Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2016 22:47:59 -0400 From: Allen <bsd_atog@comcast.net> To: "freebsd-chat@freebsd.org" <freebsd-chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: What Larry McVoy (bitkeeper) got wrong .... Message-ID: <20160724224759.1b93545b@KoggyBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <ABCF861D769E2944B1378AA04DFC46014425ED27@HERMES.scc.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au> References: <44e4450e-8dbb-f401-bd5c-df503f7a4ef8@FreeBSD.org> <868twsqn1a.fsf@desk.des.no> <20160724003115.GY78278@eureka.lemis.com> <44ceaa97-028e-37ca-2a66-2e211bc5d3db@fastmail.com> <dc015b3f-b6a5-309e-50b5-7ea906d9a8d8@openmailbox.org> <ABCF861D769E2944B1378AA04DFC46014425ED27@HERMES.scc.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au>
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On Sun, 24 Jul 2016 07:22:18 +0000 Andrew Perry <perrya@shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au> wrote: > funny, I actually unsubscribed from chat (and others) because I was > getting too much traffic. At the time I couldn't deal with it (long > story, divorce and messy real life stuff). I was surprised when I > recently resubscribed and didn't get any messages. I thought I'd > stuffed up. Personally I prefer the FreeBSD-Chat Mailing List over IRC, but that's just simply my own personal preference. I'v been using this list on and off for a very long time, but eventually my situation would after a while change to where I had no time for Mailing Lists, but I'm glad I'm back on here. It does help that I'm finally using FreeBSD as my main Desktop now though. ;) I've been using FreeBSD on and off since 4.0-RELEASE. I actually still remember wayyyyy back then; I had only owned a Computer for like a year or so at the time, and I was lucky enough to have some friends that were Hackers. I thought that was amazing and I liked the idea that I could do things with a Computer that could eventually lead to a career, and the fact that I enjoyed doing it helped a lot too lol. I was talking with my at the time best friend, and he had been using Computers for years, and I was just starting out, and didn't know much of anything. I had a crappy PC with Windows 95 on it, and one night, I was kinda drunk, and I accidentally destroyed it lol. I was working at the time, so I did have a pay check coming in even though I still lived with my Mom, and my main outgoing expense at that time, was my Horror Movie Collection, and my CD Collection lol. So I went the very next day to Best Buy, and picked out a new Computer. It was early 2,000 and it was the first time I had ever purchased a Computer for myself, and I ended up buying an HP Pavilion Computer, and it came with Windows 98 SE, 128 MBs of RAM, and a very odd 42.9 GB HD. It was only 42.9 GBs on Windows though; On Linux it was 43 GBs. I still don't think I've ever seen another HD that was THAT size lol. But anyway, I was starting to learn that you could run an Operating System on your Computer that wasn't Windows. Remember I'm just starting out at this point and knew nothing. Anyway, I asked some friends of mine online what they used, and a friend of mine said he ran Linux. I knew nothing about Linux, so I looked it up, and starting reading. That was when I first heard about Unix, and BSD, and so on. My at the time best friend was better with Computers than I was at the time, and he LOVED Unix. Between my buddy saying he ran Linux and my friend saying that Unix was a good OS for Hacking (He said it didn't get in the way, and that for Programming, there was nothing better) so I took those as fairly strong recommendations. So anyway, my friend would come over, and we would discuss Computer stuff all day and all night long, and one day, I saw a book at the book store I went to sometimes, called "Teach yourself Linux in 24 Hours". It came with a CD-ROM as well, and it had Caldera Open Linux 2.2 on it. I bought the book, and started reading. Not too long after that, I still hadn't actually installed Linux on anything yet, and my friend wanted to point out to me that Linux was good, but it wasn't actually Unix. He made sure I knew the difference between "Unix Like" and "Unix". Lol. Anyway, I was at Best Buy with my Mom, and as we're walking through the store, I see the Computer Section coming up where the Software was. As we're walking up, I see this thing called the "BSD Powerpak" and I'd never seen it before. I had heard of FreeBSD before from my online reading, and I knew a little about it, and I'd just never seen it before in a store. I was actually kind of surprised. I grabbed it off the shelf and took a look at the box, and I ended up buying it. It came with the book "The Complete FreeBSD, 3rd Edition" and it came with 10 CD-ROMs; 4 FreeBSD Installation CDs, and 6 FreeBSD Tool Kit CD-ROMs. When I got home, I opened it up and started reading about FreeBSD. As I said before, I did know what FreeBSD, sort of, and I had heard of it from reading online about Linux and Unix, and I was just really Happy that I could find this boxed set I'd found. Of course, none of that could prepare me for what I was going to experience either lol. Can you guys imagine? Someone who'd owned a Computer for less than one year, knows almost nothing about Computers let alone Unix, and has yet to actually install Linux, or any other OS for that matter, and now trying to get FreeBSD up and running? My friend that came over all the time and talked Computers with me, started checking out the box it came in, and he seemed pretty impressed with it too. It took me a while before I managed to get FreeBSD installed; Not because the installer was particularly hard to use or anything, I just simply didn't have the skills. I'd never even installed Windows or DOS before. So I knew literally nothing. After a while, with lots of practice, and lots of re-installs of Windows 98 SE on that Computer, I started to get the hang of how to install an OS. My Computer came with Re-Installation CDs instead of Windows Installation CDs. The Tower / Case my Computer had, had a little CD-ROM holding area on the very top of it so that you could put those CDs in there, and then, if you ever needed them, you would just pop the first one in, reboot, and it would allow you to wipe the Drive, and install Windows, and everything else the Computer came with (Such as Drivers, Programs, and things like that). Eventually I got really good with installing OSs, and I also had another breakthrough; I finally got a High Speed Internet Connection! Before this, I had Dial Up, and nothing else, and not only that, but the Modem my Computer came with, was a POS WinModem, and it wouldn't even work with the copy of Windows 2,000 Professional that I'd bought. When I got a little better at Computers, and a little better at Hardware, I eventually took it out, and was surprised to see that my little WinModem, was also my Sound Card! I'd never seen Hardware like this before, but it was for sure weird. I eventually had bought a new Sound Card, after installing SuSE Linux 8.1 Professional. I'd bought SuSE 8.1 Professional at that same Best Buy that I had bought the FreeBSD Powerpak at, and I could never get online with Linux. I'd by this time bought more versions of Linux to play with, but no matter what, for some reason, there were two things that always prevented me from sticking with Linux; Sound Card issues, because of the Sound Card / WinModem combo that I just mentioned, and of course, getting online. I bought a Sound Blaster! Sound Card at Best Buy, and given my limited know how at the time, I paid for them to install it for me as well. Once I had a REAL Sound Card, I could finally get sound in an OS that wasn't Windows 98 SE, which meant now, all I had to do, was get online with High Speed, and I could finally use a NIC, and use another OS. After a while, and saving up money, I managed to finally afford to get a Cable Internet Connection. The day Comcast came to finally install it, I wasn't home because I was at work, and the girl they sent to do it, was a moron. When I got home, the phone call I had gotten at work, was making more sense... My Mom called me at work, and said the girl was "Trying to delete System Files so that the OS would re-install them"... I knew that didn't sound right, and sure enough, it didn't work. I got home that night from work, and had to re-install Windows. Again. Finally, Comcast sent two other techs to the house to install our connection. I told the guys that showed up what happened, and they were in shock. The main guy that was there, sent his co-worker out to their van to grab me a NIC since the girl who showed up to install before, had thrown mine in the Trash, because "She couldn't get it working". He said that the girl they sent, only kept her job because she was pretty, and that she didn't really know anything about anything. He got a new NIC installed in my Computer, and set up the Cable Modem, and got it working finally, and after that. I no longer had any real reason not to use another OS. So I installed Partition Magic, set up some Partitions, and I got SuSE Linux 8.1 Professional installed, and got it online, and I got sound working. I had finally installed Linux and got it working on my Computer. I also installed Windows 2,000 Professional on it, that way I could Dual Boot between Windows and Linux. I kept Windows for games, and used Linux for more and more. The first time I tried installing FreeBSD though, I still didn't understand enough. so I stuck with Linux and Windows 2,000 Professional for a while. One day, I wanted to get FreeBSD up and running, so I started the installation. The Power Went out while I was installing. Like 40 times. Lol, it seems like I'm full of it there, but I'm serious; It started out with my Mom, who was using a Hair Dryer, and kept tripping the Breaker, and eventually I got her to stop that, and then, there were multiple outtages after that from the weather. Eventually, I got FreeBSD installed, and I knew nothing about it really. I'd read the book, but I didn't know much about using it. When I look back and think about all the time I spent like that, and doing what I did, I can't help but laugh; I mean, I was dumb, and I've learned a lot over these last however many years it's been, and I still have the box for my FreeBSD Powerpak, and the book, and the CDs too. I'm now running FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE, and I've already gotten my FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE DVD in the mail from the FreeBSD Mall. I've got so many books now I can't even count. I also buy BSD Magazine. I'm glad I stuck with FreeBSD though; I Love it. It's probably my favorite OS that I still use. Anyway, sorry about the length of this, but I felt that it would make more sense if you guys had some context to go on, and some history. -Allen
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