From owner-freebsd-questions Sun Dec 10 9:24: 4 2000 From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 10 09:24:00 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from ren.sasknow.com (ren.sasknow.com [207.195.92.131]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 915B637B401 for ; Sun, 10 Dec 2000 09:24:00 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (ryan@localhost) by ren.sasknow.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id LAA73097; Sun, 10 Dec 2000 11:23:53 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from ryan@sasknow.com) Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2000 11:23:53 -0600 (CST) From: Ryan Thompson To: Daniel Stehm Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is FreeBSD for me? In-Reply-To: <002001c062ca$51fb1860$10b3fea9@silentchaos> Message-ID: Organization: SaskNow Technologies [www.sasknow.com] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Daniel Stehm wrote to freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG: > I apologize in advance if this list in not the list I should submit my > questions to, but I didnt know what other list to try. > Anyways, I am really thinking about purchasing FreeBSD Power Pack from a > local Comp USA (I always purchase my Linux distros, etc; to provide support > for the makers instead of downloading it). I just dont know if FreeBSD is > for me. Basically, all I want is a rock solid OS that I dont have to worry > about crashing or getting the dreaded 'blue screen of death', something that > I can learn programming on (C, C++, PERL, PHP etc;), something I can do > school stuff on (currently 16, sohpmore in high school), something I can get > on the net with my DSL connection and basically just something to enjoy > running and hopefully get me closer to my dream job of being a system admin. > I was just wondering if FreeBSD can meet those needs above, and then offer > more. I appreciate any and all responces. Thank you for your time. I actively run FreeBSD full-time on about a dozen boxes or so, and have personally set up many more. It does not have a blue screen of death. (Though panics are fun, I have personally only witnessed a few: once, I forced it myself to get a kernel dump. Once, a disk controller gave up the ghost. Once, a junior sysadmin attempted to run a heavily loaded server sans CPU fan. Once, it was definitely software related... but that was during a test of the -CURRENT branch after a major commit :-) FreeBSD comes with cc (gcc, actually), so C, C++. Perl 5 is also installed with the base system. PHP3 and PHP4, as well as a host of others, are available in our ports collection. FreeBSD will work with a variety of network cards, and supports many DSL implementations, as well as DHCP. Our network is provisioned differently, but I have heard some success stories of others with various DSL providers. Certainly don't know about Verizon. If this doesn't generate any replies, try to post it as another specific question. It depends what sort of "school stuff" you want to do. There are some things that FreeBSD (or, more generally, UNIX) isn't. You could probably write your school paper in UNIX, and even print it, given sufficient time and experience with something like ghostscript, but your mileage may vary significantly. "It works for me". - Ryan -- Ryan Thompson Network Administrator, Accounts SaskNow Technologies - http://www.sasknow.com #106-380 3120 8th St E - Saskatoon, SK - S7H 0W2 Tel: 306-664-3600 Fax: 306-664-1161 Saskatoon Toll-Free: 877-727-5669 (877-SASKNOW) North America To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message