From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 29 07:34:11 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 47E2A16A4CE for ; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 07:34:11 -0800 (PST) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E32443D2F for ; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 07:34:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id i0TFY0g03715; Thu, 29 Jan 2004 10:34:00 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200401291534.i0TFY0g03715@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: machuidel@yahoo.com (Mike Machuidel) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 10:34:00 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <20040129102229.85256.qmail@web40912.mail.yahoo.com> from "Mike Machuidel" at Jan 29, 2004 02:22:29 AM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Retired Linux user wants to switch X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2004 15:34:11 -0000 Hi, > I've been using Linux for about 7 years. At the > beginning the Linux community was still very small and > ... > All these years I've seen Linux grow. I helped people > on IRC while more and more users were coming with > their questions. Yesterday I decided to go back to the > IRC channel, after about 4 years, to ask a question > about USB (I'm not really into USB). What happened > really turned me off. They called me "a troll", that I > should "go back to Windows", I'm "too dumb to use > Linux" and because I told them "I've been on this > channel even before you began using Linux" they kicked > me off. This is 1 of the many examples. > > It may sound weird, but because of what the Linux > community has become I would like to try and switch > some of my systems over to FreeBSD. First I have some > questions about what to expect: Welcome to FreeBSD. It doesn't seem so weird. We have seen a lot of people stepping up lately. I see someone more knowledgeable than I has answered your specific questions, but on the issue of the list[s]. It is generally a friendly environment with a lot of tolerance for newbies and, like myself, thick-heads that take several times through for some things to register. You might occassionally get called a troll on a FreeBSD list, but if your question is serious and you persist without inflamitory language, people will settle down and respond with serious posts. People on these lists tend to dislike someone flaming another person more than they do posting "dumb" questions or being a newbie. If you really seem to be a troll, generally you won't get booted off, just ignored. Besides trolling and flaming, the worst sin on these lists seems to be jumping to post a question without doing some of your own searching first. Always check the handbook, the FAQs and Google, etc before posting - if for no other reason than it may help you better formulate your question. And, most problems and mistakes have come up before and been written about extensively somewhere. There is a huge body of material written about the system - most of it quite good, but always try for more than one opinion if you are searching the archives. People on these lists seem more interested in creating and supporting well running systems than massaging egos, unlike what you see in some places. (but I suppose having the most reliable, efficient and reasonably secure system does some good for the ego... ;-) ) ////jerry > ... > These were all question for now. I hope the story at > the beginning wasn't too much and didn't violate the > rules of this forum. > > Thank you, > Mike Machuidel ;) >