From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Aug 14 11:56:27 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0153B16A417 for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:56:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bob.middaugh@comcast.net) Received: from rwcrmhc13.comcast.net (rwcrmhc13.comcast.net [216.148.227.153]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E28C213C45D for ; Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:56:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bob.middaugh@comcast.net) Received: from rmailcenter90.comcast.net ([204.127.197.190]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc13) with SMTP id <20070814115626m13003kn8ce>; Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:56:26 +0000 Received: from [199.20.118.31] by rmailcenter90.comcast.net; Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:56:25 +0000 From: bob.middaugh@comcast.net (Bob Middaugh) To: Brooks Lackey , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:56:25 +0000 Message-Id: <081420071156.22022.46C19869000B16B900005606220682469308099A0E0B0B0703D20D010D@comcast.net> X-Mailer: AT&T Message Center Version 1 (Oct 4 2006) X-Authenticated-Sender: Ym9iLm1pZGRhdWdoQGNvbWNhc3QubmV0 Cc: Subject: Re: looking for an OS and wanting to know if this is the one. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 11:56:27 -0000 From: Brooks Lackey > Okay i have a Dell Inspiron 9300 with centrino mobil > technology at 1.86GHZ, 512MB of memory and a 60Gig > HDD. > > > Basically I need to know which of the OS from freebsd > will be the best for me to use? > > Can i use Yahoo Messanger, Itunes, & AOL Messanger. > > I am just looking around as i am now tired of Windows. > I dont know everything about OS but i like to learn > new things and if there is something better out there > i def. would like to use it. > > Site's with laptops and their compatiblity with FreeBSD: http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~dkulp/fbsd/laptop.html http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/ http://www.zapatec.com/freebsd/laptop/ If you go here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html You get a list of mirror sites to download from. like this: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ISO-IMAGES-i386/6.2 If you have a decent internet connection, cable or better, you can download just the bootonly.iso and burn that to CD. You have to burn it as an .iso file so your CD is bootable. If you go this route, most of your install will be over the net. You'll have the option to pick your source, ie: CD, FTP, etc... during the install. If you download all the .iso's, then you can pick CD during install and you should be good to go. This is invaluable for you to get started: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html There's even a section on laptops: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/laptop/index.html Read the relevant sections on installing, etc... FreeBSD is not a GUI desktop, you'll need to install X-Server for that and then pick a window manager/desktop like Gnome, KDE, xfce etc... I'm pretty sure there are alternatives to AIM and Yahoo Messenger, but I don't do that so I dunno for sure. iTunes? I have no idea. If you want a "live" CD that you can boot from and it will come up complete with desktop, etc... to get used to the feel of FreeBSD, try this: http://www.freesbie.org/. Bob