From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jun 14 18: 9:22 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from k0r3.reflektor.cz (k0r3.reflektor.cz [212.24.129.54]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7F6E037B403 for ; Thu, 14 Jun 2001 18:09:18 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cynic@mail.cz) Received: (qmail 19968 invoked by uid 202); 15 Jun 2001 01:09:17 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO zvahlav.mail.cz) (212.24.143.100) by k0r3.reflektor.cz with SMTP; 15 Jun 2001 01:09:17 -0000 Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.2.20010615025444.02135168@mail.cz> X-Sender: cynic@mail.cz X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 03:17:25 +0200 To: "Melody Akins" , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Cynic Subject: Re: Another Beginner Squeaks Up In-Reply-To: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hi there, At 02:10 15.6. 2001, Melody Akins wrote the following: -------------------------------------------------------------- >Hello! > >I'm obviously interested in UNIX or I wouldn't have subscribed to this list. Having said that, it appears I am in 'over my head!' You folks have forgotten more than I will ever know, I think. > >Question: Having only a very rudimentary (One unfinished COBOL programming class in 1979)knowledge of programming, and only a bit less knowledge of operating systems, I'd like to know where to begin. I think you don't have to be a programmer to be able to use FreeBSD, the days when you could run only what you wrote are long gone. >starting with UNIX might be a mistake...? getting rid of bad habits is much harder than practising the right one from the start :) >My sons are both technicians/sysadmins, but because I'm 'mom,' they don't think I'm serious about learning. > >I'd like to learn UNIX because I want to work on back-end internet /intranet support and this knowledge is necessary. Any help will be much appreciated. The ideal scenario (for me, anyway :) would be along these lines: 1) get a spare machine (something like P133 would be perfect), and put it next to your windows box 2) get a copy of the 4.3-RELEASE cd (you can download it from ftp.freebsd.org and burn it on a CD-R, or get one of your sons do it for you) 3) read the beginners-aimed stuf at www.freebsd.org (http://people.freebsd.org/~rpratt/43/index.html is wonderful) 4) put the install cd in and boot off it this (having a dedicated computer) has two major advantages: a) you don't get the smallest chance to wipe your windows system (sh*t happens :) b) anytime you get stuck, you have the internet at your reach without having to reboot... easy to write any error messages right from the screen into an email... :) final note: you made a very lucky choice with FreeBSD. It's a mature, friendly OS, and, when compared to Linux, which is IMO an incarnation of chaos, very tidy one. (not to mention this great list) >Warmly, >Melody Akins > >_________________________________________________________________ >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message ------end of quote------ cynic@mail.cz ------------- And the eyes of them both were opened and they saw that their files were world readable and writable, so they chmoded 600 their files. - Book of Installation chapt 3 sec 7 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message