Date: Tue, 27 Sep 2005 10:04:06 -0400 (EDT) From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: tharaka_ca@yahoo.com (Tharaka Abeysekera) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New user Message-ID: <200509271404.j8RE47Uk006116@clunix.cl.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <20050927092631.53935.qmail@web36213.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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Hi, > Hi > > I'm a new to UNIX, I got to know about your services recently. Please tell > me ware to start FreeBSD(UNIX) . Because I'm pissed off with Windows . One place to wstart is to break your lines in your messages at about 70 characters. It makes your posting easier to read and reply to from text based Email clients - used by many in the FreeBSD world. Most Email clients can be configured to do this automatically. If yours cannot, then just hit a RETURN/ENTER about that point on each line. Also, it is best to use plain ASCII text rather than any of the fancy types. That works in all mailers. The fancy ones only work on mailers that have that particular type available. eg you cover a broader group of readers with plain ASCII text and that is what you want to do on a questions list. As for getting started with FreeBSD, First, it is a good idea. Congradulations. Second, it does take some effort to learn to use, but the effort will be well rewarded in time. Start by reading the FreeBSD handbook. It can be read online or downloaded freely from the FreeBSD website: http://www.freebsd.org/ Handbook at: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html For the US English version. You may wish to purchase one or more books on FreeBSD. There are several good ones available. Some that come to mind while I am sitting here writing are: "The Complete FreeBSD", "Absolute BSD" and "FreeBSD: An Open Source Operating System". Other people may suggest some others. Try to get the latest edition of any of them as they get updated a lot to follow the system upgrades (and correct errors). The latest major version of FreeBSD that is getting near release is 6.xxx. I don't know if any of the books have been updated for V 6.xxx yet. The Handbook is constantly being updated. Learn to look up things in the FAQs, list archives, search engines such as Google and the many web sites and online publications that have howto-s and narratives about doing various FreeBSD things. Note, though, that almost all of these web articles are written from the point of view of the person doing it and naturally contain all the prejudices and presupositions of the authors. Some of those may not suit your situation or even be the most straightforward or efficient way of doing things. But all contribute to the body of information. Follow this list and possibly the Newbies list and others that might interest you. Check the published material, either in paper form or online before splattering the lists with newbie questions. The people on the lists are busy and get tired of answering the same questions that are well documented already. Once you have tried to solve a problem with the documentation available then ask questions on the lists. Don't waste time (yours or others) with diatribes and whining about how FreeBSD is this or that and some other OS is something else. This is an Open Source, volunteer developed and supported system and the best way to get a feature or fix implemented is to write it your self and submit it as a PR. A nice friendly request also will get a better response that a self-righteous whine. The main contributers know that not everyone is capable of, or has the resources for writing some of the suggested/requested changes and can be persuaded to add things to their [long] lists, but are more likely to do so if it seems reasonable and the request is a friendly one. Remember that they are volunteers, not staff ruled by a marketing department. Now, we are about ready to get to doing it... Once you have a good idea of the process - you will never learn it completely from just reading; You have to get your hands dirty and your carpal tunnel exercised - either purchase a CD set of the latest and greatest from one of the vendors who make them up and contribute a portion back to the FreeBSD project or just download the installation CD from the FreeBSD web site or one of its mirrors. All the information about doing so is well described in the above mentioned documentation. For starters, choose the latest RELEASE version available, which, at the moment, is FreeBSD 5.4 and will probably soon be 5.5. For Newbies I would suggest waiting until you have had a little experience before diving in to a stable version. If at all possible, try it all out on a machine that you can trash without incurring much consequence. Then you can do an install and set things up and experiment and when you mess it up too much, you can just start from scratch. Take notes, so you don't have to repeat mistakes too many times. With a scratch machine, you can feel less inhibited about trying things just to see what happens. If you don't have a scratch machine available (it doesn't take much of a machine to get a reasonable FreeBSD up and running - almost any old junker beyond a 386 will do), then read up on dual booting a machine. It is actually as easy as doing a dedicated FreeBSD machine even though some people seem prone to trying to make it confusing and difficult. That way you will still have a working system available to Email questions... Download and install the full ports tree and the system source until you learn enough to decide for yourself what you don't need or want. The ports system is one of the more powerful features of FreeBSD and source lets you tinker and learn. You can discover things by actually reading the code. Maybe you expected more specific technical information that what I have written in this response. But, actually, the things I have covered respond to the major mistakes people make getting started with FreeBSD. The technical things are most easily covered by following the documentation either from the handbook or one of the good books on FreeBSD. Good luck and have fun, ////jerry > > > > Regards, > > Tharaka > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! for Good > Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > >
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