From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 7 11:50:54 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 47327106566C for ; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 11:50:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx01.qsc.de (mx01.qsc.de [213.148.129.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E31208FC12 for ; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 11:50:53 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-65-33.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.65.33]) by mx01.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C2A43CD98; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 13:50:52 +0200 (CEST) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id q97BoqRM002007; Sun, 7 Oct 2012 13:50:52 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2012 13:50:52 +0200 From: Polytropon To: alwin doss Message-Id: <20121007135052.c9e9069e.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New User to FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 07 Oct 2012 11:50:54 -0000 On Sun, 7 Oct 2012 12:47:26 +0530, alwin doss wrote: > But something about Linux always troubled me "It's licensing", "such > complex family of distributions which are so different from each other". A valid point. With UNIX basic knowledge, you can master nearly any "outdated" commercial UNIX, BSD and Linux, even though it is sometimes complicated to find the "simple parts" (i. e. the UNIX parts) in Linux. :-) > Which is when I came across FreeBSD. I fell in love with it, but yes I have > never used it yet, I have tried many times to install it, but the > installation process is really hard, I must say. I cannot conform that. Do you have a second system that you can use to refer to the documentation that exactly describes, with text and pictures, how to perform the installation process? Note that FreeBSD, in opposite to many other systems, comes with excellent documentation both for Internet and offline use. Check out The FreeBSD Handbook's installation section: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install.html http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bsdinstall.html and the FAQ regarding this topic: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/faq/install.html You'll see that the installation is quite simple: You just have to follow the instructions shown on the screen. > I really want to install it on my laptop and all my systems. It's a bit complicated to get _all_ features running on _all_ kinds of laptops has hardware manufacturers do not care much about standards and specifications. Still I hear from many people successfully running FreeBSD on their super-duper-new laptops, and I run it on my old and shady laptops. :-) > Added to the above interests of mine, I am a C++ and java developer. I want > to use this talent that God's has blessed me with in this community. Both languages can be used on FreeBSD. C++ is supported out of the box. Java requires you to install additional software due to licensing terms and lawyer blahblah. > I want to begin with FreeBSD's very own GUI. FreeBSD does not have a "very own GUI". In fact, it has many GUIs, and it doesn't have a GUI per se. Note that it is a multi-purpose system, that's why it doesn't come with a graphical installer so you can install it on a server (that doesn't even have a monitor). After installation, you can add as many GUIs as you like (for example, you can have both KDE and Gnome on your system, plus olvwm and even WindowMaker). The choice is _yours_. There is nothing directly tied to the system. However, PC-BSD comes with a preinstalled and preconfigured (!) KDE environment. VirtualBSD comes with Xfce, if I remember correctly. You can check out those projects: PC-BSD is said to be easier to adopt by Linux and even "Windows" users as it comes with a graphical installer, preconfigured environments, preinstalled software, and caters the "out of the box" community a lot. And VirtualBSD can be used from within a VM, it's a nice "try it out" system. http://www.pcbsd.org/ http://www.virtualbsd.info/ You can find screenshots there too. :-) > Not depending on anyone > (Gnome, KDE or....) I want it to be soooooo good that a commoner shoule be > able to work with it with ease and feel safe and secure. That's one of the primary advantages of FreeBSD: The system will not do anything until _YOU_ tell it to. Know what you do. Know where to find information (Handbook, FAQ, "man" command, mailing lists). > So if someone could guide me about how to get started with contributing to > FreeBSD it would be great. Find something that you consider interesting and worth contributing to. Refer to this page for more information: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/contributing/index.html > Send me links that will get me started with FreeBSD I am all excited for > this new journey to begin. If you enounter problems during installation, feel free to contact the list. Describe your problem as exact as possible, use the available troubleshooting resources first, like, "do your homework". :-) http://www.freebsd.org/community/mailinglists.html http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo http://www.freebsd.org/support.html -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...