Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 05:06:48 -0500 From: Nikolas Britton <freebsd@nbritton.org> To: hide110 <hide110@us-it.net>, freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: General Unix Learning Message-ID: <413ED9B8.40802@nbritton.org> In-Reply-To: <200409072315.i87NFbcx005721@in.flite.net> References: <200409072315.i87NFbcx005721@in.flite.net>
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hide110 wrote: >Please forgive me if this is not the right place to turn but, I figure you >all would be able to share your wisdom with me. > >I am a Windows user and I've hated it for the past few years. The Unix >experience I have accrued has mainly been working from a shell account; >nothing really in detail about the actual operating system or installation. >I have considered FreeBSD & Linux, but really, for a desktop system do you >guys think it's viable for a nearly pure unix newbie to tinker around with >BSD? Or would it be easier to start with Linux & eventually port over to >BSD? > >Normally I'd take my own advice (if you want to use BSD, use BSD, if you want >to use Linux at the end of the day, use that) but I'm just trying to be >practical with all learning curves taken into consideration. > >My deepest apologies if I should not be asking something like this here. But >any replies would be terribly appreciated. > For a newbie that wants to *learn* UNIX then FreeBSD is really the only way to go. FreeBSD is a complete system (FreeBSD Kernel + FreeBSD tools and documentation = Operating System) where as Linux is a distribution (Linux Kernel + 3rd Party tools and documentation = Distribution, a glued together OS) Sorry my brain doesn't seem to be working at this hour of night, I can't come up with coherent sentences so let me cut to the chase... The documentation on FreeBSD is the best I have ever seen, for a newbie this is what matters the most. I have learned more about UNIX in the last 2 years from using FreeBSD then the entire time (5 years) I've been using Linux. FreeBSD Handbook: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html FreeBSD Documentation Page: http://www.freebsd.org/docs.html The Complete FreeBSD, Fourth Edition: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596005164/ Absolute BSD, The Ultimate Guide to FreeBSD: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1886411743/ Learning UNIX Operating System, Fifth Edition http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596002610/
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