Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 16:00:19 +1030 From: Brian Astill <bastill@sa.apana.org.au> To: Steve M <slavik944@metconnect.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs linux (some venting) Message-ID: <01012316223602.10039@PhD_1.testname.com.au> In-Reply-To: <20010122065047.29559.cpmta@c004.sfo.cp.net> References: <20010122065047.29559.cpmta@c004.sfo.cp.net>
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On Mon, 22 Jan 2001, Steve M wrote: > > What I mean by "Microsoft tint" is prefaced by......... > The *nix OS' lack sufficient documentation for the average user. I > Windows is the most trouble free for my minor uses of PCing, surfing the net > and putting together these emails. Glad I saw several posts - I can see where you are coming from. Once apon a time ... I remember getting my first PC - a 286. Enclosed was a thorough book showing me all about DOS 3.3(a). Similarly with MS Word, Quattro Pro, R:Base, Norton Untilities - hell YOU name it - up to and including Windows 3.11. All came with extensive and worthwhile hardcopy documentation. After that it was all downhill. Nowadays you have to pay - a LOT - to obtain any worthwhile documentation on just about any Win-based app. Linux is almost the reverse. I liken it to an extensive Library with no card index system, containing books whose titles sometimes give little guide to the contents, none of which contain their own index. Worse, most of the documentation is written by geeks for geeks and is out of date, anyway. You can buy books, but be careful. Running Linux, which you like, is fine provided you are running RedHat 5.2. Trouble is that Linux is developing so fast that publications can't keep up. However, decent reference books like "Linux in a Nutshell' will retain their value because they refer to command structures that do not change much over time. FreeBSD has a long and stable history. Although you don't like it, I think the documentation is superb. I was specially attracted to "The Complete FreeBSD" because it explained what I needed to know and what I need to do without using geekspeak or talking down to me. I have since found a number of excellent documents which are particularly helpful to newbies like me. One 16M HTML doc by Doug Young shows step by step with screenshots, how to install FreeBSD onto a laptop which is not equipped with a CDROM - I'll be using that RSN. As they say "Your mileage may vary" - I just thought I'd present another side of the picture. -- Regards, Brian ******************************************************** Dr Brian Astill Visiting Research Fellow Flinders University Institute of International Education Bus 8201 3480 FAX 8449 9199 bastill@sa.apana.org.au ******************************************************** To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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