Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:39:12 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Hill <chris@monochrome.org> To: Edward and Nancy Powers <ednan171@hotmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New to FreeBSD/UNIX Message-ID: <20060918201421.Y86950@tripel.monochrome.org> In-Reply-To: <BAY117-F2534A30F5C13C2014072F2982D0@phx.gbl> References: <BAY117-F2534A30F5C13C2014072F2982D0@phx.gbl>
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On Mon, 18 Sep 2006, Edward and Nancy Powers wrote: > I am new to UNIX, and want to download a basic UNIX system, just to > run commands and become familiar with the system. I wish to use this > system as a companion piece to a UNIX tutorial which I have on DVD. I > do not want to replace Windows at this time. > > My PC has: Pentium III Processor at 1GHz, 128MB RAM at 133 MHz, > Windows ME operating system. > > What course of action do you recommend that I take? It sounds like what you want to do is to follow along with the DVD while doing their examples on a UNIX machine. Assuming this is the case, I would try do dig up another computer somewhere and install FreeBSD on it. For this sort of purpose, it doesn't need to be very fast or new. My mailserver is running 6.1 on a K6-2 at 400 MHz, and it's fine. Or, treat yourself to a new PC and then you'll have the P3 for experimenting. It is certainly possible (subject to available disk space) to repartition your existing drive and install FreeBSD on it as others have suggested, but then you'd be dual-booting. That is, you'd have to reboot to switch between FreeBSD and Windows, so you wouldn't be able to see both at once. I think this would be really tedious for what you're describing. Finally, I would not install X on the "practice" machine unless/unitl the tutorial has you do that. For "a basic UNIX system" in the form of FreeBSD, I would install the "developer - full sources, but no X" option from the CD. (That may not be worded quite right, it's from memory.) Hope this helps. Good luck, and welcome! Give us a shout when further questions arise. Almost forgot: another possibility is that some kind soul (or not-so-kind hosting company?) would be willing to give or rent you a shell account, so you could explore around on a remote system. The machine wouldn't be physically on your desk, but it would be in a window on your desktop. -- Chris Hill chris@monochrome.org ** [ Busy Expunging <|> ]
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