[UFO Chicago] Follow-Up #2 - FreeBSD reference (long)

[Brian Sobolak]

Since a lot of you asked about BSD tonight, I told Jonathon that I'd 
write a FAQ FreeBSD - where to get it, what resources are available, 
etc. etc.  If you're not interested in FreeBSD, skip this message.

I picked FreeBSD because it has centralized management.  The hardware 
support isn't as good as with Linux, but I preferred the simplicity and 
organization of FreeBSD to the bazaar (bizarre?) that is Linux.  My 
hardware was pretty plain so support wasn't much of a problem, but more 
than that, it was nice to have an easy way to install software and have 
it work that wasn't the evil snotpile that RPMs was when I was kicking 
the tires on these systems, c 2000.  (I know Linux has changed, I know 
there's apt-get, etc. etc.  This isn't meant as flammage, just a 
rationale for my choices.)

About FreeBSD -

The current release is 5.3.  It has a new filesystem, some high-end 
memory management stuff, and a boatload of other features that make it 
an improvement over the 4.XX series.  You can get those too, but I'd 
recommend 5.3 as it's quite stable.  It does NOT have a pretty installer 
like RedHat, but the ncurses interface is effcient.

Installation notes:
<http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.3R/installation.html>

The Handbook, basically a constantly updated (and actually useful) 
manual about the OS:
<http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/>

Detailed installation instructions with screenshots is included as well:
<http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.3R/installation.html>

If you want to install it, grab an ISO:
<http://www.freebsd.org/where.html>

Want to refresh your source?  Kernel too?  Use cvsup - it's easy:
<http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html>

If you have questions that aren't in the handbook, the centralized 
mailing lists make things easy to find.  Subscription not required.

newbies at freebsd.org  <---- for getting started and beginner questions
questions at freebsd.org <--- general FreeBSD and Unix questions
chat at freebsd.org <-------- anything goes discussion about anything

Hope this helps - I have ISOs already burned if you want them and can 
answer more specific questions if you need.

brian