Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 14:48:24 +0200 From: Johann Visagie <wjv@cityip.co.za> To: Leonid_Rozenblat <leonidr@nexus.co.il>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD general questions Message-ID: <19981207144824.C858@cityip.co.za> In-Reply-To: <422566D2.0042D166.00@nexus1.nexus.co.il>; from Leonid_Rozenblat on Sun, Dec 06, 1998 at 02:23:38PM %2B0200 References: <422566D2.0042D166.00@nexus1.nexus.co.il>
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On Sun, 06 Dec 1998 at 14:23 SAST, Leonid_Rozenblat wrote: > > I would like to purchase and use a FreeBSD Unix on my home PC. My interests > will include learning FreeBSD Unix sources, writing a device drivers and > other OS development related activity. Great. :-) > 1. Which FreeBSD Unix release suits for my machine (if any) (Compaq 5050 > Presario) ? Any release should install on your machine. If you're a serious developer, your best bet is probably tracking the -CURRENT development tree (though you may want to start out by installing one of the stable releases and playing with it). All should be clearly explained in the FreeBSD handbook at: http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.html You might also wish to subscribe to the freebsd-hackers mailing list. > 2. Do you have books (CDs) explaining in detail FreeBSD Unix internals, > device drivers development ? Since FreeBSD is such a close derivative of the version of Unix developed at UC Berkeley upon which almost all academic versions of Unix have been based in the past, you'll find literally thousands of academic papers and so forth on the net which have some relevance to FreeBSD. A good place to start would be "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System" by McKusick et al. (ISBN 0201549794), though this may not descend to a low enough level for the taste of a real kernel hacker. > I also need a book (CD) about system installation, administration and > usage. Greg Lehey's book "The Complete FreeBSD" is a good starting point. See http://www.cdrom.com/titles/os/os.htm Also have a look at publisher O'Reilly & Associates at http://www.ora.com/ Anything you see there that looks relevant is probably a good buy. > I want to be capable of writing my own device drivers and kernel extensions > if possible. What the documentation might lack, the support on the lists should surely make up for. > 4. Where I may purchase the correspondent CDs, including FreeBSD Unix > sources and documentation ? > Is the www.cheapbytes.com is the proper place (they offer some reduced > prices) ? I would suggest ordering from Walnut Creek CD-ROM, since they support the FreeBSD project. They offer a bundle of Greg's book and CDs. > 5. Should I purchase Linux or FreeBSD Unix for OS learning and driver > development purposes ? Either one should suffice, though on this list we'll probably tend to recommend FreeBSD. :-) > Please, advice me. I guess, FreeBSD code is more structured and > self-explanatory than the Linux one. That is certainly my feeling. Good luck! -- V Johann Visagie | wjv@CityIP.co.za | Tel: +27 21 419-7878 | ICQ: 20645559 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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