Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 07:42:15 -0500 From: "Brian Fox" <BFox@mail.smu.edu> To: <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Wording question Message-ID: <NFBBIFGJFBFOMHEJGHCNGEEPJLAA.BFox@mail.smu.edu>
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To anyone that might be able to answer my question, I am a newbie to FreeBSD and am very interested in getting to know more about it. I am beginning to install FreeBSD for the first time and have been reading through your handbook. I have come into a concern about some of the wording in the handbook as to which version of FreeBSD I should install. On the website you refer to the average PC (like a home user would have: x386, x486, Pentium, PII, PIII, PIV, Athlon etc.) as x86 and then again as i386 and then later sometimes as Alpha. I am trying to figure out if I need to install the i386 version of FreeBSD OR the Alpha version of FreeBSD (as seen in the ftp: ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases then i386 or alpha, etc etc.) The systems I would be using FreeBSD on for the first time would be an old Pentium, or PII, or possibly an old IBM 486 or a very old IBM 386. All of these would be classified under i386, correct (anything 80386, 80486, ...80x86)? However in the handbook it sometimes seems to relate them to being called an Alpha. My basic question is do I need the i386 version or the Alpha version for a PC (386, 486, Pentium, PII, PIII, PIV, Athlon, etc.)? I am pretty sure I need the i386 version, but I wanted to double check. Can you give me a basic definition of how you use these terms (Alpha Computer vs. i386 computer or even more detailed what is defined as an Alpha computer)? Thanks for any help and advice you can give me. A slight suggestion for the handbook might be a quick definition of these terms AS the site/handbook uses them and refers to them so that there is no confusion in wording. Thanks, Brian Fox BFox@mail.smu.edu
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