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Date:      Wed, 11 Aug 1999 20:38:28 -0400
From:      Dutch Collins <dutch@charm.net>
To:        vagner@www.timandpatrick.com
Cc:        Kenny Drobnack <kdrobnac@mission.mvnc.edu>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, Roy Bettle <rbettle@criterion-group.com>
Subject:   Re: Idiot seeks brain.
Message-ID:  <37B21784.A642939A@charm.net>
References:  <XFMail.990811161838.vagner@vagner.com>

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vagner@www.timandpatrick.com wrote:
> 
> I have been using freebsd since version 2.2.2 (about 2 years) now
> and came from almost the same environment as you, I new NOTHING
> about networking and am unsure if i know anything now...although
> I can uasually get it to talk. You will find that the people
> associated with the questions list are a VERY intelligent people
> and know their stuff, therefore you might find you will get
> sometimes less than appropriate answers from some people
> it is because they are SO far ahead of us that our questions
> or actions are stupid to them. How do we know if we dont ask stupid
> questions to find out.
> 
> One of the problems I find is that FreeBSD and the packages/ports
> change so rapidly that i find myself buying book after book to keep
> up with the changes.  EG: bind, Sendmail, Complete FreeBSD rev 1 2 3.,
> Another problem is that the FreeBSD website is less than "user friendly"
> and i think that is due to the nature of unix bieng less than
> "user friendly" ( you better know what your doing cause it will destroy
> itself with out even asking).
> 
> I dont claim to be any type of unix or network guru, I am average joe
> trying to make a excellent OS "work for me" and so far it does 80 percent
> of what i need it to do, granted some of the software is less than "stable"
> or "forgiving" but windows has its share of this kind of software too.
> 
> As far as the OS goes I think i had 3 times in 2 years that the actual
> Operating system crashed, one was running out of swap
> 
> On 11-Aug-99 Kenny Drobnack wrote:
> > Hey, I know how you feel. I grew up on Commodore 64, then DOS 5.0, then
> > Win 3.1, then 95.  Plus, I have installed and tried Linux. Its pretty much
> > turning into a replacement for Windows (which I'm not sure I like).
> > Anyway, I spend a week trying to get my sound card working and finally did
> > when I joined this list.   Turned out I had the completely wrong driver.
> >       Here's my proposal - I joined the FreeBSD-newbies list thinking
> > it was a place for newbies to get help... I think there should be a
> > FreeBSD-tips mailing list, or some such thing. Or maybe a web page where
> > we can post tips & tricks or something.  I bought the Complete FreeBSD
> > book, and it does cover a lot of stuff, but there are some parts where it
> > is either ambiguous or seems to assume some previous knowledge that the
> > average newbie doesn't have.   For example - it just made sense to me that
> > I was supposed to use the SB device in my kernel for my soundblaster card.
> > And then both people that helped me out said "No, use the pcm0 driver".
> > Well, it works and I still don't even know what PCM is :-P  Also, dispite
> > having to enable pnp0 to get my card to work, I had to select NO in my
> > BIOS for "Plug 'N Play OS installed".
> >       Anyway, my advice to anyone just starting: just did in and go.
> > Play with everything. The worst that can happen is your filesystem is
> > completely destroyed and you have to re-install, but who cares? People
> > coming from certain other operating systems should be very used to
> > re-installing ;-)
> >
> >> Damn ...
> >>
> >> I've read just about every message that's gone through for the past 3
> >> weeks or so (since I joined the list), and basically I wish I could
> >> borrow one of your brains for just a little bit while I figure out how
> >> to back-up/restore your UNIX/*BSD experience into my poor,
> >> Micro$haft-muddled brain.
> >>
> >> Where do I go to start *at the beginning*?  I need to better understand
> >> the background/culture/norms of the *BSD community.  I see these notes
> >> going back and forth discussing "motif" and "ssh" and "tsk" and other
> >> similar (programs?) and I feel like a blind man in a room full of
> >> expensive, breakable objects that everyone else can see and understand.
> >>
> >> Hey, I'm a pretty smart guy (taught myself how to configure a Cisco
> >> 4000-series router; 3 interfaces) ... who's feeling REALLY dumb.  Please
> >> help me out.
> >>
> >> I'm pretty thorough too; read through about 10% of the ports list so far
> >> (freebsd.org/ports).
> >>
> >> Is the book "The UNIX Administrator's Handbook" (did I get the title
> >> right?) what I'm looking for?  Is there somewhere on the Web that I can
> >> go to?
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance for your help.
> >>
> >> RAB
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --------------------------------------*******************---------------------
> > ------------------
> >|
>                |
> >|      Kenny Drobnack
>                |

eek! some sig file. I know some things and I do not know a bunch about
FreeBSD. And to this day I make the darnest mistakes and have to ask why.
(see micro size font [or some variant of] questions mail, Duh!).

The one thing I have found out is - buying to many books is mot always
the best or cheapest way to get info. Case: I have the 6 volume 4.4BSD
set (120 $US), and I just found half out the set on the Walnut Creek
FreeBSD 3.2 CD. I figger the CD is one of the first items to buy if you
haven't already. The CD is somewhere between 40 and 60 $US, I forget.
And ypu can get it at Walnut Creek   http://www.cdrom.com/   

Have fun -d


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