From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 8 10:06:50 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CAEBB16A4CF for ; Wed, 8 Sep 2004 10:06:50 +0000 (GMT) Received: from sccimhc91.asp.att.net (sccimhc91.asp.att.net [63.240.76.165]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6FBE043D2D for ; Wed, 8 Sep 2004 10:06:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd@nbritton.org) Received: from nbritton.org (12-203-241-182.client.insightbb.com[12.203.241.182]) by sccimhc91.asp.att.net (sccimhc91) with SMTP id <20040908100649i9100bu751e>; Wed, 8 Sep 2004 10:06:49 +0000 Message-ID: <413ED9B8.40802@nbritton.org> Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 05:06:48 -0500 From: Nikolas Britton User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: hide110 , freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org References: <200409072315.i87NFbcx005721@in.flite.net> In-Reply-To: <200409072315.i87NFbcx005721@in.flite.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: General Unix Learning X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 10:06:50 -0000 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/