From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jul 26 14: 9:40 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from bucky.excite.com (bucky-rwcmex.excite.com [198.3.99.218]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 778BB37B408 for ; Thu, 26 Jul 2001 14:09:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from the_philologus@excite.com) Received: from seamore.excite.com ([199.172.148.163]) by bucky.excite.com (InterMail vM.4.01.02.39 201-229-119-122) with ESMTP id <20010726210930.BSNH6361.bucky.excite.com@seamore.excite.com> for ; Thu, 26 Jul 2001 14:09:30 -0700 Message-ID: <12435384.996181770164.JavaMail.imail@seamore.excite.com> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 14:09:27 -0700 (PDT) From: the_philologus@excite.com Reply-To: To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Applixware 5.0 installation Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Excite Inbox X-Sender-Ip: 24.218.58.144 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I've purchased a copy of the "Desktop Edition" of FreeBSD and wish to register it, esp. since I need questions answered about the installation of Applixware 5.0 that came with the package. On the CDs it says that "technical support" should be addressed here. The registration card that comes along with the manual will be mailed, but it is made out to the (old?) Walnut Creek address. Is there a corrected address to send it to? (I find it curious that, with such a Net-centered technology, Walnut Creek CDROM has/d no online registration.) As I am new to Unix-systems in general as well as FreeBSD, the learning curve is steep and I have found the online help pages generally only a little bit helpful. They presume WAY TOO MUCH knowledge on the part of non-Unix users. Basic stuff is missing or, if present, presented in the least straightforward form. For example, it took me 3 days of looking to figure out (not "find", "figure out") what the FreeBSD command to mount a CD-ROM is. (Unix reference books sometimes give Unix commands with some of their Linux counterparts, but no FreeBSD commands.) Windows users, if they come, will be bringing their files with them. Guess what? Accessing ("mounting" and reading) their old DOS-based files is going to be of utmost importance to them. This isn't even nearly adequately enough covered online. (Yes, I already have checked out quite a number of the links you give at your site. They do half a job, at best.) Exact syntax and EXAMPLES need to be given, not just some general statement of given commands. The "man pages" don't cut it. Now to my question: I wanted to mount the CD with Applixware Office suite to get to the readme.txt file for installation instructions. After finally finding the command and figuring out the syntax, I performed the operation successfully just today for the first time. However, when I went to read the "readme.txt" file all I got by issuing the view command was a bunch of squiggles (As I said, I'm new to Unix.) So, how do I actually READ the text of the readme.txt file? (Also is it online somewhere so that I can just read it through a regular Web browser?) As a consequence I have been unable to install the Applixware suite that I specifically bought this version of FreeBSD for. So, can you refer me to a quick command procedure for installing the FreeBSD version of Applixware 5.0? The Linux version gives the install command right on the CD: "mount -ro t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/install" May I suggest a similar placement of the corresponding appropriate command on future pressings of the FreeBSD versions? It makes life so much easier for us nontechies. May I make a further suggestion for easing consumers' installation woes? The Linux version of Applixware has an installation guide. Why not take that guide and substitute the appropriate instructions and commands for FreeBSD? Since the instructions take up all of two small pages, it could probably be done in a couple of hours by a knowledgeable engineer or FreeBSD user on the project. For my $100, I should have gotten something like that in writing. I'm pulling for the Unix systems on the desktop, but they have such a loooong way to go before average users can replace their Windows stuff with them. Most home users WOULDN'T have spent the three nights I have trying to figure how to get the system to read a CD-ROM. Nor should they have to. They'd just give up and say, "To hell with it. I'll just stay a Microserf. Bill is good. Good is Bill." I do like that FreeBSD autodetected my new ViewSonic A70f "perfect flat screen" monitor and without my even having to re-configure X (while SuSE Linux 7.0 doesn't seem to be able to do this and it looks as though I'm not going to be able to install it on the same computer). Thank you for your help and please send me the information I need to register the product. L. Brockman _______________________________________________________ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message