Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 19:04:41 -0500 From: Mike Jeays <mj001@rogers.com> To: Henrik W Lund <laksefiskerbsd@hotmail.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: From newbie to newbie: Observations... Message-ID: <3E541B99.50607@rogers.com> References: <F211B3d0oMCeV9fzG8j00005162@hotmail.com>
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Henrik W Lund wrote: > Hi, my name is Henrik and I'm a FreeBSD newbie. I would like to share > some experiences and observations I have made during my run-ins with > UNIX OSs in the past. I'm currently in my fourth inning, and have > finally gotten myself together and produced a running, stable system. > I choose to still label myself a newbie because I still scream in > frustration every day over some mundane, essential task that must be > done that I have no idea how to go about doing. > > In case you come from a "Windows" environment(like I did), FreeBSD > might seem daunting at first. Whereas you are used to having the > computer scratch your back and make you tea by the very flick of the > power switch, in UNIX you are left with a rather simple looking (and > often cryptically labelled) command prompt and a blinking cursor. None > of the commands that normally do something, don't work at all, and if > they do, they sure don't do what you expect them to! > > But don't panic (like I did) and run off screaming to get your Windows > CD (like I did). > > First of all, calm down. Seek out sources of information like this, > the FreeBSD website and others. And the most important thing; read. > The man pages count in the thousands, so there's lots of good stuff > for the rainy days. Wonder what dd does? A little hunting and pecking > will have "man dd" typed in no time, and voila! > > Second, be prepared to reinstall the entire OS. Several times. The > tampering of config files by careless newbies can wreak havoc on any > system, particularly a UNIX one. Reinstallation is frequently the > fastest, most efficient way to get the system back up. > > Third, read point one again. It'll do you good. ;) > > Fourth, remember that at the end of the day, you can be sure the sun > will rise in the morning regardless of whether or not you got inetd > set up the way you liked, or if you even know what the heck inetd is. > > Take this message for what it is: one newbie trying to let other > newbies know that "it's all right". ;) > > -Henrik, > FreeBSD newbie and fanatic :D > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Messenger http://www.msn.no/messenger - Den korteste veien mellom > deg og dine venner > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message > Welcome to FreeBSD! If you have just got the command line interface up, and you like to have your computer scratch your back and make tea for you, you have some nice surprises coming. If you haven't yet installed X-Windows and either KDE or GNOME, you will find you get a graphical desktop every bit as powerful and easy to use as Windows - better in many respects - with all the stability of FreeBSD underneath it. And it is much easier to automate tasks, and understand what the system is actually doing. I have been using it as my desktop at home since 1997, and every day I have to use Windows at work, I feel bored and tired of it. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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