From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Jul 5 0:50:10 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mailsrv.otenet.gr (mailsrv.otenet.gr [195.170.0.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7431937B406 for ; Thu, 5 Jul 2001 00:50:00 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: from hades.hell.gr (patr530-a015.otenet.gr [212.205.215.15]) by mailsrv.otenet.gr (8.11.1/8.11.1) with ESMTP id f657npo03585; Thu, 5 Jul 2001 10:49:52 +0300 (EEST) Received: (from charon@localhost) by hades.hell.gr (8.11.4/8.11.3) id f657hq102313; Thu, 5 Jul 2001 10:43:52 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 10:43:51 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: ftrk Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: which *BSD to choose? Message-ID: <20010705104351.B2044@hades.hell.gr> References: <3B41F171@webmail.uaf.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <3B41F171@webmail.uaf.edu>; from ftrk@uaf.edu on Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 10:28:24PM -0800 X-PGP-Fingerprint: 3A 75 52 EB F1 58 56 0D - C5 B8 21 B6 1B 5E 4A C2 X-URL: http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~keramida/index.html 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 Hello Raj, On Wed, Jul 04, 2001 at 10:28:24PM -0800, ftrk wrote: > Dear all, > I haven't used *BSD at all, but been using UNIX(Solaris) and LINUX > for awhile. Linux is ok, Solaris is also nice but it's not free in the manner of Open Source operating systems like Linux or the BSD's. It's a nice thing that you are thinking of 'trying BSD'. You should go ahead and try it :) Who knows, you might like it better than something else that you have seen until now. > I would like to play with it on my laptop which is kinda old, but I > was wondering about drivers for display chipsets etc: > Intel PIII Processor > ATi Rage 128 display chipset(14" SXGA display) > Xircom 10/100 cardbus PCMCIA card > Internal Lucent Gold v50 modem( I am sure this wouldn't be supported:( ) Since, you have posted this on a FreeBSD list, I'm assuming here that you are thinking of trying FreeBSD on that laptop. o Intel PIII Processor The processor you have is supported, yes. o ATi Rage 128 display chipset (14" SVGA display) The default FreeBSD environment (unless you install some version of X11, to provide you with a graphical interface) uses an 80x25 text-mode console. This is supported by ALL modern VGA-compatible display adapters, so you should not worry if FreeBSD will be able to 'display' its default console mode. When it comes to X11 and GUI programs, I think that ATi Rage is supported by X11, but since I'm not sure I will not say 'yes' or 'no'. Read the XFree86 documentation and release notes at www.xfree86.org to see is Rage128 is supported by some version of X11 and which version is that. o Ximrom 10/100 cardbus PCMCIA card I don't know :-/ o Internal Lucent Gold v50 modem This is a Winmodem IIRC. It will not work with FreeBSD, if that is true. Sorry 'bout that. You'll probably have to find some other modem to use with FreeBSD. > I would definitely like to use and support FreeBSD. However I am > unable to make up my mind as to which one will suit me and an > assessment of the three flavours. The BSD operating systems are not `FreeBSD flavors'. Therefore there are not many 'flavours'. There is only one FreeBSD, with that wonderful and fulfilling cocoa-bean-wrapped-in-chocolate taste, that makes it our favorite for years and years. Seriously now, you can check all of them and see which you like best. They all (they referring to FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD) have their advantages and good points, their disadvantages and limitations, their beautiful and ugly parts, etc. For me, when I chose which one to install one of the BSD's, it was ease of installation that made me decide to stick with FreeBSD. For you, it might be the way packages are organized. For somebody else, it is the security consiousness of the developers. The ultimate choise is upon you. Just try them all > and see which one fits your style/taste/personality. > Would you have any pointers as to where I can find some info? The web sites of all BSD operating systems usually include lots of documentation. You will find the articles, tutorials, and books available at www.freebsd.org to be very helpful, if you are looking for information on what FreeBSD can do for you, and how things can be done. A visit at www.netbsd.org and www.openbsd.org will also give you a chance to see what the other BSD Unixes support, what programs are available for each one of them, what platforms (hardware) they run on, how to obtain and/or install them, etc. > I am also interested in knowing the packages, like compilers(like > gcc, g77, perl) etc. FreeBSD comes bundled with source for everything (well, almost everything). Among the programs installed are: o BIND, the name-server software that dominates the Internet. o Sendmail, the popular MTA (mail transfer agent). o GZIP and BZIP2, compression tools. o CVS, the concurrent version system. o The GNU C Compiler. o IPFW and IPFILTER firewalls. o Support for DHCP with isc-dhcp/ o Perl version 5 o Lots of other programs and tools that I forgot to mention. From the Ports system, whose files are in /usr/ports, you can install more than 5,000 other software packages. You can read more about ports, at . Lots of other useful documents can be found at www.freebsd.org explaining a lot of things. See the site for details. > Also does this come with any crypto software? Yes, FreeBSD has support for various ways to use cryptography and related tools. What is it that you are specifically interested in? > Pardon my ignorance, I tried to look around, but couldn't find info > on compilers etc.. Well, look at the site. You'll find lots and lots of documentation to get you started and going a long way, there. Ciao, I hope I've helped a bit. -giorgos To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message