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Date:      Mon, 14 Aug 2000 12:45:33 -0400
From:      Nathan Vidican <webmaster@wmptl.com>
To:        Victoria Welch <vikki@oz.net>
Cc:        questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Hello and FYI:
Message-ID:  <3998222D.7F2B30DC@wmptl.com>
References:  <39932BA6.CECA70B9@oz.net>

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Victoria Welch wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've been researching going from linux to BSD.  I spent the past two
> days reading up on it and trying to get some information on various
> distributions.  Very sad to say that the IRC channels for any form of
> BSD are even less useful than the linux channels (hard to imagine, I
> know :).
> 
> Some places have 10+ nicks camped out in the channel, but never
> respond.  Sigh.  In terms of advocacy or help they are pretty
> discouraging, taking them off your faq might do you more good than
> listing them.  I've tried every IRC network that comes with Pirch (uggy
> whinedoz app for IRC) and I can only write that time off as wasted :(.
> If one is going to hang out on a channel then, IMO, they should
> participate to some small degree...
> 
> Still haven't given up on BSD and the the FreeBSD is starting to look
> like the best of the lot.  Someone gave me an OpenBSD ROM and that
> seemed pretty dark ages stuff.  Good security is cool and important but
> it sure seems to be limited as to what it will run.  Oh well, much to
> learn :-).
> 
> Hope this helps in some way!
> 
> Take care, Vikki.
> --
> Victoria Welch, WV9K, DoD#-13, SysAdmin SeaStar.org, vikki.oz.net
> "Walking on water and developing software to specification are
> easy as long as both are frozen" - Edward V. Berard.
> Do not unto others, that which you would not have others do unto you.
> 
> To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
> with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message

First and formost, if you want good technical support send a message to
this list. If you just want to learn more about the O/S, here the
problems and the questions that others have regarding FreeBSD then
subscribe to this list, (send an email containing the words 'subscribe
freebsd-questions' in the body of the message to
'majordomo@freebsd.org'). 
	As for IRC, there are a lot of people who nock it, but I love it. I've
been using FreeBSD now for about 4 years, and OpenBSD now for about 6
months. Anytime I have a question I ask it in IRC first; if I don't get
an answer within five-ten minutes, then I send an email to this list.
Response time from this list varies, but you'll usually get an answer
(or multiple), within an hour.
	Some simple things to live by in IRC:

	#1 - DO NOT ask if you can ask a question - this usually makes people
ignore you; just flat out ask you're question
	#2 - be patient; if someone knows the answer they will probably give
it, but most IRC users are also busy doing other things besides IRC.
	#3 - stick to freebsd<HELP> channels, some #freebsd's (like EFNET's)
refuse to be technical support forums.

Here's a good list to start with as far as IRC help goes (for BSD
anyhow):

	DalNet-	irc.dal.net:7000 / #freebsd
	EFNet- irc.chat.org / #freebsdhelp
	EFNet- irc.chat.org / #openbsd

	As for the Linux vs FreeBSD issue, I understand that Linux is
supposedly more 'user-friendly', but I tend to disagree. I don't like
clicking-and-dragging my way through things; it seems a lot of things
are becoming more X-Windows oriented for the Linux environment than
really need be. Call me old fashioned, but I like my console. I've tried
various distributions of Linux, (mandrake, slackware, openlinux,
redsplat, debian), but I never cared for them. I like the simplicity BSD
offers, as well as the stability.
	Maybe I am a little biased here, but I don't care. I like FreeBSD, or
BSD in general for that matter. As for OpenBSD, I can't really comment
much; I've only been using it for a few months now but thus far I really
like what I see. I'm using OpenBSD 2.7/SPARC, and I will be working with
OpenBSD 2.7/i386 some time soon just to get a feel for it.
	Anyhow, that's my two cents, hope it helps you.

-- 
Nathan Vidican
webmaster@wmptl.com
Windsor Match Plate & Tool Ltd.
http://www.wmptl.com/


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