to see what makes Unix so special and powerful and not > crash ever you know? Unix' design is perhaps it's best asset and the reason why it is so stable. Compared to other OSes, there is a clear separation between userland programs (the programs you run), and the kernel. If there is a problem in a userland program, this won't affect the kernel, only the process running this program (i.e. the process will be killed, but that wounldn't affect the stability of the system). Other OSes integrate their favorite programs in the kernel (for speed, or by poor design), so if there's a bug in one of these programs, they'll crash the complete OS. Unix is also very mature. It's been around since the 1970-s! The first BSD releases started around 1978, and have been continously improved upon in all those years. Because BSD was originally developed in a university setup (think: few very expensive computers, and a lot of student accounts sharing this computer), it was subject to heavy ponding by all those students who were eager to obtain 'root' privileges. This helped tremendously to make BSD more secure. There are other reasons too, but you'll have to figure them out yourself :) > need help now. Please? Will you guys write back to me so I dont > have to do something stupid and get involved with an OS I dont want > to and get lost in thte wrong thingz? You could start by browsing http://www.freebsd.org/ The Handbook is required reading for every FreeBSD user. There are some introductory documents too: http://www.freebsd.org/projects/newbies.html Then, grab FreeBSD, install it on a spare harddisk, and start playing. After you get more comfortable with the OS, you could start learning to write small programs. The more you dive in, the more enjoying the experience will be. > ............Robert, Hillsboro OR USA. Happy hacking! -- Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/
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