Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 19:21:08 -0500 From: Dave Vollenweider <metaridley@mchsi.com> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: General Unix Learning Message-ID: <20040907192108.0abc7175.metaridley@mchsi.com> In-Reply-To: <200409072315.i87NFbcx005721@in.flite.net> References: <200409072315.i87NFbcx005721@in.flite.net>
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On Tue, 07 Sep 2004 19:15:37 +0000 "hide110" <hide110@us-it.net> wrote: > Please forgive me if this is not the right place to turn but, I figure you > all would be able to share your wisdom with me. It's quite all right. As long as your question isn't a technical one (those go to freebsd-questions), it's okay here. > I am a Windows user and I've hated it for the past few years. The Unix > experience I have accrued has mainly been working from a shell account; > nothing really in detail about the actual operating system or installation. > I have considered FreeBSD & Linux, but really, for a desktop system do you > guys think it's viable for a nearly pure unix newbie to tinker around with > BSD? Or would it be easier to start with Linux & eventually port over to > BSD? If you want a lot of things done for you and just want to use a different OS as soon as possible, then go with one of the complete Linux distros (SuSE, Mandrake, etc.). If you want to really learn Unix and do things manually on a royal-blooded descendant of the original Bell Labs Unix with some good documentation both on the Web and in print (and you want a system that boots in about half the time the Linux does), then FreeBSD is for you. Just realize that not everything will come to you on a silver platter if you use it. Learning the system can be rewarding in itself, though. It's up to you. > Normally I'd take my own advice (if you want to use BSD, use BSD, if you want > to use Linux at the end of the day, use that) but I'm just trying to be > practical with all learning curves taken into consideration. I say when it comes to operating systems, "if it feels good, do it." I'm currently picking up NetBSD as well even though some say it's the most challenging BSD to learn, and I've only been using FreeBSD for almost 6 months now (don't worry, I'm not going to stop using FreeBSD anytime soon :)). If you're really leaning towards FreeBSD as your choice, then go ahead! - Dave V.
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