Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2000 20:38:24 +0200 From: Szilveszter Adam <sziszi@petra.hos.u-szeged.hu> To: lucky <murray@mtc.biglobe.ne.jp> Cc: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: your mail Message-ID: <20000612203823.A28597@petra.hos.u-szeged.hu> In-Reply-To: <000801bfd498$ed4b5d40$3b57fea9@style>; from murray@mtc.biglobe.ne.jp on Tue, Jun 13, 2000 at 03:06:25AM %2B0900 References: <000801bfd498$ed4b5d40$3b57fea9@style>
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Hello! On Tue, Jun 13, 2000 at 03:06:25AM +0900, lucky wrote: > Dear Sirs, > I have been informed that from next Friday I will be using your OS. I have never used a Unix PC OS before. The only OS that I know how to navigate are Mac OS and Windows. > > Does freeBSD have a windows style interface? > Is everything run in command prompt? > I have to say, that your tutorials on line are the best tutorials I have seen for operating systems, but I'm not sure what I'm in for yet? > Do you have any screen shots on-line? > I saw the installation screen shots, which are very helpful by the way, but it looked a lot like Solaris' installation system which got me worried. > I'm not much of a command promt user, but a great mouse on. woohoo... > just kidding (sorry). > > I will keep looking through your site and aj.com for more help on the matter, but if you have time can you let me know what sort of interface I have to look forward to. I have not seen anything other than command prompt style interfaces so far. > > Thank you > > Murray Phillips Well, FreeBSD -unlike some other OSs, like Windows and MacOS- does not come with a default GUI but you do not have to worry! This does not mean that you will be forced to use a command prompt all the time. During FreeBSD install you can choose a graphical interface from the several options, so you can pick one that you like at first sight. Later, as you learn how to customise them, you will find that almost any detail of the interface you do not like can be changed. In the meantime, check out http://www.kde.org/ http://www.gnome.org/ http://www.enlightenment.org/ http://www.windowmaker.org/ for screenshots. This is because the graphical interface is not tied to the OS on UNIX type systems, so if you learn how to navigate them, your knowledge is easily portable to other systems using the same user interface. So this way you can decide beforehand, which of the above you prefer out-of-the-box and you just choose the appropriate one during install. The installation procedure itself (save for the first steps) uses a simple but (IMHO) understandable interface which has the advantage that you can get your system up-and-running quickly even if you have problems say with video card or mouse, unlike in windows, where these problems are stoppers in install. (I never installed a Mac, sorry.) Also, to know more, you should access the Handbook online at: http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/ It even has a section about the "12. X Window System" which tells you the way the graphical interface works on UNIX-type systems, if you want to know more. In short: The so-called X windows system is the interface that gives you graphical mode, the various so-called window managers (like the ones I mentioned above, Gnome, KDE etc) all work on top of this. In Windows (and also MacOS unless I am mistaken) these elements are all integrated into one and are part of the OS so it is not easy to change them even if you want this. Also, if you have problems with your FreeBSD system, remeber, that you will have the most important documents (like the Handbook, FAQ) on your machine if you choose to install the "Doc" distribution, which is strongly advised. The manual system also gives a lot of helpful info, if you do not know how to use a command, you just type 'man <command name>' and there are good chances you will see the info. And remember, if you have problems with FreeBSD, there is always the mailing list freebsd-questions@freebsd.org where it probably will be answered. Good luck with FreeBSD, there is no need to be afraid. Welcome aboard! Regards: Szilveszter ADAM Szeged University Szeged Hungary To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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